Play Book Tag discussion

The Four categories for March are:

Safari (Exact and character must GO ON a safari, not just talk about it)
Equator (Exact)
Ebola (Exact)
Habitat destruction (Exact or Situation)

This will also be the reporting thread once March starts! When you report, please post:

Item Collected: name the item that you found
Location in Book: describe where you found the item. Either a page/location/etc number for exact words, or a really brief description if it is a situation.
Number Collected: E.g., 1/4, 2/4, etc. This just helps me as I score to be sure I didn't miss anything!
Book title and review (or link to review): the standard stuff

Wanna see the scoring for past months? The spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/... (the upper left excel cell tells you to what point the scoring is complete)

A Note on Reporting: remember in your post to include enough detail so I can give your your point!

It doesn't have to be fancy:

"Nicole and her best friend went on SAFARI to celebrate their 40th birthdays." (pg. 12)

"Anna was appalled when she learned that EBOLA reached the US." (pg. 22)

"Cindy stopped using palm oil after she learned that it destroyed native plants" (habitat destruction) (Chapter 20 of audiobook)

"Anita was so hot she would have sworn she was on the EQUATOR" (90% of ebook)

Interesting choices!

I'm sure I have something that will work for habitat destruction, even if it's not a book about Africa specifically.

I'm considering a few books about people who work with (or research) large animals, so if I'm lucky, they also escort people on safari tours. Delia and Mark Owens have lived their whole lives like they're on safari, but they might think tourist safaris are harmful to the habitat.

I'm glad "ebola" only has to be the word, not a whole book. Though 20+ years ago, The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus was a must-read. It changed my worldview.

Nicole R wrote: "
"Nicole and her best friend went on SAFARI to celebrate their 40th..."

LOL! I love your examples, Nicole!

(And you're not too far off on the palm oil! I try... :-) )

LibraryCin wrote: "Nicole R wrote: "
"Nicole and her best friend went on SAFARI to celebrate their 40th..."

LOL! I love your examples, Nicole!

(And you're not too far off on the palm oil! I try... :-) )"

And she cleverly used the admin who submitted the word for each example!

annapi wrote: "And she cleverly used the admin who submitted the word for each example! ....."

:-) I noticed that, too!

Leave it to a lawyer... we are sneaky like that!

Well done, NicoleR!

I have a question about habitat destruction. Is this by any means or only caused by humans? For example, could it be from a cataclysmic event such as huge meteor landing in the ocean, earthquake, fire, the moon exploding something? (I can't think of what happened to the moon in the book I am thinking of). Also, does it have to be set on earth?

Okay, so that's three questions, but at least they are related.

Karin wrote: "I have a question about habitat destruction. Is this by any means or only caused by humans? For example, could it be from a cataclysmic event such as huge meteor landing in the ocean, earthquake, f..."

Hi Karin,

"Habitat destruction is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or die, thereby reducing biodiversity and species abundance."

Going off this Wikipedia definition, habitat destruction does not have to just be through human means. A cataclysmic event would work so long as it discusses the loss to the habitat in some way.

The habitat destruction does, however, have to be on earth (do other planets even have habitats?!?)

If you have a question about a specific book that you are actually planning to read, drop me a PM and we can discuss!

Great, this helps. I have also understood habitat destruction to be for just one species up to all in either a certain biome or even just a smaller area, so I'll ask if it gets more specific.

IRL other planets don't have habitats, but in SciFi they do and it this sort of thing does come up at times, I kid you not, so this is helpful.

I don't have a specific book right now, but was just checking before looking. If I find something that might be questionable, I'll PM you.

I have one more question about the safari. Should the book describe going on safari or just mention it? (for example, the main hero tells how he once went on safari)

That works Diana. As long as the main character (or person of nonfiction) went on safari in the past or is on one now.

Basically, things like “I want to go on safari!” only count. Or other random uses of the work “safari.”

I feel a bit sheepish asking because I see that it says "exact" next to equator, but would "equatorial" count? The words "equatorial sun" have come up in my book.

OK, you may have to trust me on this one because the book is in French, but I will give the translation.

Item collected: Habitat destruction (Situation)
Number collected: 1/4

Location in Book - 86% & 88% of Kindle - the book is about Haiti over the last 80 years. Earlier it referred to the diminishing harvests of fish in the sea and crops on land. The specific quotes at this part of the book are:

Dieudonné reprit avec une énergie redoublée le four à pain, faisant chercher ce bois qui chaque jour laissait des squelettes calcinés d'arbres au haut des mornes.

