In the Shadow of Man (1971) by Jane Goodall #Reading1971 #20BOS26

 

🐒 "Previously man had been regarded as the only tool-making animal. Indeed, one of the clauses commonly accepted in the definition of man was that he was a creature who 'made tools to a regular and set pattern". That definition was to be redefined after a young girl called Jane Goodall arrived at Gombe Stream Reserve at Tanzania, Africa, to live with, and learn and observe about chimpanzees. Jane had had no knowledge whatsoever about animals, let alone chimpanzees. She had actually gone to secretary school, but she did have passion about nature and animals from childhood. It's rather funny, that her favorite toy as a child had been a stuffed toy chimpanzee, gifted by her father as substitute to teddy bear. Her mother's friends were horrified that the toy would give little Jane nightmares. Instead, her fondness of the toy had sparked her love for animals. 🐒 One day a connection of her family happened to offer her a life-changing career: to be an observer of chimpanzees. She was chosen particularly because she had no background previously; and that was what Louis Leakey, the palaeontologist who had offered Jane the job, had initially wanted - someone who has passion for animals. Jane arrived at Gombe in 1960, and for many years after, Gombe would be her home, where she would meet her husband, and had a son together. Jane wrote this memoir in 1971, recording all the difficulties she had to endure to begin the task. Jane had first lived in the Gombe with her mother (because the government refused to give permission to Jane unless she was accompanied by a chaperone). I have huge admiration for Jane's mother. Enduring the harshness of living inside a camp in Africa to satisfy one's passion is one thing; but sacrificing one's comfort for the sake of someone's else is entirely different. Jane's mother is indeed an exemplary mother. 🐒 At first the chimpanzees, as expected, were suspicious of her. But with patience (and certainly with tremendous courage), she slowly gained respect and acceptance from them. Jane named each chimpanzee in the group she observed; so that along the memoir we would be entertained with the eccentricity of many different characters like David Greybeard (the first one who accepted Jane, and the first who ever touched her, also the handsomest), Goliath (the alpha male - the highest rank male of the group when Jane first arrived), Flo (an old but coquettish and affectionate female), Fifi (Flo's daughter who inherited her mother's personalities when grew up), Mike (the next alpha male after Goliath - stern but also generous if needed), and many others. Sometimes I felt like reading an animal story book rather than a science-memoir, and it was equally exciting to follow the fate, struggles, and triumph of some of our favorites, just as in fiction. 🐒 To record chimpanzee's behavior, personalities, and social interactions, Jane and her growing team built a banana-feeding station. Every morning the provided bananas, so that the chimpanzees could come, and feed there. Sometimes they come alone, but more often they come in group - either a mother with her children, or adult male with their circle. With this arrangement, they didn't need to go long way to the chimpanzees habitation. Some believe that the feeding stations have altered normal foraging and feeding patterns and social relationships of the chimpanzees. I tend to agree with them. I personally believe that human interference in wild lives usually tend to disrupt the animals' natural behavior, and thus might put the animals in more danger than not. The chimpanzees were slowly accepting human's existence near them. Imagine, when people with malicious intent approached them, their instinct might not warn them properly to protect themselves. 🐒 And, with all due respects to Jane Goodall's tremendous effort in her researches for years, what good comes from for the chimpanzees' own sake in the end? Yes, we humans get to know more about the chimpanzee, and its 'closer than we have ever thought' similarities to human being. That's for our benefits, not to the chimpanzee. I must humbly confess that I might be wrong, but for now, that's my strong believe. Let the wild creatures alone is always the best move. Researches are good, if they were made from proper distance, and for a certain amount of time. Imagine what the chimpanzee's would feel when Jane or her team followed them closely to observe their mating, their sleeping quarter, their grooming - these humans were constantly in close proximity to them day and night. After all, Jane claimed, from her observations, that chimpanzee, similar to human, might have emotion. Don't we better keep respect to and preserve their 'privacy', and wildness? 🐒 All in all, this memoir is mesmerizing account of a wild creature, who is the closest to human being, in similarities of behavior and tool-making and using. The social strata is quite interesting, and just like human mothers, for instance, there are good mothers and bad ones, also, in chimpanzee. These interesting facts made the book very entertaining and mind opening. Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

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20 Books of Summer 2026 hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

An Afternoon Walk (1971) by Dorothy Eden #Reading1971 #20BOS26

🟢 Judging only by this book's title and the particular cover I used for the post, you would think this as a charming slice-of-life novel set in the English countryside with picturesque view, and perhaps a little bit of romance. Well, just wait until you come upon the Kindle version's cover, published in 2013, which I included below. Then, you would realize that this is actually a psychological mystery-suspense with Gothic vibes. It begins with the alluded afternoon walk. Ella Simpson, an ordinary housewife, is taking the walk with her five-year-old daughter Kitty, when they found a derelict old Victorian house with an overgrown garden. They were curious about it and while starting to imagine who had lived there - an Edith definitely, as they saw the name scratched on the window pane - and what had happened to the family, an owl screeched from an upstairs window, and startled and spooked them. When they left the house, Ella felt the uneasiness of being followed.  

