Random Recommendation Guest Post: The Earth Is Enough by Harry Middleton

This recommendation comes from Carl. Follow him on twitter @KoenigCalibos.

The Earth Is Enough: Growing Up in a World of Flyfishing, Trout & Old Men (1989) by Harry Middleton

"In this memoir of his boyhood on a farm in the Ozark foothills, Harry Middleton joins the front rank of nature writers alongside Edward Hoagland and Annie Dillard. It is the year 1965, a year rife with change in the world---and in the life of a boy whose tragic loss of innocence leads him to the healing landscape of the Ozarks. Haunted by indescribable longing, twelve-year-old Harry is turned over to two enigmatic guardians, men as old as the hills they farm and as elusive and beautiful as the trout they fish for---with religious devotion. Seeking strength and purpose from life, Harry learns from his uncle, grandfather, and their crazy Sioux neighbor, Elias Wonder, that the pulse of life beats from within the deep constancy of the earth, and from one’s devotion to it. Amidst the rhythm of an ancient cadence, Harry discovers his home: a farm, a mountain stream, and the eye of a trout rising."

Books to Look For (April): History

The Madman and the Assassin: The Strange Life of Boston Corbett, the Man Who Killed John Wilkes Booth by Scott Martelle (Chicago Review Press, 240 pages, April 1)

Martelle has given us the first full-length biography of this brave but troubled man who was part of the squadron that cornered Booth in a Virginia barn. An English immigrant dogged by poverty and mental illness, Corbett was also a proud Union soldier whose fame in helping kill Booth dissipated quickly once he moved West and his illness dragged him down. Promises to be a fascinating angle on the Lincoln assassination.



The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History by Brian Fagan (Bloomsbury Press, 336 pages, April 14)

I think we all know how much influence animals (both wild and domestic) have over our lives. Here, Fagan explores our "intimate bond" through an analysis of six human-animal relationships, and discusses such topics as herding, donkeys and globalization, and horses and the fall of empires. (Maybe there's also something in here about why cats believe that they are our masters :-P )

From the TBR Shelf #41: Dragon Hunter by Charles Gallenkamp

Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions (2001) by Charles Gallenkamp

When I was in second grade, I had a "boyfriend" who was totally into dinosaurs. He lived, breathed, ate, and dreamed dinosaurs. Me- I was into books and stuffed animals. I couldn't understand why anyone would want to spend time looking at lizard-like, freaky-looking creatures, like dinosaurs, all day long.

And then, about twenty years later, I saw part of a documentary about dinosaurs and fossil-hunting and something clicked. Some years before that, I had become interested in the history and politics of museums and their collections, and learning about the acquisition of dinosaur bones and eggs by natural history museums suddenly seemed fascinating.

Random Recommendation Guest Post: Natives and Newcomers by Bruce Trigger

This recommendation comes from Shana DuBois. Check out her website and follow her on twitter @booksabound.

Natives and Newcomers: Canada's "Heroic Age" Reconsidered (1986) by Bruce Trigger

"In a spirited and critical re-examination of relations between the French and the Iroquoian-speaking inhabitants of the St Lawrence lowlands, from the incursions of Jacques Cartier through the explorations of Samuel de Champlain and the Jesuit missions into the early years of the royal regime, "Natives and Newcomers" argues that native people have played a significant role in shaping the development of Canada.Trigger also shows that the largely ignored French traders and their employees established relations with native people that were indispensable for founding a viable European colony on the St Lawrence. The brisk narrative of this period is complemented by a detailed survey of the stereotypes about native people that have influenced the development of Canadian history and anthropology and by candid discussions of how historical, ethnographical, and archaeological approaches can and cannot be combined to produce a more rounded and accurate understanding of the past"