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americanmenace's review
I tried y’all. Got to page 135 ish and skimmed until the last chapter. This was too slow paced for me
raychelllibby's review
5.0
Paperback |
I adore Bernd Heinrich. If you like nature, even remotely, you will love this author too.
I adore Bernd Heinrich. If you like nature, even remotely, you will love this author too.
vegancleopatra's review
2.0
I was looking forward to The Geese of Beaver Bog as I have seen the book noted in other nonfiction numerous times. However, the book itself was dull, frustrating and read like an observation log for too much of its length.
Unfortunately I found Heinrich's writing weak, it is too often dry and feels as though it lacks emotion much of the time. This, of course, goes hand in hand with the observation log style I noted, but it does nothing to bring forth a reader's interest. It was not textbook level dry, but his style would not cause me to become a fan of the nature/environmental nonfiction genre if I were not already one. The only time Heinrich seemed to come alive at all were the times he leapt from bed (I think I read that one too many times) and when he spoke of Peep. He clearly enjoyed Peep and had he brought this attitude of enjoyment to his overall study it would have been better.
I probably would have been able to tolerate the dry reading much more had Heinrich not annoyed me so much with his approach and had I learned much of anything about geese. Unfortunately I went into this knowing nearly as much about geese as I finished, and that to me is a downfall for any nonfiction book to have. It did not help that Heinrich's methods involved him "taming" the geese to allow his presence and interference, which does not exactly allow for impartial, necessarily natural actions to be witnessed and recorded. Heinrich spends much too much time riding in a kayak and annoying at least one particular goose, handling eggs of a wild geese pair and constantly interfering in one way or another, even if it were feeding or calling the individual geese. The scientific part of me is irritated by the fact that Heinrich's methods do not allow for much to be learned of geese and the environmentalist/vegan in me is irritated that Heinrich did not leave the geese alone. Either befriend the geese and leave their eggs alone and don't harass them with a kayak, or be an observer that stays out of the situation. Overall I would say Heinrich's motivations are confused.
Unfortunately I found Heinrich's writing weak, it is too often dry and feels as though it lacks emotion much of the time. This, of course, goes hand in hand with the observation log style I noted, but it does nothing to bring forth a reader's interest. It was not textbook level dry, but his style would not cause me to become a fan of the nature/environmental nonfiction genre if I were not already one. The only time Heinrich seemed to come alive at all were the times he leapt from bed (I think I read that one too many times) and when he spoke of Peep. He clearly enjoyed Peep and had he brought this attitude of enjoyment to his overall study it would have been better.
I probably would have been able to tolerate the dry reading much more had Heinrich not annoyed me so much with his approach and had I learned much of anything about geese. Unfortunately I went into this knowing nearly as much about geese as I finished, and that to me is a downfall for any nonfiction book to have. It did not help that Heinrich's methods involved him "taming" the geese to allow his presence and interference, which does not exactly allow for impartial, necessarily natural actions to be witnessed and recorded. Heinrich spends much too much time riding in a kayak and annoying at least one particular goose, handling eggs of a wild geese pair and constantly interfering in one way or another, even if it were feeding or calling the individual geese. The scientific part of me is irritated by the fact that Heinrich's methods do not allow for much to be learned of geese and the environmentalist/vegan in me is irritated that Heinrich did not leave the geese alone. Either befriend the geese and leave their eggs alone and don't harass them with a kayak, or be an observer that stays out of the situation. Overall I would say Heinrich's motivations are confused.
kerrianne's review
3.0
There's a fine line between observation and interference, between reverence and recklessness. Heinrich tries to walk that line through and around his "beaver bog" but he isn't always so successful. More than a few parts of his narrative made me cringe for the likely irrevocable damage he did to some of these geese, and to their nesting capabilities. There was far too much anthropomorphizing in this story for my liking, far too much feeding the geese, and far too much of Heinrich attempting to domesticate and tame what otherwise would (and should) have been wild Canada geese.
[Still, I liked Peep, and learning about less-familiar-to-me ecosystems and the interesting creatures inhabiting them, so three stars for that.]
[Still, I liked Peep, and learning about less-familiar-to-me ecosystems and the interesting creatures inhabiting them, so three stars for that.]
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