Thursday, August 29, 2024
Mozart's Starling
This book interweaves three themes. The first is the story of a pet starling that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had for a bit over three years. The second is information about starlings and their place in the American birding and scientific communities. The third is an account of the author's pet staring that she obtained to help her understand Mozart's relationship with his pet. While I found the whole book interesting, I really didn't get into the Mozart sections. I'm musically unsophisticated, so I didn't connect with or appreciate Ms. Haupt's attempts to delve into Mozart's creative mind. The starling bits, on the other hand, I found fascinating. I always enjoyed science books when I was a kid.1 Reading the starling portions of the book was a flashback to that, as I got brief lessons in starling biology & development, the behavior of scientists & ecologists toward an invasive species, and the connection between bird song & language. Finally, I also found Ms. Haupt's account of raising a starling interesting. That, for me, was like reading about a foreign culture. I'm not a pet person. But the story of Carmen the starling and her relationship to the household had a kind of beauty that evoked the affection that the family feels for her. Overall, the book is well written.2 If you have any interest in pets, birds, or Mozart, I would invite you to check this book out.
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1 That enjoyment, alas, never pushed me enough to embrace the work of observation and record keeping that a career in science requires.
2 It made me take a second look at the book cover and put Ms. Haupt's Crow Planet on my to read list.
Labels: CheckItOut
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
To Live
[It's been a while since I read a book. I watch too much TV these days. It took a vacation to get me to finish a book, and even then, I only cracked it after watching a movie on the plane.]
To Live is the life story of Fugui, an old farmer who recounts his tale to a young scholar who is doing research in his village. Fugui is born and raised in a well to do family in China in the early part of the 20th Century. Things go bad and the family loses its modest fortune. Fugui learns to make a living as a tenant farmer. The story tells how he and his family fare as the events that changed China affect him and his community. I'm familiar familiar enough with traditional Chinese culture and modern Chinese history that everything made sense to me. I could also understand the contentment that Fugui displays at the beginning and end of the book. As an American reader, I wasn't satisfied with it, but don't let that stop you from checking it out.
Labels: CheckItOut
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