Two New Non-Fics and a Reprint of an Old
Besides being non-fiction, released in the same month, written by experts in their respective fields and being completely worth your time if you’re slightly interested in either topic, these two new books have really nothing in common. The first, The Urban Bestiary by Lyanda Lynn Haupt, is a biological and fantastical look at tracking, caring for and living with the most common mammals and birds found on city streets; the second, Average Is Over by Tyler Crowen is about money, work and the future of business economics. I’m an expert in neither, yet both were accessible and entertaining, as I’m sure they will be to you as well. Then, there’s Joyce Maynard’s “At Home in the World,” 15 years old, yet relevant still.
THE URBAN BESTIARY: Encountering the Everyday Wild by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
I know, I know the old adage, but really, I was into this book because of it’s cover, and the insides did not disappoint. I’ve always considered myself to be an animal-lover – I could never hook a fish despite growing up in a MN family that loves the sport; I thoroughly enjoyed freaking out other girls at the lake by picking up/kissing frogs I found; etc – but my love, as I’m willing to bet yours, is nothing compared to Haupt’s. This girl is reaching Zooey-Deschanel-levels of adorkability when it comes to caring for critters. Seriously – in a chapter about pigeons, she shares a story about a homemade concoction she made to feed abandoned pigeon chicks that she raised in her home.
Her bestiary contains chapters on coyotes, moles, bears, owls, pigeons, sparrows, crows, trees, chickens and more, with most chapters holding the same sorts of info: how common these animals are where; the trouble they can cause; the good they do; how relatively cute/ugly the animal is and why; common misunderstandings about the animals along with ancient folklore (these are gorgeous stories, like one about the hummingbird being created from a ball of leftover decorations, or the coyotes feeling sorry for furless humans and striving to keep them warm); anatomical specifications and tracking signs.
Some of the info is horrifying, for instance, the fact that there’s apparently a substantial coyote population thriving in Chicago (like great, now when I walk home at night I have to watch out for guns, rapists AND coyotes). Some is comforting: coyotes have only killed one adult in recorded history; that rumor that there’s one rat for every human living in a city is an over-exaggeration. Maybe the most interesting is urban myths most of us believe about animals most of us wrongly believe, i.e. birds cannot “smell a human” on chicks we touch and abandon them, that bats are a type of bird or that owls can turn their heads 360 degrees.
Sure, some of the information is a little more than most of the population needs, for instance, that recipe for baby-pigeon food (which, she never really explained Why) or drawn specifics on the difference of footprints between sparrows and swallows or foxes and coyotes. At times, it seems like this book would make way more sense if I lived in Portland- especially the chapter on pigeons, in which she says “urban chickens are so hip they’re almost passé.” Yeah, baby chicks are cute, but whose landlord is gonna go for that? (Note: it’s not even a big-city thing; when I was writing for a small-town Iowa newspaper, even the city councils in small-town Iowa had strict limitations on who could keep chickens on their property).
Still, this book is adorable, practical, magical and totally worth a read. Even if you’re not crazy about rats or, in my case especially, pigeons, this book shows ways to deal with the animals best, keep them safe and out of your space and live in peace. On the other side, if you’re looking to spot a coyote or a hawk, there are great tips for that as well. Heck, if you are even ambivalent about animals, this book’s a great read and will make you appreciate the critters in your city even more.
AVERAGE IS OVER by Tyler Crowen
It’s not as doom-and-gloom as the title would lead you to believe. In fact, many parts of economist Tyler Crowen’s latest book made me feel a lot better about myself, even feel better about my generation’s future. I mean, EVERYONE is telling us Social Security is gonna run out, Medicare is basically going to kill anyone currently less than 40 and I’ll be the rare exception if I ever have a job I love. Crowen doesn’t say the opposite, exactly, but he does explain why it’s all going to be okay.
The quick and dirty take-away to future success, according to Crowen: Learn computers. Make them your buddies. Think of them less as tools, more as teammates. It makes sense, really. Even in today’s college, basically everyone is now taking some kind of computer-training class (if not a direct Computer Science course, they’re doing something like “Technology in the Classroom” for Education Majors, “Digital Marketing” for PR kids and requiring Art majors take a stab at graphic design and Photoshop), because, as we’ve heard over and over, the only advantage we have over the already-established working class is our knowledge and embrace of the technical. Instead of marketing ourselves by what we can bring to the team, Crowen believes we’re going to have to market ourselves by how well we get along and are willing to work with computers.