Dieudonné (a major character) took up with redoubled energy his bread oven (his business), ordering the wood that each day left burnt skeletons of trees atop the hills.

and a few pages later, an educated relative tries to explain how to take care of the land:

"Si vous coupez les arbres, pas de développement. Si vous plantez dans les terres de café des haricots, la terre va s'en aller et pas de développement. "

"If you cut down the trees, no development (of the land). If you plant beans in the coffee fields, the soil will go away and no development."

Bain de lune by Yanick Lahens
4 stars

Review: I read this with a French-speaking book group. It tells in a rather short book the history of Haiti for the last 80 years, from the point of view of isolated villagers. The book is mostly in 2nd person plural, that is "we". The author says she chose this to show the communal nature of the society. American invasions, dictatorships and revolutions are all seen from afar. No matter who is in charge, the villagers remain mostly poor and powerless, and certain strongmen remain on top of local society. There are some interesting views of the life of women. There are also descriptions of several ceremonies, where the gods speak through various villagers. The author is Haitian herself.

Nicole R wrote: "That works Diana. As long as the main character (or person of nonfiction) went on safari in the past or is on one now.

Basically, things like “I want to go on safari!” only count. Or other random..."
Thank you, Nicole!

Kimber wrote: "I feel a bit sheepish asking because I see that it says "exact" next to equator, but would "equatorial" count? The words "equatorial sun" have come up in my book."

Lol, hate to be such a stickler, but you know how it is . . .bend a little and suddenly everyone has a zillion reasonable exceptions, and we have to make judgement calls on all of them.

Exact it is. Equator it is.

You know I would love to bend . . .sorry, Kimber!

Anita wrote: "Kimber wrote: "I feel a bit sheepish asking because I see that it says "exact" next to equator, but would "equatorial" count? The words "equatorial sun" have come up in my book."

Lol, hate to be s..."

That is totally okay, and I expected so. I figured it didn't hurt to ask though :) Thanks Anita!

Item Collected: Ebola
Location in Book: Chapter 34 Freedom from Fear, about 16:17 on audio
"In July 2014, a doctor named Kent Brantly, became the first American diagnosed with Ebola."
The whole chapter is on her leading the UN's response to the Ebola crisis and she traveled to Liberia to meet the people fighting the virus.
Number Collected: 1/4

Book title and review: The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Number collected: 1/4
Item collected: Ebola
Location in book: p. 13
"The disease [Lassa fever] is one of four famed VHFs (including Ebola, Marburg, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever) that share a terrifying tendency to spread from person to person..."

The Lassa Ward: One Man's Fight Against One of the World's Deadliest Diseases

my review

Book: A Girl Is a Body of Water

Item 1: Habitat Destruction (Situation) p.54
Nsuuta explains to Kirabo that there used to be plentiful and diverse food crops growing all over. "They no longer exist because people cleared miles and miles of land to make way for the cash crops of coffee and cotton. Soon, little animals and insects that live in the soil will disappear too."

Item 2: Equator p. 355
"They were also taught about the equator, a natural line that passed through Uganda."

Total - 2/4 items collected

My Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Death and Life of the Great Lakes - Dan Egan - 4 Stars

Number Collected: 1/4
Item Collected: Habitat Destruction
Location in Book: location 1327
"The waters of Lake Ontario below Niagara Falls once, in fact, teemed with Atlantic salmon before they were exterminated in the 19th century by overfishing and habitat destruction".


Link to Review

Item Collected: habitat destruction
Location in Book: pg. 8; "The villages form a ring of human settlement around the volcano, and the ring is steadily closing around the forest on its slopes, a noose that is strangling the wild habitat of the mountain. The forest is being cleared away, the trees are being cut down for firewood or to make room for grazing land, and the elephants are vanishing."
Number Collected: 1/4

Item Collected: equator
Location in Book: pg. 21; "It is late afternoon, and the sun is falling down into the hills to the west of the Rift Valley, throwing blades of light in all directions, as if the sun is cracking up on the equator."
Number Collected: 2/4

Item Collected: safari
Location in Book: pg. 34; "He treats all the important people in East Africa: the corrupt politicians, the actors and actresses who get sick on safari, the decayed English-African nobility."
Number Collected: 3/4

Item Collected: Ebola
Location in Book: pg. 38; "Not long after Charles Monet died, it was established that the family of filoviruses comprised Marburg along with two types of a virus called Ebola."
Number Collected: 4/4


The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
★★★★

When they say this book reads like a thriller, they're really not kidding - I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! The Hot Zone recounts the suspected origins of the multiple strands of Ebola virus, as well as its first emergence in the United States (in the 1980's!)