🟢 Ella's husband, a salesman called Max, is coming home that day. When she told him about the old house and Edith, he only laughed it out as Ella's silliness and imagination. But his tease didn't end there. During the weeks following the incident, Max repeatedly pointed out Ella's increasing dreamy and forgetfulness, which, he believed, is normal considering the miscarriage that Ella had just had. Then mysterious things started to happen, menacing phone calls, mysterious men following her, and even a few panic-induced prank which added stress to the overwrought Ella. Is it true that she's forgetting everything? That she's imagining things? Is Max's upcoming promotion as export manager the rooted cause of it all - that his jealous colleague is behind all these, like he's always reasoning?

🟢 Fortunately, Ella's new neighbour, Booth, is sympathetic enough to listen to Ella's rumbling stories. He even accompanied her to another walk to the ruined house. Booth is a theater critic, and widower, who lives there with his sister. It is clear from the beginning that he's fallen in love with Ella, and indeed, he is a more suitable husband for Ella than her self-centered and ambitious Max, who was secretly relieved of Ella's miscarriage, as otherwise another baby would interfere with his work. Meanwhile, the newspapers and TV is full about the, first disappearing, then kidnapping, then murder of a woman, which crime was supposedly happened inside the old ruined house. 

🟢 Throughout perhaps two third of the book Eden made us keep wondering whether Ella was really the imaginative kind of woman, or was it all Max's plot to... what? Does he mean to harm his wife? Or is he covering something he ought not to do? Does it have something to do with the woman's kidnapping? However, near the end, I think it would be clearer and clearer what was happening. On the whole, this is an interesting psychological mystery-suspense. Not very mysterious, and not overly suspenseful, but quite entertaining for a comfortable reading. More importantly, it provides a insightful glimpse of that bygone era of early 1970s - which was why I read it in the first place. I am satisfied with how the story ends, and though I'm not overly fond with Ella's dreamy nature (miscarriage or not), Booth's character is what I loved most.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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20 Books of Summer 2026

hosted by Annabel @ AnnaBookBel

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (1971) by Dorothy Gilman #Reading1971

 

👒 On her third mission from CIA, the septuagenarian Mrs. Emily Pollifax was given a task to convey eight forged passport into Bulgaria, to help members of the underground political movement to flee the country. As usual, despite of the seemingly simple task, Mrs. Pollifax embarked on another more thrilling adventure. It all started when Mr. Carstairs visited Mrs. Pollifax's apartment (it's the first time he saw her on her natural habitat, so to speak). She's embrace a new hobby (besides karate lessons), which is growing, in her balcony, night-blooming cereus - a species of flowering cactus, which, true to its name, only blooms at only a single night. But of course, she must leave her flower for a while, to embark on a new adventure to Bulgaria. But the positive side is, she's to get a new hat intricately trimmed with flower and bird, which was especially designed to hide that eight forged passports she must smuggle to the country. 

Night-blooming Cereus, source: Wikipedia

👒 Unbeknownst to her, however, Mr. Carstair had cheekily slipped something else inside her coat. He shouldn't do that, in my opinion. It's a dangerous game to play with amateur spy-courier, don't you think? Another complication, which Mr. Carstairs would never had imagined, came from Mrs. Pollifax's brief acquaintance with her fellow flight passenger: Philip Trenda. He's a young American college student who's travelling together with several friends to Bulgaria. As often happened, Mrs. Pollifax's affectionate heart usually brought her to further complications. Not that she ever failed to emerge triumphantly from every obstacles. This time, when a young girl called Debbie, a friend of Philip Trenda, brought news about Philip's being arrested by secret police, just after her arrival at Sofia, of course Mrs. Pollifax could not ignore it, could she? 👒 I don't why, but this book felt a little bit off for me. Usually I would immersed into the adventure (and usually there's aplenty of it), but this time, things get excited only when the rescue of Philip Trenda from his captivity in the Panchevsky Institute began. It was quite a mission-impossible, and only Mrs. Pollifax's genuine thinking and encouragement that made it success. The earlier part of the novel was a bit weary; the Balkan tourist agent and Mrs. Pollifax's encounters, while provided a little hilarious conversation, felt redundant. I'm sorry to say, this is rather a disappoinment, but I would still be reading the series through. Davida @ The Chocolate Lady's Book Review Blog has reviewed the fifth book, and mentioned it as the best so far, so I have a lot of expectation on this one. But maybe I should give Mrs. Pollifax a break next year, and come back to her more fresh the year next.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐1/2

