Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

 

Last year I read Charlotte McConaghy's debut novel Migrations which I absolutely loved. Her new novel Once There Were Wolves deals with similar themes of ecological destruction and a young woman determined to restore the balance of nature. I also found it darker, more suspenseful, delving into the basic questions of human nature. 

The opening sentence is horrific, an introduction into Inti's experience of mirror-touch synesthesia, and throughout the novel this device takes readers into the physical experience of violence, and also love. 

Inti and her twin Aggie grew up with separated parents, their mother a cop in Australia while their father lived a sustainable life in Canada. Their dad taught them how to live in harmony with nature. Their mother taught them that every person is a potential threat. 

Inti has a condition in which she can feel in her body what she 

observes happening to others. When Aggie marries a man who abuses her, and Inti does what she must to protect her sister. Aggie never recovers.

The Scottish ecosystem in crisis, with deer destroying the vegetation, Itni is part of a team reintroducing the deer's natural predator--wolves. It had worked in Yellowstone National Park. If you want to save the planet, you have to start with the predators, Inti explains.

They want to fear the wolves because we don't want to fear each other.~from Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

The Scots hunted out the wolves hundreds of years ago to protect their grazing sheep and out of fear. But Inti knows that humans are the real killers. Even in remote Scotland, Aggie lives in terror. 

Inti and the local cop Duncan begin an affair; both are damaged souls with dark secrets. "Death gets under your skin," Duncan says; "you carry it with you." Like Inti, he has seen the violence men can inflict on women. 

Inti makes enemies as she clashes with the locals over the wolves. When one goes missing, the wolves are suspect. And over time, Inti and the cop Duncan are also implicated. 

The wolves must kill to survive. And sometimes, humans must do the same. 

McConaghy's vivid descriptions bring to life the beauty of nature and the wolves, and the destruction humans inflict on nature and each other.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Once There Were Wolves

by Charlotte McConaghy

Flatiron Books

Pub Date: August 3, 2021

ISBN: 9781250244147

hardcover $27.99 (USD)

from the publisher

From the author of the beloved national bestseller Migrations, a #1 IndieNext pick, a gorgeous and pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands.

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team of biologists tasked with reintroducing fourteen gray wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but Aggie, too, unmade by the terrible secrets that drove the sisters out of Alaska.

Inti is not the woman she once was, either, changed by the harm she’s witnessed—inflicted by humans on both the wild and each other. Yet as the wolves surprise everyone by thriving, Inti begins to let her guard down, even opening herself up to the possibility of love. But when a farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, Inti makes a reckless decision to protect them. But if the wolves didn’t make the kill, then who did? And what will Inti do when the man she is falling for seems to be the prime suspect?

Propulsive and spell-binding, Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable story of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves—if she isn’t consumed by a wild that was once her refuge. 

Lady Bird Johnson Hiding in Plain Sight by Julia Sweig

In 2013, The Rachel Carson Award was posthumously awarded to Lady Bird Johnson for her "outstanding contributions to the conservation and environmental movement." If this surprises you, like it does me, it is because Bird's environmental agenda had been tweaked to the more acceptable "beautification" project. 

In Lady Bird Johnson Hiding in Plain Sight, Julia Sweig explains how people like me remember the roadside wildflower plantings and attack on roadside bill boards and not the deeper issues Bird was promoting--issues of environmental justice and racial equality. 

Every biography offers some new slant, some new insight. And Julia Sweig did not disappoint me with a new understanding of Lady Bird, her relationship with LBJ, and their experience during a tumultuous time.

Sweig does not mince words. She calls white supremacy by it's name. We see history, the landmark legislation, the white backlash, the Civil Rights movement, the riots, and the domestic terrorism from a 21st c. perspective.

Sweig presents Bird as a strong, determined, committed, intelligent woman who was necessary to her husband's well being and career. Bird's work of transforming urban environments for physical and mental health, from eliminating pollution to the beautification of  schoolyards, leaves us impressed by Bird's deep knowledge, dedication, and passion. 

Bird was a workaholic like her husband. She campaigned across the country, edited LBJ's speeches and acted as a sounding board. As First Lady she brought together talent and money to develop her dream of healthy neighborhoods, and she mothered two daughters on the verge of adulthood.  

