A delightful collection.
Exploring a world of marvels.
Greene brings ebullient inquisitiveness to 26 illustrated essays on matters human and animal, mundane and metaphysical. With occasional interjections by children whom she counts among her friends, she investigates mysteries such as the concept of zero, the morphology of the giraffe, and natural history museum displays. About zero, she reports, “Nothingness first got a numeral in ancient India,” where, she notes, “the concept of nirvana had long since taken hold. The mystic symbol has since met all kinds of resistance. Even typewriters at first made no distinction between the elliptic numeral 0 and the circular letter O, didn’t waste a key on that.” Working at the Iowa Museum of Natural History elicits essays about a model of a sloth, which she was tasked with dressing in various holiday costumes, and a taxidermied ivory-billed woodpecker, which a visitor stole. Greene draws on a host of quirky experiences, including attending Twist and Shout, the annual balloon twisters’ convention, where a friend constructs out of balloons a halter dress like the one Marilyn Monroe wore in The Seven Year Itch. “Somehow this balloon dress, this intersection of what reads as balloon and dress and body and icon, somehow it becomes a category of its own,” Greene discovered unhappily. “Spun in bespoke bubble wrap, I am not extra protected. I feel all but canceled out.” In prose at once whimsical and poetic, Greene muses on metaphor and apophenia, or “a human tendency to see connections, to find patterns, though they aren’t really there. Pareidolia is similar, the way we make pictures out of randomness, see shapes or faces, glimpse meaning where it doesn’t actually exist.” With deftness and grace, she draws connections and meaning from her fresh take on a vibrant universe.
A delightful collection.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781963108088
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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