Actually, the book’s more about computers than anything average or high or low. It’s about how the people with the best command of computers and technology are going to be the upper class, the people with a good-enough grasp and acceptance will get by and a large group of people will be stuck doing the mundane jobs computers won’t be able to perform in a cost-effective manner. That “average” American life – Family of Mom, Dad, 2.5 kids and Fido living in their own home, white picket-fence – may be harder to reach in the future, especially for kids majoring in Liberal Arts and other things not so intertwined with machines.
Redemption comes when you add in the advantages of the next digital age, however. Education costs are going to go down with the rise of online classes; folks are going to be spending less on housing, choosing instead to live in more modest settings; it’ll be more like the “85%” doing less fighting against the super-wealthy, because fun is going to be cheaper, and with less job stress, we’re going to have more time for it. Some of Crowen’s theories seem a bit far-fetched, more hypothesis than actual data-driven predictions, but for the most part, the world he’s envisioning seems fast-paced, fun and exciting for anyone willing to risk that white fence and embrace the future.
AT HOME IN THE WORLD by Joyce Maynard
Fifteen years after its first printed edition, Joyce Maynard’s memoir is as haunting as ever. Seriously – it’s almost unbelievable how creepy this story is. At times, I swore it couldn’t be real; people can’t really get away with this kind of thing and girls can’t become functioning people capable of writing after all she’s been through.
For those of you who haven’t had the chance to read “At Home In The World” yet (which I suggest you change immediately), here’s the gist: Joyce Maynard has been through hell and back. From an early age, she learned how to handle and care for an alcoholic father and take the pressures of a severely controlling mother who noticed every pound gained and minute wasted. It wasn’t all bad—her folks fostered creativity, imagination and supported her drive to success. Still, there were those 6 dark hours of her father’s worst alcoholic states (which her mother calculate to be only about 3% of her week, using this figure as a retort to a negative passage Joyce wrote in her diary).
Joyce grows up successfully, gets accepted at Harvard, Princeton and her ultimate choice, Yale. As a freshman, she lands the cover story of The New York Times Magazine with an autobiographical article called “An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back On Life,” and it’s all awesome, especially when she begins receiving encouraging letters from J.D. Salinger, in the height of popularity following Catcher In The Rye. Joyce and J.D., or Jerry, as she earns the delight of calling him, begin to write daily, then call daily, enjoy extended visits, fall in love, and then, early in her sophomore year, Joyce leaves Yale to move in with Salinger.
It sounds wonderful. Seriously, 18-year-old me would have been all like THIS IS THE BEST THING THAT HAS EVER AND WILL EVER HAPPEN TO ME. So here’s the part that sucks: Salinger is a monster. I mean, more than the fact that he’s 53 while she’s 18 (Joyce is only 2 years older than his own daughter), he’s controlling, demanding and keeps Joyce so separated from the rest of the world, she’s not even supposed to give publishers her phone number. He tells her what to think, what to like (Lawrence Welk music over Joan Baez), what to hate (ice cream, Coke, pizza) and who to be. He makes himself the center of her life, then, after a year together, sends her away. No explanation necessary. Oh, and then later in the story, Joyce finds out she wasn’t alone in this: Salinger wrote and seduced other girls, often when they were 18.
It’s terrifying, especially for a girl not that much older than Joyce herself was when it all went down. We’re not old enough to have been more than one or maybe two serious relationships, we’re not old enough to know the warning signs of a relationship going wrong or even fully be aware of the way a man is supposed to treat us. It’s horrifying to think Salinger, the man who wrote about Holden Caulfield trying to scrub out graffiti so kids don’t read it, wanting to catch running children and keep them safe could go on to exploit girls like this.
In Picador’s latest release, the story’s the same (as it should be: Joyce wrote it perfect the first time), only difference is a new preface offering new insight into how the girl’s doing. Also included in the back is that essay that started it all, “An Eighteen-Year-Old…”, which I’d suggest reading before you get into the story – it sets a great context for the times.
Here’s the thing: I’m so glad this book is back out, back in the spotlight. There’s a whole generation of girls just like me that haven’t heard her story – it’s been buried under our college-years of discovering “Nine Stories” and “Franny and Zoey” while this memoir holds much greater lessons about life, love and endurance.