It was interesting to learn about the private contract between Bird and LBJ concerning his running for another term of office, and how their daughters reacted to his decision.

It is thrilling to read a book that does not diminish Lady Bird to an abused, underappreciated, complicit wife. Sweig shows us a true partnership of equals--or perhaps I should better say, the balanced and insightful woman necessary to her man's success.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Lady Bird Johnson on Remember the Ladies
by Nancy A. Bekofske

Lady Bird Johnson: Hiding in Plain Sight

by Julia Sweig
Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date March 16, 2021  
ISBN: 9780812995909
hardcover $32.00 (USD)

from the publisher

A magisterial portrait of Lady Bird Johnson, and a major reevaluation of the profound yet underappreciated impact the First Lady's political instincts had on LBJ’s presidency.

“An inviting, challenging, well-told tale of the thoroughly modern partner and strategist Lady Bird Johnson, whose skill and complexity emerge fully in this rich tale of history and humanity.”—John Dickerson, author of The Hardest Job in the World

 “This riveting portrait gives us an important revision of a long-neglected First Lady.”—Blanche Wiesen Cook, author of Eleanor Roosevelt, vol 1-3

In the spring of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson had a decision to make. Just months after moving into the White House under the worst of circumstances—following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy—he had to decide whether to run to win the presidency in his own right. He turned to his most reliable, trusted political strategist: his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. The strategy memo she produced for him, emblematic of her own political acumen and largely overlooked by biographers, is just one revealing example of how their marriage was truly a decades-long political partnership.

Perhaps the most underestimated First Lady of the twentieth century, Lady Bird Johnson was also one of the most accomplished and often her husband's secret weapon. Managing the White House in years of national upheaval, through the civil rights movement and the escalation of the Vietnam War, Lady Bird projected a sense of calm and, following the glamorous and modern Jackie Kennedy, an old-fashioned image of a First Lady. In truth, she was anything but. As the first First Lady to run the East Wing like a professional office, she took on her own policy initiatives, including the most ambitious national environmental effort since Teddy Roosevelt. Occupying the White House during the beginning of the women's liberation movement, she hosted professional women from all walks of life in the White House, including urban planning and environmental pioneers like Jane Jacobs and Barbara Ward, encouraging women everywhere to pursue their own careers, even if her own style of leadership and official role was to lead by supporting others.

Where no presidential biographer has understood the full impact of Lady Bird Johnson’s work in the White House, Julia Sweig is the first to draw substantially on Lady Bird’s own voice in her White House diaries to place Claudia Alta "Lady Bird” Johnson center stage and to reveal a woman ahead of her time—and an accomplished politician in her own right.

Ford Times: Special Issue on Environment, July 1970

The July 1970 issue of the Ford Times cover art is by Charlie Harper for the article "The Bald Eagle: America's Vanishing Symbol."

"He's in trouble because a good idea backfired," wrote author Boyce Rensberger.

I remember summer of 1963 listening to the radio and hearing a man discuss the eagle as endangered. This article discusses food chains, which Harper illustrated below, and how DDT in the food chain affected wildlife.

"In the Great Lakes states, where DDT level are high, only four percent of the nesting pairs are still able to reproduce," the author warns.

Luckily, DDT was banned and today in Michigan eagles are frequently seen. Just this week my brother, camping in the Upper Peninsula, caught this eagle in the middle of the road!

A

n article noted that in 1913 Henry Ford supported the migratory bird act, along with Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and Thomas Edison. 

Ford's River Rouge complex was featured in an article on Ford's "battle against air pollution." By the 1960s, smog was affecting Dearborn neighborhoods. Ford spent $66 million to clean the air, but technology was limited. "300 engineers work full-time on the challenge," Frank Grady wrote. Ford only spent $50 million to develop the Mustang. 

"Everybody Loves Smokey the Bear" informs that Smokey getting 5,000 letters a week from fans.

Some of the letters are included. One reads,  "I would like to baby sit for Smokey. I am nine years old and I am not afraid of bears. your friend, Rhonda G."

Some of us Boomers remember the early 1970s and The Population Bomb scare that humanity was reproducing to levels that would cause mass destruction. "We're Running Out of Elbow Room!" is filled with warnings. First, the author claims that crime increases with population density because of psychological stress. The article concludes without answers, but says that one planner suggests better city planning.