I didn't know anything about the Ebola virus' before picking up this book and wow, was I in for a surprise! Did you know that Ebola essential turns its victims in the mindless, walking blood bombs? Literally though, you start melting from the inside and your guts turn into a slurry of blood and dead tissue - and then you basically explode, leaking from any and all orifices, getting your highly infectious blood everywhere. The tiniest droplet of blood can then start the chain reaction off in someone else - talk about terrifying!

Warning: Potentially not the best book to read during a global pandemic - especially when you realize all the factors that allowed for the rapid spread of COVID would results in near global extinction if it had killed as readily as Ebola. As risk of sounding like an alarmist, we got lucky - and we may not get lucky next time around.

Item Collected: Equator
Location in Book: Page 120
I used to think the farther south anyone traveled, the hotter it would be, but I forgot that once you crossed the equator and headed down, you'd be aiming for the South Pole.
Number Collected: 1/4

Troubling a Star-Madleine L'Engle 3 stars

Vicky Austin and her family have returned home to Thornhill and Vicky is having a hard time fitting back in at school. Adam is off to college but he introduces Vicky to his aunt Serena who lives in town. Adam gets a grant to study in Antarctica and Aunt Serena gives Vicky a trip to Antarctica as a birthday present. Adam sends vague warnings of danger but Vicky still takes the trip. I liked the descriptions of Antarctica and especially the penguins. I didn't like that Adam was barely in the book. There is also a lot going on plot wise and it's hard to keep track of everyone. The ending is very rushed and people are giving information there's no way they could actually know. I also got tired of the constant reminder that penguins are birds because they have feathers

Nicole wrote: "Item Collected: habitat destruction
Location in Book: pg. 8; "The villages form a ring of human settlement around the volcano, and the ring is steadily closing around the forest on its slopes, a no..."

Wow, all 4 and it sounds really good. Perhaps I'll get this and read it since I have zero books for three of these at this point.

Karin wrote: "Wow, all 4 and it sounds really good. Perhaps I'll get this and read it since I have zero books for three of these at this point."

It was a very fast read, completely enthralling - I hope you like it!

Item Collected: Equator
Location in Book: page 472, "He straddles the equator, not the fence"
Number Collected: 2/4

Item Collected: Habitat Destruction
Location in Book: page 250, "There are deadly repercussions of destroying the coastal ecosystems for development. In Southeast Asia, extensive swathes of coastal mangrove trees have been bulldozed for shrimp aquaculture. Then, in the 2004 tsunami, locations without mangroves were the most severely impacted, because residents were left without natural protection form the deadly waves."
Number Collected: 3/4

Book: Black Futures edited by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham

The description on the back cover says it all- "An archive of collective memory and exuberant testimony; A luminous map to navigate an opaque and disorienting present; An infinite geography of possible futures".

Black Futures is a beautiful, thought-provoking curation of art, interviews, social media, fashion, conversations, poetry and photography documenting the diversity and value of the Black life experience, history, present and future. It memorializes and ponders what if, challenges and entertains. It is a beautiful book and one that I had to go through in pieces to consider each voice. I would suggest reading the physical book only to fully appreciate.

Nicole wrote: "Karin wrote: "Wow, all 4 and it sounds really good. Perhaps I'll get this and read it since I have zero books for three of these at this point."

It was a very fast read, completely enthralling - I..."

I put it on hold at my library, so ideally it arrives posthaste! Of course, now that I am getting more of a routine/schedule back in my life with the changes, that will still mean picking it up next Monday.

Item Collected: Habitat Destruction

Location in Book: pg. 2 "As forest decimation continues unabated, these isolated pockets of Aye-aye, living a bandit-like existance, are doomed."

