Winter is always a difficult time for birds in North America, but this season has been particularly brutal. Record low temperatures and above normal snowfall have contributed to their struggle.
Last week we had a few rare days of 100% sunshine. Unfortunately it was also extremely cold with high temperature of 1F/-17C. The birds, who had been taking refuge in shrubs and under eaves, ventured out and roosted in the sun.
Even the small amount of heat from the sun was helping them to stay warm. Fluffing up their feathers creates small air pockets in the down near their skin and traps warm air. Feathers are waterproof and provide an outer layer of insulation.
Northern Cardinal
A family of cardinals has adopted my yard this winter and I have had as many as seven visiting at one time. Both males and females are colorful in winter and are a delight to see.
Mourning Dove
The Mourning Doves were also roosting in the sunny tree but this one wandered over to the door looking for dropped seed staying fluffed up while it walked. I have seen them get so fluffy they look like they have lost their heads.
House Finch
The House Finches were enjoying some safflower seed in the sun.
Providing food and water allows the local residents to hunker down in place rather than expend energy searching for a meal that is now frozen or buried in the snow. Most of the birds in my yard this winter are not migratory, the juncos are the exception.
Where’s Waldo of Birds
By midday my apple tree was “Where’s Waldo” of birds. Click for larger image to see all eight of them. Starlings and House Sparrows were also enjoying the sun higher up in the tree.
Gray Squirrel
I give the squirrels their own food on the ground which helps to keep them off the feeders in the tree. They don’t like safflower or thistle and the sun flower feeder is impenetrable.
On this afternoon Mr. Squirrel was enjoying some bread and leftover carrot cake that I lost in the back of the frig. The winter has been tough for the squirrels too. This little one has lost most of the fur on his tail.
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. It is now hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Rapid Reviews
One of my goals for 2014 is to write my reviews soon after I finish a book, but sometimes I don’t have a lot say. I know if I liked it and why or why not, but sometimes I don’t want to do a detailed analysis of the book, just a quick review. I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this way. And if I wait too long to write, it never happens.
At the end of December I used a quick mini-review format to catch-up for the year and the response was favorable. As a result I’ve created a Rapid Reviews format.
January Rapid Reviews
Andrew’s Brain by E. L. Doctorow
Publisher: Random House Audio | January 2014
Format: Audio CD | 4 hours | Rating: 4 stars
Audio Listening Level: Intermediate
Speaking from an unknown place and to an unknown interlocutor, Andrew is thinking, Andrew is talking, Andrew is telling the story of his life, his loves, and the tragedies that have led him to this place and point in time. And as he confesses, peeling back the layers of his strange story, we are led to question what we know about truth and memory, brain and mind, personality and fate, about one another and ourselves.
It becomes apparent early on that Andrew is talking to a psychiatrist or therapist and is most likely an unreliable narrator. He feels responsible for awful things happening to other people, is quite self-absorbed and often refers to himself in the third person. His stories are scattered and non-linear and told in a stream of consciousness style. This technique doesn’t always work for me but in this book it was perfect for the character.
This was an odd but interesting little story. It started out confusing but became more compelling as Andrew continues to reveal information. His stories get more entertaining and outlandish, and I wanted to know more, especially about what happened to his wife. I ended up listening to the entire book in one day but at only four hours long, it’s more novella than novel. It’s very well written and good choice if you’re looking for something a little different.
Audio production: The author does his own narration reading in a soft manner that accurately portrayed the confused and unreliable Andrew. Although I had no trouble following along, some readers might prefer print because of Andrew’s stream-of-consciousness story-telling.
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After the Quake by by Haruki Murakami
Publisher: Random House Audio | January 2014 (1st pub 1999)
Format: Audio CD | 4 hours | Rating: 2½ stars
Audio Listening Level: Easy – Intermediate
The six stories in Haruki Murakami’s mesmerizing collection are set at the time of the catastrophic 1995 Kobe earthquake, when Japan became brutally aware of the fragility of its daily existence. But the upheavals that afflict Murakami’s characters are even deeper and more mysterious, emanating from a place where the human meets the inhuman.