"The Silent '70 Ford" had a muffler "improved with the addition of an asbestos wrapper."

 I noted the use of a black model in the article.

"Ford's Campaign to Control Auto Emissions" begins, "it would take three 1970 Ford cars to emit as much hydro-carbons and carbon monoxide" as was released by one 1960 model. Non-lead gas was "on the way" and research into alternatives to the internal combustion engine was noted to have been going on since 1952.

"National Parks are for People" included photographs by Bill Schmidt.

Cars + Parks = Camping.

"Camping....Why Do It?" is a humorous look at camping. Jean Riss writes,

"Sanitary facilities" Criminy! The simple problem of constructing a latrine in the wilderness tells more in half an hour about a man--his patience and ingenuity, his grasp of engineering principles, psychology, esthetics and the prevailing winds--that you could hope to learn on a world cruise."

 The issue ends with a Torino ad.

Ford Motor Company began publishing The Ford Times in 1908. The last issue came out in 1993. I was given a collection of copies from the 1960s and 1970s.

The Story of More by Hope Jahren

Having hope requires courage.~from The Story of More by Hope Jahren

Succinct, well organized, and with a powerful narrative that is engrossing and accessible, The Story of More crunches down what I have read in numerous books into 224 pages.

Author Hope Jahren, author of the best-selling memoir Lab Girl, based the book on her climate change classes.

"All of this has convinced me that it's time to bring global change out of my classroom and into this book," Jahren writes in the introduction. "So if you'll listen, I'll tell you what happened to my world, to your world--to our world. It changed."

She starts at the very beginning--the fact that humans are on this earth and that our population is continually growing. Following a logical narrative, Jahren covers how we get our food and our growing energy use and the changes we have wrought on earth.

Along the way she points out that we have enough of everything but it is not shared equitably. Millions live without enough food, clean water and other things some of us take for granted. And millions of us spend money on things we don't need, wasting the clean water and energy available.

Scientists have been aware for nearly my entire lifetime that our dependence on fossil fuels was a problem. We have seen the environmental damage caused by human activity, including factory farms and our dependence on gasoline fueled cars and air travel. We know that the sea level is rising  and glaciers and the polar ice caps are melting.

Jahren concludes with actions we can all take.

First, we must determine our personal values. Learn what you can about what you value. Are your personal activities in line with those values? What about your personal investments--are they in line with your values? How we spend our money and how we invest our money should reflect what we believe. Share your values with institutions to pressure change.

Americans can make a huge impact. Every step we take to limit our energy use and reduce our consumption makes an impact. We can't give up. We can do with less.

Do not be seduced by lazy nihilism.~ from The Story of More  by Hope Jahren

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Read an excerpt or hear an audio excerpt at
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/575671/the-story-of-more-by-hope-jahren/

from the publisher

Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of global change and a lively, personal narrative given to us in Jahren’s inimitable voice, The Story of More is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.

The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here
by Hope Jahren
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Pub Date March 3, 2020
ISBN: 9780525563389
$15.00 (USD) hardcover

Our Homesick Songs by Emma Hooper

I adored Emma Hooper's first novel Etta and Otto and Russell and James, which I read in 24 hours, and which had me in tears. I finished my review with the words "Read it."

So I was super excited to read Hooper's new novel Our Homesick Songs. I had high expectations and was not disappointed. I was enchanted by the writing.

The story is set in a small Newfoundland fishing village suffering from the impact of over-fishing by commercial ships that are "big as bergs; monster-big" and able to hold "a whole sea" of fish. Their livelihood over, the villagers leave, going West for jobs on mainland Canada.

The Connor family is hanging on. The parents Aiden and Martha share alternating monthly shifts working inland where they are surrounded by concrete, steel, and trucks, the light and noise never-ending. Martha asks a co-worker what it was like "here, before" and he tells her, "There were only trees."

Daughter Cora longs to leave the island for a 'normal' life packed with other children. She turns the empty houses into travel destinations.

Son Finn loves his home and feels at one with the land. He carries his accordion with him, even on the boat, playing traditional Newfoundland jigs and reels and airs to the open seas and clouded skies around him. He endeavors to bring back the fish, wondering if any are left in the oceans anywhere, and hoping the community will return.