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (1971) by Elizabeth Taylor

🏨 This is my first introduction to the inimitable Elizabeth Taylor, and also the third book for my personal project: #Reading1971, which is the best so far! The previous two were The End of Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher (a pleasant read), and a non fiction by Erma Bombeck: If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pit? (a nostalgic memoir that made me chuckling all the time). At first, Mrs. Palfrey gave impression as a light-hearted tale about elderly people on the last stage of their independence life, but the more you read through, the more you realized it has more than what meets the eye.

🏨 After becoming a widow in her seventy-ish, Mrs. Palfrey decided to move to the Claremont Hotel. In the 1970s, it's not uncommon that some hotels reserved some of its rooms to accommodate elderly residents. These were usually widows or widowers who lived alone. Living in a hotel was not only practical (meals, cleanings, and washings were all taken care of), but it also provided what little of independent and freedom the elderly people could get before the "end" arrive (nursery home, hospital). There at the Claremont, Mrs. Palfrey begins to adjust to this new phase of her life - living at close proximity to the same people and endure their eccentricities day in day out; counting the dull hours until meal times (these are usually the most exciting time for them), and reading or discussing the menu from a board on the vestibule to fill in the time in between meals. 

🏨 Of the little freedom the residents of Claremont Hotel could boast of, is the visits of relatives. Sometimes they would dine at the Claremont, or else they would bring the elderly out for a picnic in the country or others. These are usually great events for them - a treat, which they are eagerly looking forward to. And that's what Mrs. Palfrey is lacking of. She has only one grandson - Desmond - but she has invited him without any response. Mrs. Arbuthnot has been pestering her about this relative, that Mrs. Palfrey do something that she would have never dreamt of. She invented a grandson! Ludovic - or Ludo - is an impoverished and handsome aspiring young novelist, who happened to help Mrs. Palfrey when she's fallen on the pavement on her way from the library. His tender care touched Mrs. Palfrey's heart, and what with her gratitude, and Mrs. Arbuthnot's pestering, she blurted out a dinner invitation at Claremont, with the scheme that entailed. In short, Ludo would act as Mrs. Palfrey's charming grandson Desmond, in exchange of some exciting adventures and free dinners. The scheme is successful... until the real Desmond appeared.

🏨 If you think this a comical novel - a Wodehouse with more subdued tone, perhaps - you're totally wrong. It has a much deeper meaning than just a scheme gone wrong. The major themes are loneliness and boredom that old age bring. It's something young people hardly understand, until they too grow old.

"As one gets older life becomes all take and no give. One relies on other people for the treats and things."

"It was hard work being old. It was like being a baby, in reverse. Every day for an infant means some new little thing learned; every day for the old means some little thing lost. Names slip away, dates mean nothing, sequences become muddled, and faces blurred. Both infancy and age are tiring times."

🏨 The loneliness has nothing to do with the presence of others, but the sense of helplessness, uselessness, that the elderly must endure. To watch how their independence slip away from them; that they become more and more burden for the youngsters; the way people treat them like little child, and worse even, treat them as nonentity. I have been witnessing these in my parents. and now I realize that growing old is a painful business - and it's much mentally as is physically - and that scares me not a little. I wish we have that kind of establishment like Claremont Hotel here in Indonesia, though I doubt if I would be able to afford it - it sounds quite expensive...

