Never Cry Wolf (1963) by Farley Mowat #NonFicNov24

🐺 A nonfiction that reads like fiction - that's how I describe Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves. Farley Mowat is a Canadian writer and environmentalist. Published in 1963, this is Mowat's memoir (some regarded it as fictionalized account of his experiences, but I'd treat it as nonfiction) during his appointment as Canadian Wildlife Service officer to investigate the cause of the declining Arctic caribou populations, and whether wolves are the culprit.

🐺 Mowat left for the Keewaton Barren Lands near Lake Manitoba in 1948. His inexperience in the field (he was a new recruit) provides some of the hilarious accounts; from his arrival by small private airplane, to his first encounter with the wolves. He first stayed with a Canadian named Mike who lives with his huskies in an Eskimo hut. But Mike soon left the hut, leaving him alone.

🐺 As soon as he found a perfect point at Wolfhouse Bay as his quarry, he started his job by following through binoculars, the movements of a family of three adult wolves and their pups who live inside a den not far from Mowat's quarry. He even named the three adults: George and Angeline as the father and mother, and Uncle Albert for the other single male who lives with them, and often share the caring of the pups when their parents are gone. Mowat soon fell to the family routine; George and Uncle Albert are usually go hunting in the evening, and take their leisure naps during the day.

🐺 One day he followed the family approaching a group of caribou who were grazing peacefully, without showing any signs of agitation, though the wolves were only some feet away. Mowat was surprised to witness this; he had expected to see some voracious hunt, but none happened. The wolves just walked away nonchalantly around the edge of the caribous circle. What's happening? That didn't tally what Mowat, what people used to to imagine about wolves - the cunning beasts who ate little innocent children while walking alone, and etcetera (Little Red Riding Hood came to mind). Mowat's observations taught him a rather unsettling truth, that the fast declining of caribou's population isn't caused by wolves, but by men!

"Whenever, wherever men have engaged in a mindless slaughter of animals, including other men, they are often attempted to justify their acts by attributing the most vicious or revolting qualities to those they would destroy. And the less reason there is for the slaughter the greater their campaign of vilification."

🐺 Contrary of common opinion, when they're indeed hunting for caribou, wolves only take the weakest, or most ailing from the pack. The caribous do feed the wolves, but the wolves strengthen the caribous in return, by getting rid of their weakest. In a way the wolves are reserving, rather than endangering, caribous.

🐺 All in all, this was an eye opening, hilarious, but also touching (especially in the end) read about wolves. Some of my favorite moments with Mowat's wolf family are when George saw Mowat when he lowered his pants to pee; then there's Uncle Albert's amorous adventure with a Husky bitch named Kua. Mowat's hilarious moment with Angeline, is when his hungry stomach's loud rumble bemused, then disgusted, her. I just loved how Mowat treated the wolves with respect; that's how we must treat all creatures, flora and fauna.

*I listened to the audiobook, very well narrated by Adam Sims.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by: Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

The Golden Mole: and Other Vanishing Treasure (2022) by Katherine Rundell #NonFicNov24

🦒 In The Golden Mole, Katherine Rundell introduces us to some of the world's most exotic creatures which are also endangered. Among these animals, some are no strangers to us, like the crows, wolves, bear, or elephant. We often hear or watch about hare, giraffe, or hedgehog, though we might not see them physically. But how many of us are familiar with wombat, lemur, narwhal, or pangolin? This book talks about all of them, and several others.

🦀 However, this is not some kind of encyclopedia about exotic animals, it's much more interesting. Rundell slips stories, myths, or anecdotes related to each animal, sometimes even concerning prominent historical personages whose stories had been linked to certain animal. The most fantastic is that of Coconut Hermit Crab. You must have been familiar with Amelia Earhart's story of disappearance over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the world in 1937. One of the many theories believed that some Coconut Hermit Crabs must have eaten Amelia Earhart's body. She was probably stranded on Nikumaroro island, known as home of these crabs. Some human bones were found there many years later, but they're lost on the way to investigation, so we still don't know the truth. But it's an interesting fact nevertheless.

🐨 Another interesting story is involving Wombat. The creature - some says it's a mixture of capybara, koala, and bear cub - was a favorite pet of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the poet. He had sketched Mrs. Morris (Rossetti's model and muse) taking a wombat on a leash, both with halos over their heads. A wombat had also been gifted to Napoleon's wife, Josephine, by a ship's captain. Speaking of gifted exotic animals, do you know that Cleopatra had once gifted a giraffe to Julius Caesar who then brought it to Ancient Rome?

