Wolves Where?

A Dog in the Cave: The Wolves Who Made Us Human by Kay Frydenborg
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017.
ix, 246 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (some col.) ; 24 cm. 

The details (pages, illus, etc) above are for the print version which we have in our library, though the version I read was the eBook edition through the Axis360 collection that our library provides. Yes, that means I read it on my little cell phone - and it's not a bad experience.

This book offers a lot to think about.  Probably the most interesting thing about A Dog in the Cave, is how it really got me to see how incredibly unique the human-dog relationship is in the history of animals on the planet.  Here the author introduces us to the mutually beneficial relationship between two sentient apex-predators and how that relationship has shaped - though evolution - who we both are.  It's a pretty crazy thing to think about. 

A for instance?  Well, consider that humans and dogs both experience the endorphin pleasure in their brains from gazing at each other.  Or consider that unlike the extremely intelligent wolf, only dogs can solve a guessing game by following the glance cues of humans.  Essentially, Frydenborg is arguing that by entering into a cooperative alliance with humans some 40,000 years ago the original wild proto-dog wolf began evolving traits that made it more suitable to be with humans, AND humans began evolving traits that make us ideal companions to dogs.  Pretty neat stuff.

There's a lot of ground that gets covered in this book and anyone interested in dogs, paleontology, evolution or human-animal relationships will find something to enjoy here.

Exciting Colonial History, Really

Igniting the American Revolution: 1773 - 1775 by Derek W. Beck
Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks, [2015]
xi, 467 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.

I ended up reading this book when I found it searching our UHS eBook account on my phone (and remembered that I had purchased the book for our library during the year.)  I am pretty ignorant on early US History and woefully uninformed about the US Revolution, and so I thought this would be a good place to start.  It was a good choice.  Beck clearly loves his material and brings the real grit and details of the years 1773-1775 to life.

I learned several things right off that I had not really gathered from the history I was taught in school.  The battles of Lexington and Concord were terrible and grueling affairs for both the British forces and the American rebel militias.  I just never realized how long the battle went on and how far the British had to march under withering and mobile gunfire as they tried to get from Concord back to Boston.  Also I had always learned that the British fought traditionally (in silly lines and formations) while the Americans used a more lethal guerrilla style of attack - well, sort of, but not really.  During the French Indian-War (or the Seven Years War) the British learned how to fight guerrilla war.  During the march to and from Concord the British deployed light infantry roving attack groups to flush out, counter and destroy American ambushes on their main column, BUT they ran out of ammunition and were simply outnumbered and exhausted.

The thing I most enjoyed is that you could really appreciate the appalling risks that the rebels were taking and knew they were taking in violently breaking British law.  I also like that though Beck acknowledges that he considers himself a patriot and partial to the American cause, he is able to be very even-handed and shows the rashness and brutality of the burgeoning US radical movement - in addition to the block-headed policies and decisions being made by Parliament and the the Crown back in England.

I'll recommend this to any student wanting to read a good book about the lead up to the American Revolution. 

Amazing Amazing

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
New York : Picador, c2000.
639 p. ; 21 cm.

Michael Chabon's novel won a 2001 Pulitzer Prize and I challenge a reader to not enjoy this  wonderful tale.  It's a gloriously written tale of the starting in the late 1930s and continuing into the 1950s and centers on the golden age of comic books in New York City, but also embraces the Holocaust, Harry Houdini, The Golem of Prague, Brooklyn, gay life, and of course love, friendship and family.

Though we have this book in the UHS library collection, I read it on my cell phone - accessing it through our library's eBook collection.  It's not the first book that I've read on my phone, but it was great to be able to carry it around in my pocket while traveling during the summer.

Fortunately, The Amazing Adventures seems to be doing quite well.  I looked for a copy at my local public libraries and all 6 copies were checked out.  It's a great book and I will definitely recommend it to any student looking for a rewarding literary fiction read from a contemporary author - especially a reader who has an interest in world of comic book writing and publishing back when vast majorities of young Americans regularly read comic books.