🏨 The issue of love or affection is also prominent in Mrs. Palfrey. Elderly people always long for loving care and attention from their relatives, and although Mrs. Palfrey is a sensible and independent woman, she, too, couldn't resist the caring and attention Ludo has been providing her. From the beginning, I have sensed that Ludo's feeling towards Mrs. Palfrey is balanced between amusement, boredom, affection, and professional gain (finding in her a wonderful material for his novel, which he titled "They Weren't Allowed to Die There", from Mrs. Palfrey's own remark. Whether Ludo is exploitative or not, is debatable. I personally think it's normal. Anyway, when you encounter an old lady you didn't know, who knits you a sweater, and gives you money when you need it, do you instantly love her? It depends on so many things, right? And nobody would blame you if you don't. The fact that Mrs. Palfrey truly loves Ludo and thinks he loves her as much, well... it's good for her, and she's not very wrong. Ludo is much kinder (as kind as an artist can be) than her grandson Desmond, anyway. 🏨 As a literary creation, Mrs. Palfrey is definitely a brilliant novel, beautifully written. It was shortlisted for the 1971 Booker Prize, but it's a shame it didn't win one. Taylor's character drawing is flawless; she managed to convey each of their personalities through dialogue, mannerism, as well as their inner thoughts. In the end, I felt like knowing them all for a long time. Of the elderlies, my favorite is Laura Palfrey her self. I loved her no-nonsense and strong character - I hope I turn like her in my old age.. :) I also liked Ludo; he is quite a lovely person. He cared about Mrs. Palfrey in his own way, and I can understand if not all what he'd said or done were genuine; she was nobody of him, anyway. And I understand enough that he's half afraid she would become his burden - which is perfectly understandable. So, you see, this seemingly sweet and unassuming (if you judge from the cover) little novel, turned out to be keeping layers of surprising depth underneath each page. If this do not turn up to be one of my favorites this year, I would be very surprised.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If Life is A Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? (1971) by Erma Bombeck

🍒 My second book for my personal project of #readingthe1971s is a memoir from Erma Bombeck, an American humorist, whose newspaper humor columns had entertained many readers from 1965 to 1996. She is even daubed as the best-loved humorist of her day (from A Biography of Erma Bombeck at the end of the re-published version of this book). We aren't lucky enough to be those readers, but we have this memoir to be equally tickled to uncontrollable laughter that could endanger your career (if you read this during office hours).

🍒 If Life is A Bowl of Cherries is about mundane situations every mother in the 1970s must have had on daily basis, related to children, marriage, motherhood, housekeeping; from game shows to family vacations, and anything in between. One reviewer in Goodreads said that this book is like a standup comedy, which I agree. Erma's views of her world is critical, without too much sarcasm. Here's a sample (from Introduction, page 9):

Children are becoming an endangered species, energy has reached crisis proportions, marriages are on the decline, and the only ones having any fun anymore are the research rats.
You cannot help but envy their decadence.
Throughout the years, these furry swingers have been plied with booze, pot, cigarettes, birth control pills, too much sun, cyclamates, caffeine, Red Dye No. 2, saccharine, disco music at ear-shock decibels, late nights, and a steady diet of snack food.
If people haven't asked themselves these questions, they should: How come there are still more rats than people?

 
🍒 Through all of these jumble of seemingly distressing stuffs that an overworked mom must have endured, we are entertained with nostalgia of that bygone era. My most favorite part is when Emma is talking about letter writing - an art that Gen Z and Alpha would never understand.

The letter-writers who really bug me, though, are the ones with the stationery whose paper matches the envelopes. Sure it's easy to write a letter when you have all the equipment, but for me, it's a real hassle finding clean paper, a pencil, and a stamp.

🍒 It warmed my heart with nostalgia. I remember those days of writing letters, buying stamps, the excitement of finding in the mailbox a letter from your friend, and more excitement still of reading your friend's response to your letter a week before. Ah, those beautiful days of the bygone era, how I miss it so much! Not mentioning the stationery papers; I remember vividly on my school days, of collecting those beautifully printed - and even scented - stationery papers which we were collecting just like our parents had been collecting stamps. Then the e-mail - nowadays chatting apps - came and killed it.

🍒 Beyond the hilarious everyday life - struggles, triumph, and anything in between - which Erma Bombeck illustrated perfectly, there's a layer of depth too. The chapter of "When Did I Become the Mother and the Mother Become the Child?" is very related to my own current personal struggle. It is saddening when your parents are getting older and becoming more and more dependent on you. The parents who you grew up thinking they are so strong and dependable, now are so weak and fragile - something that you never thought you would see, but that's it.
🍒 On the whole, this book is quite entertaining and in a way, nostalgic. I loved to be immersed into those bygone era, which I miss so much. Although what we were having here in Indonesia were not the same as Erma's American life, I felt it's relatable enough. This was the kind of book that I expect to read for my #readingthe1971 project. I wish the rest on the list would be as good as this!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The End of Summer (1971) by Rosamunde Pilcher

🌸 Jane is a twenty one year old Scottish girl who has lost her mother in childhood. Her father has immediately moved them both to the United States, where he's been working as screenwriter for Hollywood. After years in America, Jane still miss Elvie, the beautiful estate near the Loch where she had spent happy childhood. Elvie also correlated with Sinclair, Jane's cousin, to whom she had secretly dreamt of marrying some day. One day in this titular summer, Jane has a lovely surprise - a family lawyer called David Stewart brings a summon from Jane's grandmother, for Jane to come home to Elvie. Jane is torn between her duty to look after her father, and her heart. But as her father brings home a lover, Jane knew he would be looked after, and decides to go with the young lawyer to Elvie, leaving her American beach home, including her "date" with a young surfer she has just made acquaintance with, the day before.

