Clever dog by Sarah Whitehead
illus. by Jo van Kampen. I’ll admit that I’ve watched a fair amount of Cesar Milan and his dog whispering, but while the television show entertains me, and he certainly seems...
27 April 2014
What makes this book so great by Jo Walton
My first non-fiction book of 2014! And it is a book all about books. The best sort of book ;) I would consider myself a sci-fi & fantasy fan, yet for...
10 April 2014
Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean
The life and legend of the world’s most famous dog While serving during World War I serviceman Lee Duncan came across a little of new born German Shepherd puppies. He took...
21 April 2012
The good, the bad and the multiplex by Mark Kermode
As a film critic Mark Kermode watches films. A lot of films. A whole lot of films, and he often doesn’t like what he sees. He describes how he started reviewing...
22 January 2012
Obedience to authority by Stanley Milgram
In the 1960s Stanley Milgram and his associates carried out a number of experiments on obedience. They were set-up a situation where people thought they were helping in a memory/learning experiment,...
19 January 2012
Grave’s end by Elaine Mercado
In 1982 Elaine Mercado and her family moved from an apartment into what they hoped would be their dream home. This house, in the Gravesend section of south Brooklyn, needed some...
10 December 2011
The Islandman by Tomás Ó Criomhthain (1856–1937)
Translated from the Irish (An tOileánach) by Robin Flower Tomás Ó Criomhthain, or, if you’d prefer an anglicised version, Thomas O’Crohan, was born on the Great Blasket Island in 1856. He...
1 December 2011
In defence of dogs by John Bradshaw
I watch The Dog Whisperer, and while I enjoy it I’m often put off by Milan’s insistence that the dog wants to be the dominate one of the partnership. And the...
28 September 2011
The dogs of war by Lisa Rogak
Received free from NetGalley. I’m a sucker for an animal story, especially a dog story, so although I thought this would be a fairly fluffy book about US military dogs I...
11 September 2011
The lost art of reading by David L. Ulin
It is strange, I’ve often come across media stories on the “decline” of reading as a result of modern technology. Social networks, texting, these sort of things are bringing about the...
16 August 2011
The moral animal by Robert Wright
What does the theory of evolution have to do with morals? Can it explain why we feel guilt or love? Or why men cheat?
Evolutionary psychology is an attempt to use evolution to explain why people are the way they are. The theory posits that the many many cultures have many items in common, these commanalities cannot be explained by conicidence alone, there must be some reason that humankind has developed these cultural norms. Wright, and other evolutionary psychologists would argue that as human beings evolved certain psychological traits were more conducive to an increase in descendents and therefore became the norm.
9 August 2011
The chimps of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
A true story of resilience and recovery
In Fauna Sanctuary Gloria Grow rescues animals. There are dogs, horses, swans, a donkey, and of course the chimpanzees. Most were retired from research facilities where they were the subjects of medical research into Hepatitis, HIV, and the like. There are a few who were circus chimps. Some of them started life as pets, cute little chimps to dress up and play with, until they grew too big and strong and dangerous. Anyone who heard of Travis and his attack on Charla Nash knows that a chimp is not to be taken lightly. And yet people continue to try and keep them as domestic pets.
In this book Westoll spent a year working in the Fauna Sanctuary. He gets to know not only the people who work there but also the chimpanzees themselves, and their horrific lives spent as test subjects, being knocked out, biopsied, infected, and isolated.
30 July 2011
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