Number Collected: 1/4

The Aye-Aye and I - Gerald Durrell

4 stars

This is a memoir of Durrell's trip to Madagascar to collect the endangered Aye-Aye to start a captive breading program to help save the species. Durrell is a great story teller who describes a trip that involves tortoises, lemurs, flies, and snakes in addition to the elusive Aye-Aye. There is a lot of humor in this book as well as a lot of information about the country of Madagascar. Durrell does a great job of describing the obstacles that engandered animals face in Madagascar. In addition to loss of habitat, the animals must coexist with a population of humans dealing with extreme poverty and whose short term need for food makes it hard to see the bigger picture of sustainablilty. I would recommend this memoir to anyone with an intersted in conservation or in the fauna of Madagascar.

Item Collected: Safari

Location in Book: p. 137 - "They had just returned from a safari in Botswana and found the desert beautiful."

Number collected: 2/4

Book: His Only Wife

Afi is a young woman in Ghana. Her family is impoverished since her father died. They were helped by an aunt who is a business owner. Now the aunt has a plan for Afi to marry her son, who is a very rich entrepreneur. The only problem is that the new husband lives with a Liberian woman and doesn't want to give her up. Afi starts out very intimidated but shocks everyone by sticking up for her own rights and desires. This book gave a very interesting view of current life in Ghana with its mix of modern and traditional cultures.
4*

Item Collected: Equator

Location in book: p. 92 "He also wanted a correspondent in Antigua, close to the equator, to make astronomical observations."

Number Collected: 3/4

Book: Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin

Jane Franklin was Ben's youngest sister. While Ben was active in the creation of a new country and in international relations, Jane lived in one neighborhood her whole life. She had 12 pregnancies, and her main education was what her brother gave her, teaching her to write and lending her books. The author, Jill Lepore, uses Jane as an everywoman to show us what life was like for so many unknown women.
4*

Item Collected: Ebola (Exact)
Location in Book: Well, the entire book is really about the discovery of four filoviruses: Marburg (the weaker of the Ebola-like viruses), Ebola Sudan, Ebola Zaire (the deadliest to humans with a 90% kill rate), and Ebola Reston.

Here's a specific passage though: page 47
"Eboloa virus is named for the Ebola River, which is the headstream of the Mongala River, a tributary of the Congo, or Zaire River. The Ebola River empties tracts of rain forest, winding past scattered villages. The first known emergence of Ebola Zaire--the hottest type of Ebola virus--occurred in Septebmer 1976, when it errupted simultanesously in fifty-five villages near the headwaters of the Ebola River. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and it killed nine out of ten people it infected."

Number Collected: 1/4

Book The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Review

Item Collected: Equator (Exact)

Location in Book: p. 16 "It is late afternoon, and the sun is fallling down into the hills to the west of the Rift Valley, thowing blades of light in all directions, as if the sun is cracking up on the Equator."

Number Collected: 2/4

Book:
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Review

Item Collected: Habitat Desctruction (Exact or Situation)
Location in Book: pg. 7 "The villages form a ring of human settlement around the volcano, and the ring is steadily closing around the forest on its slopes, a noose that is strangling the wild habitat of the mountain. The forest is being cleared away, the trees are being cut down for firewood or to make room for grazing land, and the elephants are vanishing.

p. 289: "'Ay', Robert MacDonald said dreamily. "When I was a kid, this country was different, eh? To get anywhere in this country was a three-day trip. We shot a bloody Thomson's gazelle and liffed of the thing the whole time. In the old days, twenty years ago, this land was all forest and grassland. Now it's corn. Everywhere corn. And the forests are gone, man.'"

pg. 310: The emergenceof AIDS, Ebola, and any number of other rainforest agests appears to be a natural consequence of the ruin of the tropical biosphere. The emerging viruses are surfacing from ecologically damaged parts of teh earth. Many of them come from the tattered edges of tropical rain forest, or they come from tropical savannah that is being rapidly settled by people.


Number Collected: 3/4

Book:
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Review

Item Collected: Safari (Exact and the character must go on safari)
Location in Book: p. 289 - 290 "Robin MacDonald is a professional hunter and safari guide. He is one of about two dozen professional hunters who are left in East Africa. They take clients into the bush to hunt big game. ... "He is the son of a famous professional hunter named Iain MacDonald who was killed at the controls of a light plane that crashed on the African plains in 1967, when Robin was thirteen. By that time, Robin had learned what he needed to know. He had hunted leopard and lion with his father, and he had already shot his first charging Cape buffalo while his father stood beside him to make the back-up short in case he missed. Robin tracked elephant with is father for days through the dry thornbush of the Yatta Plateau, arrying nother but a canten of water and one apple--'That client, he was a guy from Texas, that guy,' Robin explained. '... 'When we found the elephant, we led the client to it, and he shot it.'"