The Connor parents work inland with other displaced workers. They are lonely and isolated, forever separated, seeing each other only in passing as they change places at the ferry every month. During their month home, the parents sing less. They return tired and depressed. The stress and distance wear on their marriage.

Like Hooper's first novel, there is a touch of magical realism and the characters go on journeys both physical and internal. The parent's charming backstory is sweet and magical, their courting taking place on boats at sea in the night, and includes a treacherous sea journey.

The history behind the novel caught my interest: the loss of the cod which was the basis of an entire way of life. A quick Internet search and I learned how overfishing decimated the cod, forcing the Canadian government to enact the 1992 moratorium on cod fishing that left 35,000 Newfoundlanders out of work.  The impact on community and family life is portrayed in Our Homesick Songs.

Newfoundland is central to the novel, its rocky shores and waters and snow and ice and bergs vividly described. And so is the Celtic music of Newfoundland, brought by the Irish. Social gatherings conclude with music.

Finn travels across the water to his music lessons. His elderly teacher Mrs. Callaghan captures his imagination with strange stories about snakes becoming fish and shipwrecks harboring the fish. She tells him that the songs were how the sailors and explorers remembered their homes. They are all homesick songs, even the happy ones, she says. When Finn cannot sleep at night, he calls his teacher and she tells him stories.

One song that reoccurs is The Water is Wide, an ancient song from Great Britain, which Aidan sings early in the novel. Others include the love song She's Like the Swallow and fiddle tunes Finn plays such as The Newfoundland Black Bear and The Cotton Grass Air, The Fish of the Sea.

"No, the dead can't sing, Aidan, that's why the living have to."

Aiden has a coffee cup that reads "Squidjiggingground" which is also the name of a song by Arthur Scammell about squid fishermen. The lyrics give a sense of the life that has been lost, the camaraderie and community.

Oh this is the place where the fishermen gather
Oil-skins and boots and the Cape hands batten down;
All sizes of figures with squid lines and jiggers,
They congregate here on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.

Some are workin' their jiggers, while others are yarnin',
There's some standin' up and there's more lyin' down;
While all kinds of fun, jokes, and drinks are begun,
As they wait for the squid on the Squid-Jiggin' Ground.

The story feels like a tale told by Finn's accordion teacher, a fairy tale with magic feathers and mermaids singing. And like most folk tales, the underlying reality is terrifyingly real.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Our Homesick Songs
by Emma Hooper
Simon & Schuster
Pub Date 14 Aug 2018
ISBN 9781501124488
PRICE $26.00

from the publisher: 

From Emma Hooper, critically acclaimed author of Etta and Otto and Russell and James, a People magazine “Pick of the Week,” comes a lyrical, charming, and mystical story of a family on the edge of extinction, and the different way each of them fights to keep hope, memory, and love alive. 

The Connor family is one of the few that is still left in their idyllic fishing village, Big Running; after the fish mysteriously disappeared, most families had no choice but to relocate and find work elsewhere. Aidan and Martha Connor now spend alternate months of the year working at an energy site up north to support their children, Cora and Finn. But soon the family fears they’ll have to leave Big Running for good. And as the months go on, plagued by romantic temptations new and old, the emotional distance between the once blissful Aidan and Martha only widens. 

Between his accordion lessons and reading up on Big Running’s local flora and fauna, eleven-year-old Finn Connor develops an obsession with solving the mystery of the missing fish. Aided by his reclusive music instructor Mrs. Callaghan, Finn thinks he may have discovered a way to find the fish, and in turn, save the only home he’s ever known. While Finn schemes, his sister Cora spends her days decorating the abandoned houses in Big Running with global flair—the baker’s home becomes Italy; the mailman’s, Britain. But it’s clear she’s desperate for a bigger life beyond the shores of her small town. As the streets of Big Running continue to empty Cora takes matters—and her family’s shared destinies—into her own hands. 

In Our Homesick Songs, Emma Hooper paints a gorgeous portrait of the Connor family, brilliantly weaving together four different stories and two generations of Connors, full of wonder and hope. Told in Hooper’s signature ethereal style, each page of this incandescent novel glows with mythical, musical wonder.

See the author discuss her first book at
 https://youtu.be/5Z3hH4n0tmQ