🌸 Arriving at Elvie, though, Jane soon finds out that Sinclair isn't what she has thought him to be. There is long-buried secrets which shaped Sinclair to his true self, a rakish and opportunity-seeker, and which secret is also affecting Jane's future. Now Jane needs to make a decision, should she accept Sinclair's proposal - a marriage she had been dreaming growing up - or should she listen to her instinct?

🌸 Many readers said The End of Summer isn't Pilcher's best, and one in particular daubed it as her least favorite of Pilcher. I haven't read many of her, my only other acquaintance with her was The Shell Seekers, which I loved, and even got to be one of my favorites in 2025. But I think, The End of Summer is not that bad. It maybe lack of depth, at least when compared to The Shell Seekers, but the characters are well drawn, and I loved the picturesque description of the Scottish landscape. Jane is not a memorable main character, rather weak and insipid. My favorite is perhaps the lawyer, David Stewart; he's a true gentleman and well balanced person.

🌸 I was kind of interested about the surfer Jane chatted with on the beach, though. It's ashamed that we don't hear about him any more. It will be lovely if we can follow Jane when she's back in California and meet again with him. But of course, the circumstances are changed, so maybe it's not a good idea. Still, although the story is set mostly in Scotland, I kind of love the beach house (or shack) where Jane and her father live. My favorite scene is perhaps the arrival of David Stewart at the beach house (the first time Jane met him) - it ends up hilarious at the end, but at the moment, it was quite thrilling. Jane was alone (her father was on business trip), it was a dark night. Jane saw a silhouette of a man approaching the house from the beach, which should be deserted after sunset, and this terrified her, imagining every evil scenario imaginable. 

🌸 On the whole, it was an okay read; short (only 150-ish pages), and with an unexpected twist concerning the family secret, and a pleasant ending (the one I have been hoping).

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (1971) by Judith Kerr: An Audiobook

🐰 Anna was a Jewish 9 year-old girl lived in Berlin. The titular pink rabbit is her favorite stuffed toy. Did Hitler really steal it? Of course not! But he stole what the pink rabbit represents of Anna - her innocent happy childhood. Told from Anna's POV, this is a semi autobiographical story, derived from Kerr's own experience of fleeing from her home at the start of the Second World War.

🐰 Anna is the younger child of a prominent Jewish journalist who often wrote against the Nazis. Approaching the election, her father fled from Germany, as his name had been publicly targeted by Hitler once he's elected. Anna and her older brother didn't realize the upscale political tension in their country, they just saw Hitler's face glared out at them from street posters.

🐰 I love how Anna's parents hid the real dangerous situation from the children in order to avoid any distress and fear. When the mother took Anna and her brother by train to Switzerland, she made the journey just like a exciting, albeit secretly, one to meet their father. Though Anna witnessed how her mother had tightly clutched her bag during ticket inspection, but seemed more relaxed after passing the border, Anna didn't have any inkling how scared her mother had been, and what was the cause.

🐰 When Anna and her brother heard that Hitler has likely confiscated their house, they imagined how Hitler's playing with their board game and Anna's pink rabbit. They knew that Hitler was an evil guy, but never realized how evil he was.

🐰 After a brief stay in Switzerland, the family moved to France and started a new life in a Paris small apartment. They became poorer because Anna's father was struggling to get a decent writing job. Amidst the struggles in adapting to the new school and learning new language, not mentioning the money restraint, Anna felt happy enough because they live there together as family. It reminds me of my own feeling. My life was always wholesome because we lived it together as family, where there's always love and care. No matter what came our way, we could face it as we had each other.

🐰 This book isn't a childish reminiscent of one of the darkest times in our history; it is a story about resilience, about the power of love and family. It is also about hope and courage in navigating changes. It's a sweet and poignant testimony of humanity during dark moments. I am so grateful of having read this at this time of my life, for I wouldn't have appreciated as much had I read it as a child. I loved also the narrator of the audiobook I listened to; Tacy Kneale did a great job of bringing this classic into life!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