Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl by Jonathan C. Slaght

From the publisher: 

I saw my first Blakiston’s fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston’s fish owl so far south in a hundred years . . .  

When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist. 

Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of over two feet, the Blakiston’s fish owl is highly elusive. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species’ survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. They use cutting-edge tracking technology and improvise ingenious traps. And all along, they must keep watch against a run-in with a bear or an Amur tiger. At the heart of Slaght’s story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat.

Through this rare glimpse into the everyday life of a field scientist and conservationist, Owls of the Eastern Ice testifies to the determination and creativity essential to scientific advancement and serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of the natural world.

 For those who didn't get a chance to meet me back in the Children's Room in the whole three months I was there before the world turned upside down, I was an animal keeper for almost twenty years before coming to Galesburg Public Library. I was watching a webinar on upcoming autumn books when the presenter started talking about a researcher from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who had worked with fish owls in Russia. Now, back in 2013 I attended a conservation conference (remember conferences?) and heard a WCS researcher talk about fish owls in Russia. If he had been talking about tigers, it might not have been the same guy, but once you get away from charismatic megafauna, the world gets pretty small. A quick Facebook search revealed that yep, Jonathan was the guy I had heard speak. NetGalley was kind enough to send me an ARC to review (thank you!), and I read through it within the week.

Owls of the Eastern Ice is a fantastic and fascinating first hand account into what goes into boots on the ground conservation. Jonathan, who is white, began working with Blakiston's fish owls as part of a multi-year study that took him into the wintry forests of Eastern Russia. Working with a number of Russian researchers and assistants, he set out to identify, trap, band, and attach monitors to the barely-studied fish owls, in addition to figuring out what type of habitat they needed. You can pass laws protecting a species from direct harm, but unless you protect the land and water that they need to feed and breed, you can still watch them slip through your fingers. Unfortunately, this basic information is lacking for many endangered species. Throughout the course of the years and the study, Jonathan and his party raced snowmobiles across melting rivers, discovered hours-old Amur tiger tracks next to their own, came up with brand new ways to trap a species rarely trapped before, dealt with temperatures that cause electronics to just give up, braved blizzards and less than hygienic food prep (seriously, A+ descriptions of field life here), and drank a lot of vodka with the locals.

One of the things that really jumped out at me was how well this book explains the basics of conservation field work. It describes how one goes about setting up a conservation biology based PhD study, including the courses you have to take during the off-season, the jobs you have to work to support yourself, the field work, and the dry statistics that come after you get home that lets you write that all important paper. Owls of the Eastern Ice focuses on how having the basic ecological information about a species, in the owls' case specific waterways and old-growth nesting trees, is so important. Targeting focused areas for preservation while freeing up other locations that can be safely used for commercial purposes is vital for getting local support for conservation.

This book is a wonderful look at a little-known species that looks like it came from the Jim Henson Company, a fantastic escape to a very different part of the world, and a well-written account of what goes in to saving a species. The book comes out on August 4 of this year, and Galesburg Public Library will have a copy. Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux @fsgbooks for the ARC.

Full Throttle by Joe Hill

From the publisher: "Replete with shocking chillers, including two previously unpublished stories written expressly for this volume (“Mums” and “Late Returns”) and another appearing in print for the first time (“Dark Carousel”), Full Throttle is a darkly imagined odyssey through the complexities of the human psyche. Hypnotic and disquieting, it mines our tormented secrets, hidden vulnerabilities, and basest fears, and demonstrates this exceptional talent at his very best."

Full Throttle is a collection of short stories by Joe Hill, including two co-written with his father Stephen King. Some of these stories have appeared previously in magazines or other anthologies, but others are printed here for the first time. As might be expected from the son of the master of horror, most of these stories are at least some variety of creepy, although not all are truly horror stories.

The collection is bookended by an introduction and afterword from the author, in which he talks about his influences, his experiences writing in his father's shadow, and also about their collaborations. These alone might make the book worth reading for any fans of King, and those fans will also find plenty to enjoy in the stories themselves.

