One hundred and two years ago Jakob Von Uexküll coined the term “Umwelt” (Environment in German) to help explain behavior and social organization through a biological lens. “We must, he said, “First blow, in fancy, a soap bubble around each creature to represent its own world, filled with perceptions which it alone knows.”

John Valliant brings us into the bubble of the taiga in the far reaches of Russia, circa 1977, in his intriguing account of an Amur tiger turned vengeful killer.  The tiger is greatly prized for its skin, its heart, its bones… virtually its entire being.  You can still find poached tiger parts for sale in China today.

This forbidding terrain on the Chinese border is where we learn of the convergence of  history (Czar, Stalin, Vietnam War) politics (perestroika and the Jewish Autonomous Region), cultures (Russian, tayozhnik) biology (“trophy engineering”), greed (poaching and nouveau riche)  in surprising, thrilling, and deadly ways.

The  journey into this bubble is not an isolated one. Valliant expertly explores this bubble in the context of how the outside word has impacted it.  Life here has been shaped by Russia political vicissitudes since the Czar which, not surprisingly, have impacted the environment.  Perestroika  brought unfettered deforestation with black market oak, larch and pine spilling over into China and then to big-box stores where solid oak was sold at unbelievably low prices.  (Makes me wonder where lumber comes from and just what is the true price?).

The Amur tiger is a wily, formidable predator – up to 10 feet ( 3+ meters) long and weighing in at around 300 pounds (136 Kilo). This tiger can cover 40 feet in 3-4 seconds.  For centuries people and tigers have had a mostly respectful relationship in the taiga.  They simply didn’t mess with one another. Sure, people, were attacked now and then, but in 1997 one attack signaled a sea change in this respectful relationship. Now people were terrified to go into the forest… and into the forest they must go to hunt (poach) and gather pine nuts to sell to the Chinese.  The day-to-day lives of the people here, and their relationship to the forest, each other, and outside world is every bit as intriguing as the breath-taking hunt for the killer tiger.  I image looking up “hard-scrabble lives” in Google maps and being pointed to this area of the world.   It is hard for me, a too-soft American, to imagine eking out a living by searching, in -40 F temperatures, for pine nuts on the forest floor.  They seem to lead hard lives with sporadic episodes of great emprise.

When Yuri Trush’s Inspection Tiger team arrived on the site where, Markov, a known poacher, had been attacked by an Amur tiger they are horrified by what they see. The pile of clothes that Markov had on when attacked lies there as if he abandoned them. Like an empty suit. If it were not for the blood and a hand a passerby might not know Markov was killed by a tiger.  The Tiger Inspection Team had never seen such deliberate stalking by a tiger… it was as if the tiger “knew” Markov and was angry with him. Trush’s teammate, Sasha, looked over at what remained of Markov and wondered aloud: “Why is the tiger so angry with him?”

It is this haunting anger of a tiger that Vaillant explores so wonderfully.  His research is compelling and includes the work of Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and her understanding of the relationship of !Kung of the Kalahari Desert and their relationship with lions.  Tiger is a solidly researched, exemplary non-fiction, with a compelling narrative style that haunts and thrills and fuels your sense of wonder, and perhaps, wander. After reading this book I want to visit this area.  Maybe. You see, the prospect both intrigues… and frightens me.

What’s with that Jewish Autonomous Region, anyway? Here’s a hint: It was Stalin idea.

Longform

I recently read a fascinating article on the crash of the Irish economy which included this excerpt. I love such details because they put the story in a starkly human context:

A few months after the spell was broken, the short-term parking-lot attendants at Dublin Airport noticed that their daily take had fallen. The lot appeared full; they couldn’t understand it. Then they noticed the cars never changed. They phoned the Dublin police, who in turn traced the cars to Polish construction workers, who had bought them with money borrowed from Irish banks. The migrant workers had ditched the cars and gone home. Rumor has it that a few months later the Bank of Ireland sent three collectors to Poland to see what they could get back, but they had no luck. The Poles were untraceable: but for their cars in the short-term parking lot, they might never have existed.

There are many intriguing pieces here, including:  Film Director Paul Haggis rise to the top ranks of the Church of Scientology; or one on Travis the Menace (a chimp raised as a human child till it all ended in tragedy), and this one from 1945 on the  Economics of a WWII POW camp.   There are hundreds more from which to chose. Perhaps among these many there is something to pique your interest?

Here’s what Longform says about itself:
Longform.org posts new and classic non-fiction articles, curated from across the web, that are too long and too interesting to be read on a web browser.