Book:
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

Number Collected: 4/4


Review

Item collected: Safari
Location in book: The plot of the entire book is Mrs. Pollifax traveling on a safari in Zambia
Number collected: 2/4

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari by Dorothy Gilman 4 stars

Mrs. Pollifax is sent to Zambia to obtain pictures of everyone on a safari as the CIA has it on good authority that the assassin Aristotle is part of the group. While there Mrs. Pollifax is also tasked with connecting with Farrell and seeing is he's interested in rejoining the CIA. This is the book where Cyrus is first introduced. Mr.s Pollifax is a lot of fun and I enjoyed the Africa setting. I'd like to re-read more of this series because I love the characters.

Item Collected: ebola (exact)
Location in Book: Introduction, page 1, 1% into the book: "Some years ago, while I was researching The Hot Zone, a book that focuses on the Ebola virus, I may have had a meeting with an unknown strain of Ebola.”
Number Collected: 1/4
Book: Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: habitat destruction (situation)
Location in Book: Chapter 2, page 89-90, 40% into the book: "Global climate change has become entangled with the problem of invasive species. A warmer climate could allow some invaders to spread farther, while causing native organisms to go extinct in their traditional habitats and making room for invaders...Global climate change may be helping the hemlock adelgids spread both north and south...Wherever it goes, it seems to get into every hemlock. It kills saplings before they can produce seeds, and so, in every place it arrives, it stops the hemlock species from reproducing. Many experts have concluded that the insect could kill nearly all the eastern hemlocks; if so, the species would essentially disappear from the wild.”
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: Safari
Number Collected: 3/4
Location in Book: page 40
"What brings you here? I'm leaving on safari this afternoon, she told him".
Link to Review

Mrs. Pollifax on Safari - Dorothy Gilman - 4 Stars

Item Collected: Habitat destruction -

Number Collected: 1/4

where--(see also the cover below) through most of the book an out of control wildfire is raging during one of the driest years on record--at one point over 100,000 acres of forest, and then when a dry lightning storm comes even the forest on the other side of a river begins to burn. This leads to several major points in the storyline. (so the title is a bit of a play on words)



The Promise of Rayne by Nicole Deese
4 stars

This is a romance with grit to the story, so it's not schmaltzy or fluffly. That said, no swearing or sex, nor is it dark.

Rayne has spent most of her life trying to please her controlling, egotistical uncle while her father has served in the state government (her mother died when she was three), but she is hoping to finally get to run the family lodge. However, she makes one mistake in her Uncle Cal's eyes, and the job is given to her cousin. Levi, who spent half of his growing up years in the system after his dad went to jail for drug dealing and killing a cop, is set to inherit the farm next door someday. Rayne's family insists that that farm was swindled from them by Ford, the owner, but Levi is sure that that is not the case.

In the mean time, a forest fire is sending smoke into the area and people are cancelling their reservations even though there is no way the fire can cross the river.

Item Collected: Habitat destruction

Location in Book:This is difficult to pinpoint the exact page because this destruction is implied throughout the book. When this book was written, Africa and its wealth in resources were divided among various European nations. The novel discusses destruction of jungles along the Congo River to construct a series of trading posts, shipment of elephant ivory, etc.

Number Collected: 1/4

Book title and review:
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
★★

The Heart of Darkness was the inspiration for the movie Apocalypse Now. Although there is no Robert Duvall character proclaiming, "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning," there is a boat trip up a dark-enshrouded river in search of a mythical, God-like man. For my full review, please click .here.