The thirteen stories contained within vary in tone and quality. Most are horror, and many contain supernatural elements of one kind or another. Two stories, "Throttle" and "In the Tall Grass," were co-written with Stephen King, and both are unsurprisingly among the more disturbing tales in this collection. "In the Tall Grass" is also the inspiration for the Netflix movie of the same name.

Highlights for me included "All I Care About Is You," in which a teen girl rents a coin-operated android to be her friend for a couple hours and try to experience the perfect birthday she can't afford, and "The Devil on the Staircase," in which one man's jealousies and inherent biases lead him down a very dark path.

However, my absolute favorite story in this collection is "Late Returns." It's about a man who finds himself driving a library bookmobile and finds that some of his customers come from different points in time. The story explores fun little time paradox questions and is a love letter to people who want to squeeze in one more read in the little time they have.

The audio version of this title is narrated by a pretty varied cast, including Kate Mulgrew, Wil Wheaton, Neil Gaiman, and Zachary Quinto, among others. Hill reads the introduction and afterword himself. One story, "Twittering from the Circus of the Dead," is not included in the audio version because it's written as a series of tweets and it was felt that it did not translate properly to the audio format. Instead, the audio CD version contains a CD-ROM that has the story in PDF format.

Overall, Full Throttle is a fun collection of supernatural and spooky stories that should appeal to any fans of the author's or his father's works, and probably to horror fans in general. Full Throttle is available for checkout at Galesburg Public Library in print and audio CD, as an eBook through the library's ADML and eRead Illinois collections, and as an eAudiobook through eRead Illinois.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

From the publisher: When New Yorker Rachel Chu agrees to spend the summer in Singapore with her boyfriend, Nicholas Young, she envisions a humble family home and quality time with the man she hopes to marry. But Nick has failed to give his girlfriend a few key details. One, that his childhood home looks like a palace; two, that he grew up riding in more private planes than cars; and three, that he just happens to be the country’s most eligible bachelor. On Nick’s arm, Rachel may as well have a target on her back the second she steps off the plane, and soon, her relaxed vacation turns into an obstacle course of old money, new money, nosy relatives, and scheming social climbers.

Things I liked: 

• I knew almost nothing about the culture and history of Singapore before reading this, and it taught me a lot about something I otherwise wouldn’t have known about. Even though there is a lot of greed and backstabbing in the book, it also describes the natural beauty of Singapore, as well as the amazing food and architecture.

• It is written by someone of the culture portrayed. Kevin Kwan grew up in Singapore and based much of the book off of stories from his own life.

• The book is written from multiple perspectives, so you get to meet a wide array of different characters and learn their backstories and relationship to the main characters first-hand.

• It has fun footnotes. Some of the footnotes further explain the history of Singapore or the main characters, and some are just sassy, funny side comments from the author. (If you read the ebook version of Crazy Rich Asians, the footnotes are all at the end of each chapter rather than on every page. Make sure to check them out!)

• It was the perfect escapist novel for the current times. It was fun to read about the opulence and grandeur of Singapore, and forget about everything going on in the real world for a little while.

 Things I didn’t like as much:

• While I liked that it’s told from multiple perspectives, this does mean that there are A LOT of characters, and they can be hard to keep track of. Especially since many of them are distantly related, it can be hard to remember who is related to who and how and which rich grandparents are theirs.

• Having so many characters also means many are not as well-rounded as they could be, which means sometimes their actions or appearances seem random. Specifically Nick’s father, who only shows up once, says very little, and is never seen again, but is talked about often.

• A lot of name dropping of brand name designers that became over the top, especially since I hadn’t heard of most of them

• Up in the air ending. Admittedly, this is because the book is part of a series, but I still would have liked to see more loose ends tied up. 

Despite sometimes having a hard time remembering which character was which, this book was fun, glamorous, and funny. I definitely want to read the rest of the series, China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems. I also listened to part of the book on audiobook, and would suggest it if you are looking for a good audiobook. The narrator is amazing, and listening helped with pronunciation of some of the names. I would recommend Crazy Rich Asians for anyone looking for a light summer read, or who likes the Gossip Girl series by Cecily Von Ziegesar. 

The Galesburg Public Library owns this book in print format, as well as an ebook and audiobook. There is also a book club kit for Crazy Rich Asians.