Category: Reviews

BOOKS: Tracking the vanishing frogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Tracking the vanishing frogs
by Kathryn Phillips
Penguin Books USA Inc. (375 Hudson
St., New York, NY 10014), 1994. 244
pages, paperback. $11.95.

Stanford University, of Palo Alto,
California, in late September gave up hope
of completing on schedule a new graduate
student housing complex near Lake
Lagunita, a usually dry mudflat where football
rallies were held almost every fall from
1897 to 1992. The student spirit committee
moved the rallies when someone found
California tiger salamanders, supposedly
extirpated from the region, trekking to the
remnants of the lake across a busy highway.
Stanford has now rescheduled construction
to avoid building the parking lot during the
three-month salamander migration season.

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BOOKS: Purring In The Light: Near-death Experiences of Cats

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1995:

Purring In The Light: Near-death Experiences of Cats
by Stephanie Samek, illustrated by Larry Ross
Plume Books (375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014), 1995.
128 pages, paperback, $7.95.

I made room for this gem by
sweeping a number of quasi-religious New
Age best sellers, classics, and so forth off
my shelves, because I think I have found a
system here that could comfort and sustain
me along with my innocent and surely mystical
cat. The view of transition and realms-tocome
contained in the chapter called
Burmese Book of the Dead, together with the
Credo For Cats, sounds quite appealing.

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BOOKS: Think Like The Animal: Questions to Ask Before You Kill

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Think Like The Animal: Questions to
Ask Before You Kill, by Norm Phelps.
The Fund for Animals (200 West 57th St., New
York, NY 10019), 1995. 10 pages. Free in limited
quantities.

Back from combat in Vietnam, poet Doug
Rawlings has told high school students ever since,
“If they got you thinking about signing up just to kill
you some time, since nothing else is going down,
you better be getting ready to kill you some women
and children too, and you better be getting ready to
kill you some time doing time, doing some long
time locked up in their screams.” Think Like The
Animal effectively delivers the same message to
young men who might be thinking about proving
their manhood by taking up hunting, from the perspective
of a former hunter from a hunting family
who laid down his gun forever at age 15 circa 40
years ago. It might be best used by young women,
approaching young men they know one-on-one.

BOOKS: Congo

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Congo by Michael Crichton
Ballantine Books, N.Y., 1980, re-released with the film. 313 pages, paper, $6.99 U.S.; $7.99 Canadian.

It’s the late 1970s, and several rival groups of computer
businesses (portrayed as having the political ambitions, espionage
techniques, and arms of mini-nationhood) are feverishly competing
to be the first on site at the fabled Lost City of Zinj in the mysterious
depths of the African Congo River basin. Only at Zinj are
to be found the blue diamonds which will revolutionize computer
technology––and whoever finds the diamonds first finds the Bill
Gates-like riches of computerland.
However, the first expedition to Zinj was promptly
wiped out. Through hi-tech detective work and, finally, face-toface
combat, the diamond hunters discover that the gems of Zinj
are guarded by an anomalous race of grey gorilla.

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BOOKS: The Evil Side of a Racetrack

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

The Evil Side of a Racetrack
by Michael John Horak
Rainbow Books Inc. (POB 430, Highland City, FL 33846-0430), 1995. 515 pages, with photos. $30.00.

The Evil Side of a Racetrack is the autobiography of
Michael John Horak, a former harness racing owner, driver
and trainer, most heavily involved in the 1960s, when most
of his story takes place. But now, in 1995, the treatment of
racehorses hasn’t changed for the better. They are still
drugged and raced lame with alarming regularity.
Horak got into racing chiefly for the love of horses
and to be able to make a living with them. He tried to make a
difference by training his horses and those of clients in a cautious,
easy, drug-free manner. He did not believe in racing
an even slightly lame horse, no matter how well a drug
might mask the pain. He knew that drugs might work for a
while and perhaps a few more wins could be had, but in the
end the horse would break down in extreme pain.

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BOOKS: Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations
edited by Carol J. Adams and Josephine Donovan
Duke University Press (Box 90660, Durham NC 27708-0660), 1995.
366 pages, $16.95 paper, $49.95 cloth.

This collection of 13 essays, discussing
exploitation and abuse of animals
and women from a feminist perspective,
makes for a challenging read. The
premise––that women and animals suffer
similar oppression, for much the same reasons––is
both valid and interesting. But
what the editors describe as a “multidisciplinary
approach” tends to be more scattershot,
uneasily blending discussions of literature,
semantics, sociology, ethics, ecology, etc.
One essayist even digs up an ancient squib
by Virginia Woolf.

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BOOKS: Simply Vegetarian

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1995:

Simply Vegetarian:
Easy-to-prepare recipes for the vegetarian gourmet,
edited by Nancy Mair and Susan Rinzler.
Dawn Publications (14618 Tyler Foote Road, Nevada City, CA 95959), 1989.
249 pages; $9.95 paperback.

Originally issued in 1985 as the Ananda Cookbook, Simply Vegetarian has reputedly
sold more than 80,000 copies. I acquired the first edition just before the current edition
appeared in 1989, but didn’t have the brains to use it while courting Kim, when I tried to
impress her by making lentil soup. That may be why she fed the soup to the porch raccoons.
Simply Vegetarian is not a strictly vegan book, but vegans will find plenty in it that they can
eat, will want to try, and will be able to make in less time than the four hours I
spent––twice––trying to impress Kim further by making a vegan peasant pie from a recipe in
another popular vegetarian cookbook, without getting past the midway stage she inelegantly
described as mashed carrots and potatoes.

BOOKS: Breaking the Cycles of Violence

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Breaking the Cycles of Violence
Guidebook and video to crosstrain child and animal protection personnel.
Latham Foundation (Latham Plaza Bldg., Clement & Schiller, Alameda, CA 94501),
1995. Text: 63 pages. Video: 28 minutes. $29.75/kit; $10.95/extra texts.
Early on June 17, Santiago
Sanguillen, 32, of Los Angeles, a 260-
pound weightlifter, severely beat his wife,
in front of her 14-year-old daughter. Waving
a loaded gun, Sanguillen then battered the
daughter’s puppy to death. On July 25, after
a three-day jury trial, Sanguillen was sen-
tenced. Perhaps because the case was moni-
tored by local humane activists, Sanguillen
drew 270 days, of a maximum 365, for
killing the puppy––but for abusing and terror-
izing the women, got just 90 days.
“We have become accustomed to
small victories,” observer Bill Dyer said.
Many such cases aren’t even prosecuted.

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