Leila Philip

Going into this book, and having not read any of Philip's previous works, I assumed that it would mostly be dealing with the history of the American fur trade; it's certainly what the folks who generate library catalogue numbers thought it was about. Be that as it may, if it relates to the beaver, Philip managed to get it into her narrative, and that might be the problem. At a certain point, this feels like a collection of strong magazine articles struggling to escape a fair-to-middling show more book. The portions dealing with the animals themselves, and environmental issues, were the most interesting to me. This was followed by Philip's own participant-observer exercises. I will admit that the chunks dealing with the rise, zenith, and fading away of the American fur trade felt a little perfunctory, and this is speaking as someone who reads a lot of American history. Ditto, the portions dealing with the beaver and Native American culture. Another book where your mileage may differ. show less

Loved this book! I found it to be a thoughtful, all-encompassing look at beavers. It's amazing how much of our American history revolved around the beaver. And in how complex and fascinating beavers are. And how they continue to affect our society today.
Growing up in Wisconsin, I had quite a bit of exposure to beavers. My father and grand-father both were avid trappers, and I could not help but absorb the lessons and lore about beavers that they taught me. I did not follow in their show more footsteps, but can appreciate the lessons they taught me. As a college graduate with a degree in natural resources, and a lifetime outdoorsman and fisherman, I continue to learn about beavers. They are one of the most fascinating animals I know of.
I was very grateful with the author's even handedness in her telling of the very different groups that concern beavers. And especially pleased to learn things that I did not know about beavers.
The book just left me with a satisfied feeling of nostalgia, appreciation of today, and hope for the future. What more can one ask?
Highly recommend this book! show less

A lovely memoir of Philips apprenticeship to a master potter in Japan, as well as a gentle and generous portrait of village life. It is as delicate and full of grace as a Japanese teacup.

This book was recommended by LibraryThing. Probably by the new recommendation system (my notes are not entirely clear on that). It was not one of their more inspired choices.

It is probably a good book, but not to my taste. I just don't like nature books that focus on the narrator's experience, the people they interview, and similar. If you like that kind of book, you may well like this one.

Ditto if you enjoy reading lots of factoids connected only by the author's subjective experience. And show more in fact, some of the factoids are fascinating.

But there are no footnotes, and a throwaway claim about the genetics of the Eastern Coyote was the last straw for me - the author claims that something I had believed to be true about that has recently been disproven, without even a hint of which researcher, which publication, or when. I abandoned the book after page 64 (of 317).

I did mine its sources section for books more to my taste - focused on nature (e.g. beavers, or coyotes), or history, or trapping, and hopefully complete with footnotes. Even a biography of John Jacob Astor (fur entrepreneur who gets discussed in one of the chapters) would be more interesting to me. show less