We recommend enjoying them using read later services like Instapaper and Read It Later and feature buttons to save
articles with one click.

Launched in April 2010, Longform.org has been featured by Slate, New York Magazine, The Guardian, and others.

Happy l-o-n-g reading.

When Tolstoy wrote his classic opening sentence for Anna Karenina it is as if he were a fly on the wall of the Mackay household on Faithful Place in Dublin, Ireland. (“All happy families are like one another; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”)  In 1985 Frank Mackay was wildly in love with Rose Daly and she wildly in love with him. They planned to “get out of Dodge” to escape the suffocating realm of their respective families and go to England and begin life together. But Rosie fails to meet Frank at the appointed place. He finds only a note from Rosie saying she’s left without him.  Confused and heartbroken he too leaves home for a life of his own as an undercover cop in Dublin.

For twenty-two years he successfully eschews the emotional buzz saws and drill bits of his volatile family. Then his sister calls with news that Rosie’s suitcase had been found at the place they were to rendezvous before leaving on their journey. Frank had spent those years imaging Rosie having a good life without him. He’d married, had a daughter, and was now divorced. The discovery of the suitcase destroys everything he imagined about Rosie and pitches Frank back into the vortex of his estranged family where he faces a caustic, ubiquitous cocktail of  snipping, sneering, jeering, and bitter attacks that permeate that family. Tensions and fears ratchet up notch by bloody notch after Rosie’s body is found.

Tana French’s gift is drawing you into this horrible household through her pitch-perfect dialog within and without the family.  She gradually and deftly folds back the layers of their resentment, pain, hate and at times, their love.  She riveted me to the story because I needed to understand what made these characters tick. Readers of Frank McCourt’s memoir, Angela’s Ashes, will find a similar landscape in French’s Faithful Place.

French also serves up satisfying police politics as Frank, told to stay away from the investigation, can’t help but look for the truth, and recruits a young detective to help him.

This first-rate crime story delves into how the human heart, while yearning for freedom and love, is still able to commit sins that haunt, and haunt, and haunt.  French not only knows that human heart intimately, she also knows how to reveal its beats in richly literate language and flawless plotting.  And that is what makes this story so believable and honest.  You may be able to close the final pages of the book, but the story of Frankie and Rosie will find a place in your heart and mind.

I am in awe of French’s talent and am excited about reading her other books. I will read her first novel In the Woods next (It won an Edgar Award!). And Faithful Place has been nominated for a Best Novel Edgar this year;  see all the nominees here.  French’s second novel is called The Likeness.

I can only hope she is faithfully working on number four.

* * *

A shout-out to my dear friend Linda in Iowa City, Iowa USA,  for recommending this book to me!  Of the many books we have shared over these many years, this is one of the best!

Ms. Thompson set her hooks into me from the very start and has yet to free me still … and it is now three days since I completed this novel at 2.00 in the morning.

When the reviewers and publishers touted this as a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet it piqued my interest and I assumed I would know the trajectory of the story.  I was wrong. Thompson is better than that.

July Caldwell is a head-strong fourteen year old daughter in a Mormon family of sheep-herders. July would rather work the sheep than be inside. When her brother Richard (he’d rather read poetry) take sheep across Valentine bridge it collapses under the weight of the sheep and a bridge cable lashes July from collarbone to stomach.  She recovers under the care of Doctor Forbes and herbal ministrations of hired-man Pun (He’s Chinese and an excellent minor character). Immediately after the bridge accident Mr. Caldwell vehemently projects the blame on the Mr. Morrow. Dr. Morrow’s interest in July is soon more than medical but July has no interest in his romantic inclinations.

Rory Morrow is the head-strong son of Gentile (non-Mormon) cattle-herders.  He’d rather take photographs that work the cattle. Both July and Rory set their fathers on edge with their preferences that go against the grain of patriarchal exceptions. Predictably they meet and take a shine to each other. That is about only thing predicable in this re-telling.

The story passionately unfolds against the background of the landscape and hard scrabble lives of all of the characters. And I mean all the characters.  Thomspon brilliantly developed them all: hired hands, brothers, mothers, fathers, and school friends to give this story verity. They get under your skin and grow to care about this web of  people.  Thompson also knows the landscape, sheep herding and human nature.  Her characters’ ruminations on nature were pitch-perfect. This first novel is mature and steadfast.

As July and Rory’s love blossoms we see the brutal consequences of how time, distance and prejudice can lead to misconceptions and miscommunication. In some cases no communication.  And how loyalty to family can be a ill-spent sentiment.  Again we are reminded how regret and revenge and prejudice can haunt our souls.