🐻 A funny anecdote came from the inimitable Lord Byron concerning bear. He used to keep a tamed Bear while studying at University of Cambridge, as dogs were forbidden. When he was asked what they should do with it, his answer was, "It should sit for fellowship" 🤣

🦔 But two animals resonated more to me personally than others. The first is Hedgehog. Whenever I hear the word 'hedgehog', an image from my first picture book, which my mother introduced to me when I was very little, comes immediately to mind. It's a hedgehog with an apple stuck on his spikes, stealing it from two animals who picked it from the tree (the apple falls right to its spikes). That image stuck with me, that I always assume hedgehog eats fruits. But this book taught me that it's just a myth, its diet actually consists of insects and worms. Another animal from my childhood picture books about flora and fauna (my parents bought me a lot of these), is Pangolin (Trenggiling in Indonesian). Its name came from a Malay word 'panggiling' which means roller, from the way it rolls its body while in danger. Their scales were used for Chinese medicine.

🕊 Some more interesting bits from this book:

• The unihemispheric sleep in swifts (birds), they are able to shut up half of the brain at a time, while floating in the air inside the clouds. Amazing, right?
• The reclusive creature of Lemur who's able of changing eye color, is another wonder. One of the species is even superstitiously believed to be able to prophecy death.
• I didn't remember this, but the Seal has capacity of learning language. Ahab in Moby Dick recognized the seals' voices.
• The Narwhal's tusk were once mistakenly thought as unicorn's horn. Queen Elizabeth I was presented at least two narwhals by some voyagers.
• The Crows are the Einstein among birds. On an experiment, they punish some boys who're wicked to them, but were known in real life to have rewarded those who fed them.

🐘 Elephants are actually afraid of bees, they sting elephants' soft tissues inside their trunks. Elephants are gentle and caring creatures. When finding bones of dead friend, they will salute it by lightly touching their bones. An elephant returning to its group would get a ceremonial embraces by intertwining their trunks. Seahorse is the only creature that it is the male who gets pregnant (a fact I learned from TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S, when Ross wants to calm the pregnant Rachel down by pointing this fact out. What about the Golden Mole, who lent its name to the title? As a species, it's nearer to elephant than ordinary mole. It is the most mysterious animal from all that is discussed in this book. We know almost nothing about it, other than its iridescent quality, from which we called it 'golden' mole.

⭐ All in all, it's a wonderful book about nature and its wonder, told in an interesting and sometimes funny way that will interest non-biologists reader like me.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (1996) by Frances Mayes #NonFicNov24

🌞 Under the Tuscan Sun is a memoir by Frances Mayes, an American university professor, who were just through a divorce. She'd been in love with Italy, and accompanied by Ed, her current significant other, she began to hunt for a house in the countryside. Tuscany was their final choice, in particular an abandoned villa called Bramasole, in a hill town of Cortona.

🌞 Bramasole was named from two Italian words: braemar (to yearn for), and sole (sun); which literally means something that yearns for the sun. What a proper name for an Italian house! Like any other memoir of foreigners who move to European country, Under the Tuscan Sun follows, first the many doubts and indecisive moments Frances and Ed must have endured before finally deciding to buy the house. That part was the easiest, really. After that, came the relentless struggles to make the house and land to be habitable, while they are adapting with new culture, new language, and all.

🌞 The renovating of the rural abandoned villa took them years of dealing with Italian people, with their habits and eccentricities. But this memoir isn't entirely struggles, there are triumphant moments too, like when they found an ancient slab of stone while digging for a well (they finally use it for garden table). Or when renovating walls, they unexpectedly found a beautiful fresco. But maybe the most triumphant moment was when Frances realized how Italian she has been becoming at one point, and how Tuscany and Bramasole become, eventually, her true home that she loves.

"When you're falling in love, everything is lit from within."

🌞 Besides describing how much energy Frances and Ed had poured to make Bramasole home (they loved doing it), Frances also entertained us with her travelling journals - the small town they visited, complete with little historical background, local churches with their religious fervor, local cafe, and landscape. Last but not least, Italian food. Dishes Frances has becoming expert of cooking, and wines they taste and collect, what they serve for visiting guests. Frances even include several recipes in between chapters.

🌞 In short, it's a pleasant memoir to read with perfect proportions between struggles and pleasures, historical background and daily life, and between their personal routine with the interesting characters of their neighbors.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Possible Reads for Novellas in November & Nonfiction November 2024 #NovNov24 #NonficNov24

We are just two months and several days away from the end of 2024; how could time fly that fast!? Reading wise, I'm so grateful that many bookbloggers or booktweeters keep hosting my favorite reading events. Two of them are coming next month, and I've been compiling my lists (and even started reading few of them!) of some possible reads, with emphasize on "possible". I might read more or less, or substitute the titles. Anyway, here they are:

Novellas in November 2024 #NovNov24

hosted by Cathy @ 746 Books and Rebecca @ Bookish Beck

Warrior of the Light: A Manual (1997) by Paulo Coelho - a special read for special occasion, which I will explain in the review.
Wigs on the Green (1935) by Nancy Mitford 
Maud Martha (1953) by Gwendolyn Brooks
The Old Maid (1922) by Edith Wharton
A Single Rose (2020) by Muriel Barbery

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonficNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy (1996) by Frances Mayes
The Golden Mole: And Other Living Treasure (2022) by Katherine Rundell
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013) by Donnie Eichar


Would you join one or all of them? What books you plan to read next month?