BOOKS: Whose Coat?

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

Whose Coat?
by John Luksetich, illustrated by Patti Kern
Imagine Nation Press (P.O. Box 172, Lakewood, CA 90714;
<www.imagenationpress.com>), 2001. 26 pages, hardcover. $14.95.

Marketing is not Whose Coat? author/publisher John
Luksetich’s forte. First he was unable to find a commercial
publisher for Whose Coat? in 17 years of trying, even though it is
eminently marketable. Then, when he published Whose Coat? himself
in an attractive format that ought to sell, he forgot to put the
price on either the book, the promotional flyers he sent to ANIMAL
PEOPLE, or the first few pages of his web site–and he advertised it
as “animal rights” literature, the kiss of death in pursuing the
library and school markets that account for the two biggest shares of
children’s book sales. To most librarians and school personnel,
“animal rights” signifies “controversy” and “trouble”–and any
mention of ideology in reference to a children’s book usually also
connotes heavyhanded propaganda.

Read more

BOOKS: America’s National Wildlife Refuges

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2003:

America’s National Wildlife Refuges:
a complete guide
by Russell D. Butcher
Roberts Rinehart Publishers in cooperation with Ducks Unlimited
(c/o Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 4501 Forbes Blvd.,
Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706), 2003.
714 pages. $29.95.

Published in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding
of the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge system, America’s National
Wildlife Refuges: a complete guide exists, like the refuges
themselves, in part because of funding from Ducks Unlimited.
Hunter/conservationists help to finance the acquisition of
wildlife refuges through taxes on hunting and fishing gear, as well
as through grants by organizations such as Ducks Unlimited and The
Nature Conserv-ancy–and view this as entitling them to have extra
say in how the refuges are managed.

Read more

BOOKS: The Raven Who Spoke With God

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:

The Raven Who Spoke With God by Christopher Foster
Singing Spirit Books (4127 Ash Ct., Loveland, CO 80538), 2001.
148 pages, paperback. $12.95.

Joshua, The Raven Who Spoke With God, is more-or-less kin
to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the title-bird of the 1973 best
seller by Richard Bach, reissued to renewed success in 1995. Those
who like spiritual bird stories seem to be as enthralled with Joshua
as they were with Jonathan, judging from the many rave reviews
published elsewhere.

Read more

BOOKS: Sonya Fitzpatrick, The Pet Psychic

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:

Sonya Fitzpatrick, The Pet Psychic:
What the animals tell me by Sonya Fitzpatrick
Berkley Pub Group (c/o Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson St.,
New York, NY 10014), 2003. 272 pages, hardcover. $21.95.

The Pet Psychic is just too dumb to finish.
In childhood, Sonya Fitzpatrick claims, she had a hearing
impairment that made her relate better to animals and made her more
aware of her psychic/telepathic powers. Then one holiday her father
cooked her pet geese. Fitzpatrick became so traumatized that she
turned off her communication with animals, and didn’t start again
until she was an adult.

Read more

BOOKS: More Than a Meal

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  April 2003:

More Than A Meal:
The Turkey in History,
Myth,  Ritual,  and Reality
by Karen Davis,  Ph.D.
Lantern Books (One Union Square West,
Suite 201,  New York,  NY  10003),  2001.
192 pages,  paperback.  $20.00

This review appears on the same page as the conclusion of the
first installment of my “Chronology of Humane Progress,”  an attempt
to put into context the major ideas and events that over the past
3,300 years have often falteringly coalesced into the global animal
protection cause of today.
The second installment ends with the major events of 1998,  to give
current and recent developments at least five years to settle before
trying to decide what really made a difference and what was just part
of the flow.

Read more

BOOKS: The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2003:

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats:
A Journey Into The Feline Heart
by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
Ballantine books (c/o Random House, 1540 Broadway,
New York, NY 10036), 2002. 240 pages. $24.95 hardcover.

Cats, enigmatic creatures, what are they all about? What
are their emotions? How do they experience the world?
Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of Dogs Never Lie About
Love (1997), who now lives in New Zealand with five cats, purports
to reveal many feline secrets in The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats.
Other observers might disagree with many of his beliefs.
According to Masson, the nine basic emotional states of cats
include narcissism, love, contentment, attachment, jealousy,
fear, anger, curiosity, and playfulness, often in mixed
combination.

Read more

BOOKS: Heaven and Earth and I

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

Heaven and Earth and I:  Ethics of Nature Conservation in Asia
Edited by Vivek Menon & Masayuki Sakamoto
Penguin Enterprise (c/o Penguin Putnam Inc.,  375 Hudson St.,  New
York,  NY  10014),  2002.
Published in association with the Wildlife Trust of India,
International Fund for Animal Welfare,  and Asian Conservation
Alliance.
223 pages,  paperback.  No U.S. price listed.

Eighteen essayists contribute to Heaven and Earth and I,
including the Dalai Lama,  Queen Noor of Jordan,  the Prince
Sadruddin Aga Khan,  Maneka Gandhi,  and King Gyanendra Bir Bikram
Dev of Nepal–but the famous names discuss the ethics of nature
conservation only in broad and general terms,  for the most part,
with only People for Animals founder Mrs. Gandhi having much to say
about animals.

Read more

BOOKS: For the Love of Wildlife

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  March 2003:

For The Love Of Wildlife
by Chris Mercer & Beverly Pervan
Kalahari Raptor Centre (P.O. Box 1386,  Kathu,  8446 Northern Cape,
South Africa),  2000.  252 pages,  hardcover.
For current ordering info,  e-mail to <enquiries@bookpro.co.za>.

Chris Mercer and Beverly Pervan educated themselves about
wildlife sanctuary management,  before making the Kalahari Raptor
Centre their fulltime “retirement” pursuit,  by closely observing the
operations of the Harnas Lion Farm in Namibia.
Not everything was done there as it should have been done.

Read more

BOOKS: Tigers and Tigerwallahs

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

Tigers and Tigerwallahs
Including
Tiger-Wallahs: Saving the Greatest of the Great Cats
by Geoffrey C. Ward with Diane Raines Ward

Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett

The Secret Life of Tigers by Valmik Thapar,

and Tiger Haven by Billy Arjan Singh

Oxford University Press (YMCA Library Bldg., Jai Singh Rd., New Delhi
110 001, India), 2002. Circa 750 pages, hardcover. No U.S. price listed.

Relatively few people in India will ever see Tigers and
Tigerwallahs, a manificent four-volumes-in-one collection of tiger
conservation classics–but many might avidly absorb it if they could
afford it.
Tigers and Tigerwallahs is available in other nations only by
special order.
People who care profoundly what becomes of tigers must go to
that trouble, because as grim as some of the accounts in Tigers and
Tigerwallahs are, and as bleak the prophecies, the experiences of
the authors over the past 100 years amount to a comprehensive manual
of what to do and not do in trying to save large, charismatic
megafauna of almost any kind.

Read more

1 53 54 55 56 57 95