David M. Carroll

Another stunning fusion read in the natural history/memoir zone. Carroll met his first turtle when he was eight; from then on there is nothing that can keep Carroll away from turtles, studying them, drawing them and writing about them. The book is divided into three parts, childhood, younger adulthood and late middle age. What is remarkable here is that the course Carroll's entire life was determined by that one magical moment as a boy. The biggest decision of his life was whether to turn show more towards the sciences or art and he chose to be an artist--although I have no doubt he knows as much about turtles as many in the field. I learned a good deal about various turtle species that live in New England (which spurred me to muck about on the 'net looking up turtles in my home state) but the focus of the book was as much about how a vocation can become a career and fill an entire life with meaning and, yes, happiness. The saddest thread throughout is the loss of turtle habitat - particularly bad for the wood turtles up this way, who are terribly vulnerable. Yet another time we must ask ourselves why we are so heedless. ***** show less

How rarely does one encounter a good life, and among those rarities, how rarely is such a life recorded with the love and wisdom that one finds here, Yes, this IS a book about turtles, in about the same sense that MOBY-DICK is about cetaceans, or WALDEN is about a rustic get-away. Read it and be humbled -- and ennobled at the same time.

The writings of a man who likes to walk through all kinds of wetlands. He makes the same rounds every year and keeps a beautiful notebook (sample pages included) recording his observations. Makes the most delicate, wonderful drawings of the plants and animals he finds. Sees how nature is playing itself out, how the habitats shift and change, how the creatures go about their lives. His particular passion seems to be turtles. Most of the book is a description of places. I had no idea what the show more difference was between a marsh and a swamp or a fen and a bog before reading this book. He writes so eloquently about these places- it's almost like poetry. And such a deep concern for the wildlife. His stance, quite often repeated, is that man would do better to just leave nature alone- that the efforts of various groups to protect or restore threatened areas often do more harm than good.

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A lovely book describing the lives of trout. I'm not one who goes fishing, so I probably didn't love this book quite as much as an avid fly fisherman would but I do like reading about natural habitats and the behavior of different kinds of animals, so there was much here to interest me... There is, within the narrative, some discourse on how human meddling has altered the numbers of native trout and how species intermingle, and the problems that releasing hatchery-raised fish into wild show more populations cause. And encounters the author has with other wildlife: herons, kingfishers, mink, beavers and their structures. But mostly it's all about the elusive fish.

Trout seem to be such wary, sensitive creatures, always with an eye to the ceiling of their world, watching for prey to snatch or predators to avoid. A lot of this book is just a description of the turning seasons (it begins and ends in the chill of winter) and of how the author moves stealthily along streamsides, exploring them and trying to approach without alerting the fish. He releases most of his catch, extols their beautiful colors, and sketches their forms. Exquisite artwork decorates nearly every page. This guy is even better at drawing fish than he is sketching turtles and birds. It is a very quiet, musing, contemplative sort of book. Rarely do any other people make an appearance. Mostly the author's thoughts and the quiet woods and the changing weather and the subtle fish hidden under moving water.

It's the kind of book you want to read uninterrupted, surrounded by quietness.

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