The November Girl
by Lydia Kang,
Entangled Publishing • ISBN: 978-1-63375-826-1 • $9.99 Softcover
When I learned this story is set on Isle Royale, it caught my interest. I’ve been going there since I was a school boy. When I discovered that the book exploited the paranormal, my interest quickened; this would be a new experience for me … as would reading a “young adult” novel.
The November Girl is an intense, beautifully written love story about a troubled boy, Hector, who stows away on the island over winter, and the innocent enchantress Anda, whose father is a human and mother is the Lake, who stays for an island retreat all alone, with visitors and park staff gone.
Their tender relationship, struggle to survive, discovering a philosophy of death, all evoke the reader’s reflection on mortality. A practicing physician in Omaha, Lydia’s paid only one visit to Isle Royale to write accurately about its moods and places. She made a few mistakes, but they are easy to forgive. You, too, will likely be hooked by this haunting tale of an unusual companionship on a wild and beautiful island.
– Donn Larson
Taking Flight
A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America
by Michael Edmonds ,
Wisconsin Historical Society Press • ISBN: 978-1-87020-836-2 • $18.95 Softcover
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve long held a keen interest in birds. But if you had told me Professor Edmonds could hold my attention on his title subject for almost 300 pages, I’d not be able to conceal my skepticism.
Attention? Fascination would be a better word. Michael devoted 25 years to accumulating his content: how and why we have revered, feared, studied, hunted, eaten and protected birds for 12,000 years, all with a Midwest twist.
Early chapters trace archaeology: fetishes, garments, petroglyphs, pictographs. Later the book gets to the heart of his account: the abuses and wanton slaughter that reduced our heartland population by 250 million birds (including two extinctions) from 1878 to 1918, when we began to take game laws seriously.
My advice is to read this book slowly, digest its lore and discovery. You’ll be intrigued if you are a birder. You’ll be disturbed, but not offended if you’re an ethical hunter.
– Donn Larson