I would never had predicted how this gripping tale would play out its eventual tragedies.  I was surprised, saddened, amazed and exhilarated by Thompson’s crescendo and then climactic rendering of people living out their ill-informed decisions. Like the Bard her story lingers because it is such a great story.

Speaking of the Bard…. He would enjoy how Romeo and Juliet fared on the stage called Bridge at Valentine.

The ASW library is raising money for

We visited the school to assess their need for new library books.  Their collection is old, worn, and torn.  They certainly need an influx of new books for the library. To that end we are providing you the opportunity to support this effort.

For a 30 PLN minimum donation you will receive one Chico Reusable Bag as a premium.  These nifty, reusable, fold-into their-attached-pocket bags are wonderfully convenient when you visit a sklep. They make excellent gifts because they are light, won’t break, and are practical!

Visit the library to see the bags which are in three vibrant colors!

The children of the school thank you for your time and consideration. We thank you, too.

***

Update: 18 Jan 2011

We sold nearly 300 hundred bags and raised 1000 dollars for the special needs school library. Tomorrow we go with the special needs librarian to purchase the books for their library.  Thanks again to all who supported this project.

John Coy will be working with elementary and middle school students regarding his books and the writing process!

Booklist selected Coy’s young adult novel, Box Out as one of the best sports books for youth in 2009.

Booklist review of Box Out.

The author of Crackback (2005) crafts an equally perceptive, triumphant tale—this one centered on a high-school hoops player searching for, and finding, his own road. Liam is dazzled at first by his unexpected elevation to the varsity team, but the shine wears off quickly once he discovers that the coach is leading prayer sessions before each practice and game. Then he sees Darius, who is a star player but the team’s only African American, maneuvered into quitting. Eventually Liam follow suit, after gathering his nerve to contact a watchdog organization. What follows is an eye-opening lesson in what team spirit is really all about. More a decent, average, level-headed kid than an introspective sort or a crusader, Liam struggles with the urge to conform and ultimately finds realistic ways to rebound from self-doubt as well as serious peer and adult pressure. Plainly well acquainted with teenagers as well as b-ball play and lingo, Coy adds subplots and supporting characters to give Liam’s life dimension, but he weaves in plenty of breathlessly compelling game action too.
— John Peters, Booklist.

Visit John’s site here.

For more on this year’s short list go here.

Much of the content is available on the web site and they do publish a monthly hard copy magazine which I will order for the library.

If you have students who want to express themselves… and get published… TeenInk may be the just place for them.

This is the essence of what they have done:
“With so many science-related Web sites in existence, finding the best ones can be onerous for a busy educator. The same problem exists in terms of culling through hundreds of available children’s books that tie into the science curriculum. This article matches up supplemental science titles and Web sites that educators can use in the classroom as part of a laptop program or with a whiteboard, or have students investigate on their own.”

You can read more about this and view the list here.

If a book noted here would be useful to you let Susan or I know and we will either get the book for you now, from the collection, or order it for you!

Also, check out the newly re-vamped science site from the Guardian here.  /matt

The New York Times chose to review it twice in seven days.
The author recently appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
The book, ten years in the making, is titled “Freedom” and it is by Jonathan Franzen, author of “Corrections”.   The library has one copy of “Corrections.”

The Economist says that “Mr. Franzen’s work will not appeal to those seeking sharp-edged experimentalism in their fiction. But for readers who believe the novel to be an old-fashioned thing that, at its best, should bring alive fully imagined characters in a powerful narrative with a social context, his new book will be a huge draw. The author has spent the past ten years doing what he does well and making it better. “Freedom” has all its predecessor’s power and none of its faults… With its all-encompassing world, its flawed heroes and its redemptive ending, “Freedom” has the sweep of a modern “Paradise Lost.”  (Economist, Aug 28- Sept 03, p. 64.)

Given the hype we shouldn’t be surprised that there is a bit of backlash:
“Within this Franzenfrenzy there is the whiff of Franzenfury, or Franzenfreude, as the novelist Jennifer Weiner has called it. She and Ms. Picoult have recently unleashed a steady stream of Twitter jabs about Mr. Franzen and The New York Times, charging that female novelists are unjustly overlooked by critics.” (New York Times).

“Freedom” was released today in the States (Sept 23 in UK).
I have it on order and it should be here in the next couple weeks.

If you would like to read it I will take your name and reserve it for you.

A Novel Is All the Rage Even Before It is Sold
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/28/books/28franzen.html?ref=books

The two NY Times Reviews
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html?ref=books

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/books/16book.html?ref=jonathan_franzen