Each of these short stories have one thing in common, the 1995 Kobe earthquake. All of the characters are affected in some way by the quake but not necessarily directly. It could be through a friend or relative, but for each it has disturbed their life in some way. Other than that connection, the stories are very different and in a few stories the quake is only mentioned in passing.
I generally enjoy short stories but I like to come away with some understanding of what happened. These were very fairy-tale like with vague or non-existent endings leaving the reader to decide what really happened. I didn’t want to work that hard to understand a story, so while the writing was very good the stories didn’t do much for me. After only a week they are already fading from my mind.
Audio production: Narrated by Rupert Degas, Teresa Gallagher and Adam Sims. All three are capable narrators and were pleasant to listen to.
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Source: Review copies provided by Random House Audio
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Almost wordless: A rare spot of color in my snowy backyard.
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More Wordless Wednesday. © 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Top Down
by Jim Lehrer
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House
Publish Date: October 8, 2013
Format: Hardcover | 208 pages
Rating: 3 of 5
Publisher’s Synopsis:
November 22, 1963. As Air Force One touches down in Dallas, ambitious young newspaper reporter Jack Gilmore races to get the scoop on preparations for President Kennedy’s motorcade. Will the bubble top on the presidential limousine be up or down? Down, according to veteran Secret Service agent Van Walters. The decision to leave the top down and expose JFK to fire from above will weigh on Van’s conscience for decades. But will it also change the course of history?
My Thoughts:
Would a Plexiglas top on Kennedy’s limousine have provided enough protection to deflect Oswald’s bullets and save the president’s life? This is one of those ‘what-if’ questions that could haunt the person who made the decision, top up or top down? That fateful day in Dallas had started out rainy but when the skies cleared Secret Service agent Van Walters gave the orders to remove the bubble top from the limousine.
Five years later agent Van Walters has been so consumed by guilt that he has suffered a physical and mental breakdown and has lost the will to live. His daughter, Marti, contacts Jack Gilmore, a young reporter who was present when the decision was made to remove the top. Would he help her convince her father it was not his fault? Jack agrees, but at the same time he is thinking this will make a great story for the paper and provide a boost to his career. He promises their discussions would be off-the-record, but he is secretly writing pages and pages of notes with the hope of convincing her to change her mind.
With the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination this past year, many new books both fiction and non-fiction have been written on the topic. For me the subject is as interesting as ever and when I read the description of this novel, I jumped at the chance to read it.
While this was a decent story and a quick, easy read, it was not the page-turning historical thriller described in the synopsis. The writing was straight forward and the prose sparse. I expect a little tension and some suspense in a thriller, but there was none of that here.
Also, I never formed a connection with any of the characters and their development was superficial. The opportunity to explore the subject of mental health and how the treatment has advanced was missed. Van Walters was mostly in the background. The story wrapped up quickly with the last chapter flash-forwarding to the present and a quick where-are-they-now type resolution. It was satisfying to know what became of them but ultimately I was expecting a little more depth from a novel by Jim Lehrer.
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Source: Review copy provided by Random House through LibraryThing.
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Welcome to Mailbox Monday, created by Marcia of To Be Continued, a place where readers share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week.
After several years of being on tour with different blogs as the monthly host, the Mailbox Monday Blog is now the permanent home for the meme.
Last week I received a couple of audiobook CDs and a few audio downloads.
New Arrivals
From Simon & Schuster Audio
In the Blood by Lisa Unger
Lana will do anything to hide the truth, but it might not be enough to keep her ominous secrets buried: someone else knows about Lana’s lies. And he’s dying to tell.
Your Life Calling by Jane Pauley
In this inspirational book, beloved broadcast journalist Jane Pauley helps people in the middle of their lives successfully navigate a“reinvention” phase and build a positive, powerful future.
Audio Downloads
From Random House Audio
Shovel Ready by Adam Sternbergh
Futuristic hardboiled noir: Spademan used to be a garbage man. That was before the dirty bomb hit Times Square, before his wife was killed, and before the city became a blown-out shell of its former self.
I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay McCabe
An extraordinary novel about a strong-willed woman who disguises herself as a man in order to fight beside her husband, inspired by the letters of a remarkable female soldier who fought in the Civil War.
Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark
Max Tegmark leads us on an astonishing journey through past, present and future, and through the physics, astronomy and mathematics that are the foundation of his work, most particularly his hypothesis that our physical reality is a mathematical structure and his theory of the ultimate multiverse.
Giveaway
Win a copy of The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness:
A magical novel based on a Japanese folk tale that imagines how the life of a broken-hearted man is transformed when he rescues an injured white crane that has landed in his backyard.
Fill out the form on the giveaway post.
US addresses only by midnight 2/8.
What are you reading?
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I featured the Great White Egret, a summer resident, last June. They are long distance migrants and are now at their winter homes in Central and South America. At the time, I wrote about how shy they are and how they usually fly away before I can get in camera range. A month later at a bird club event on a golf course I had the pleasure of photographing a very friendly and cooperative Egret who was unafraid of the many people out enjoying the summer day.
We watched him land on a flower box on one of the small bridges over a water feature where he proceeded to preen his feathers. After preening it was off to a pond for a few minutes.
Nothing much to see in the green, slimy water in this pond so off he flew to a larger, clearer pond, presumably for some fishing. Egrets hunt for their meals in shallow water. They will stand perfectly still and watch for small aquatic animals such as fish or frogs to swim past and when they do, quickly strike with their long neck and bill.
I was able to get a lot of good shots of this bird and submitted a few of them to a photo contest at Cantigny Golf and Gardens where these were taken. The second photo I posted of the Egret taking flight was chosen as one of 40 finalists. It will be displayed on the wall of the visitor’s for the next year and the public can vote for their favorite. The top three win a gift card and all finalists receive a one-year membership to the park and gardens. And yes, I’m quite excited about this!
Saturday Snapshot was originated by Alyce at At Home With Books. It is now hosted by Melinda of West Metro Mommy. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2014 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
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Today I have a special giveaway. Thanks to the publicist at Penguin Press, I have an extra advance copy of Patrick Ness’ newly released adult fiction novel, The Crane Wife, to give away to one of my readers. Don’t you just love that cover!
I’m about halfway through the book and am enjoying the writing, the romance, the fantasy and the intertwined tales of mythology and real life.
Synopsis
A magical novel based on a Japanese folk tale that imagines how the life of a broken-hearted man is transformed when he rescues an injured white crane that has landed in his backyard.
George Duncan is an American living and working in London. At forty-eight, he owns a small print shop, is divorced, and is lonelier than he realizes. All of the women with whom he has relationships eventually leave him for being too nice. But one night he is waked by an astonishing sound—a terrific keening, which is coming from somewhere in his garden. When he investigates he finds a great white crane, a bird taller than himself. It has been shot through the wing with an arrow. Moved more than he can say, George struggles to take out the arrow from the bird’s wing, saving its life before it flies away into the night sky.
The next morning, a shaken George tries to go about his daily life, retreating to the back of his store and making cuttings from discarded books—a harmless personal hobby—when a woman walks through the front door of the shop. Her name is Kumiko, and she asks George to help her with her own artwork. George is dumbstruck by her beauty and her enigmatic nature and begins to fall desperately in love with her. She seems to hold the potential to change his entire life, if he could only get her to reveal the secret of who she is and why she has brought her artwork to him.
The Penguin Press • January 23, 2014 • 320 pages • ISBN: 9781594205477
About the Author
Born in Virginia and raised in Hawaii and Washington state, PATRICK NESS is the author of seven novels and a short story collection. He has won the Carnegie Medal twice, the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Costa Children’s Book Award. In 2012 his bestselling novel A Monster Calls became the first ever to win both the Kate Greenaway and Carnegie Medals. His books are published in more than twenty languages. He lives in London. www.patrickness.com
Giveaway Information
To enter you need a US mailing address. One entry per person or address. Fill out the form below on or before Saturday, February 8, 2014. I will draw a random winner who will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond with a mailing address. Upon conclusion of the giveaway all personal information will be deleted.
[Giveaway has ended]
Winner: Jennifer @ The Relentless Reader
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Source: Review and giveaway copy provided by The Penguin Press
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