Item Collected: equator (exact)
Location in Book: Chapter 13, page 81, 29% into the book: "In the midafternoon, when the sun is high overhead—the earth’s equator close to the ball of burning fire...”
Number Collected: 3/4
Book: The Queen of Water by Laura Resau & Maria Virginia Farinango
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: safari (situation, character must go on safari)
Location in Book: Chapter 3, page 27, 14% into the book: "She had gone, again as so many others do, to a safari camp on the edge of the river and had stayed there for four days.”
Number Collected: 4/4
Book: The Double Comfort Safari Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: safari (situation, character must go on safari)
Location in Book: Multiple references, including Chapter 3 Location 612 I run a safari company, and I'll definitely bring my next group of tourists there.
Number Collected: 1/4
Book: Cheetah Chase
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: equator
Location in Book: Chapter 30 Location 6919 There's no prolonged dusk on the equator.
Number Collected: 2/4
Book: Cheetah Chase
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: Habitat Destruction
Location in Book: Many references to both loss of habitat and endangered species, including poaching and illegal skin trade, and sections like this from Chapter 3 starting at 740: The kudu resumed browsing, and I resumed driving. We reached the crest of the hill. I parked and we slowly and carefully covered the landscape with our binoculars. Tonic jumped out and scanned the terrain as if helping out. I saw a dozen or more giraffe hanging out in some trees, only their necks poking above the tops. To our south, the house and outbuildings cast sharp mid-afternoon shadows. Beyond them, was a magnificent herd of Grevy's zebra, big as horses. Their many fine black and white stripes blended into silver at this distance. In the other direction, a long line of oryx headed single file toward the marsh, the only source of water in the dry season for a hundred miles. There were also a lot of elephants scattered like huge boulders along the edge of the marsh. It was that little curve of green which made the Hunters' property such a wildlife gem in the midst of the desert. Then in Chapter 26 Location 6260, referencing same marsh: Roger approached Nick a month ago about selling his land to Mutani." She pulled a cotton hanky from her pocket and dabbed at her eyes and nose, with little ladylike sniffs. "Mutani had plans for a golf course on his adjacent parcel and needed the marsh on Nick's land as a source of water.
Number Collected: 3/4
Book: Cheetah Chase
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Item Collected: safari
Location in Book: pg 100: "The engineer's cleaning woman received strict instructions before the Chinese safari and the following dinner, at which they would be joined by the president himself."
Number Collected: 2/4

Item collected: equator
Location in Book: pg. 196: "After all, the sun stays admirably low in this country. I don't know what I would have done at the equator."
Number Collected: 3/4

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden - Jonas Jonasson

3 1/2 stars

This is the story of a girl, Nombeko, who was born in Soweto, South Africa who worked her way out of the slums and eventually to a position where she was advising heads of state from a number of countries. The whole story was a bit absurd and reminded me of some of the Vonnegut novels I have read. The characters were a bit silly, but I really liked Nobeko. She was a smart woman who had a way of getting things done (eventually). I liked how the author wove real world historical events into the plot line because it helped me ground the story in our world despite the crazy premise. Overall it was an unbelievable, but fun story. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Olivermagnus wrote: "
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes - Dan Egan - 4 Stars

Number Collected: 1/4
Item Collected: Habitat..."

Great choice. I was surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. (Especially because the topic didn't interest me at all before I read it.)

Item Collected: Equator
Location in Book: Page 64 – “We each took a single step and crossed from the southern to the northern hemisphere. We were straddling the Equator.”
Number Collected: 1/4

Item Collected: Habitat Destruction
Location in Book: Page 322 (and many other examples) “Poaching is rife across east Africa... Trade in bush meat has brought some species to the verge of extinction"
Number collected: 2/4

Item Collected: Safari
Location in book: Pages 86-87 (and two others) He had several private safari guides on his long expedition. "I'd been living, breathing and seeing an unseen Africa...far away from the safari hordes and luxury lodges."
Number collected: 3/4

Walking the Nile by Levison Wood
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Item Collected: Equator (exact)
Location in Book: "At just over 17,000 feet above sea level Mount Kenya towers over the central highlands. Although it straddles the Equator, it is topped by glaciers year round." (p.6)
Number Collected: 2/4

Unbowed - 4 stars
link to review

Item Collected: safari (exact)
Location in Book: "Participants [in a Green Belt Safari] also go on a traditional wildlife safari and learn about how this type of tourism is not always sensitive to its environmental impacts and often leaves behind destructive footprints." (p.285)
Number Collected: 3/4

Unbowed - 4 stars
link to review

Item Collected: habitat destruction
Location in Book: Really everywhere--a huge part of Maathai's work has been in the Green Belt Movement, which aims to combat deforestation in Africa. For just one relevant quote (p.122): "By then I understood the connection between the tree and water, so it did not surprise me that when the fig tree was cut down, the stream where I had played with the tadpoles dried up. My children would never be able to play with the frogs' eggs as I had..."
Number Collected: 4/4

Unbowed - 4 stars
link to review