I couldn’t even fit the subtitle of this one in the heading: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness. Sy Montgomery is an all-around naturalist and writer, as evidenced by her more than 40 books on turtles, hawks, hummingbirds, bears, dolphins, and most famously, a 750-pound pet pig, to name a few. Most of this book takes place at the New England Aquarium in Boston, which makes me want to go on a road trip. There, Sy meets her first octopus, Athena—who won’t be the last. I’ve already learned some pretty darned fascinating facts, like where you’ll find the male octopus’s penis, but I’ve also found this book repetitive at times. It’s almost as if, because these creatures are in captivity, it’s a bit harder to center a whole book around them. The conditions are controlled, and nothing crazy is gonna happen. Sometimes, when the octopus story gets slow, Montgomery even takes a stroll into another area of the aquarium to spice things up. Nevertheless, I’m enjoying this read (listen, actually), and since I’m less than halfway through, there must be more octopus intrigue in store. This book was sitting on the kitchen table at our friends’ condo during our entire 10-day stay last summer, but I was reading something else and never got around to picking it up, so part of the fun is fulfilling that unsated curiosity.
What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comment section below!
I love animals so I've really got to get around to reading some non-fiction about them! I'm about to finish All My Mothers by Joanna Glen.
I'm reading Blonde by JCO. I read her short story this week in the New Yorker, loved it, and remain fascinated by her career. I figured I'd read about two famous women at once. Blonde has some parallels with the New Yorker story, which also had some parallels with JCO's personal life and Marylin's has always been the stuff of gossip.