REVIEW: REMARKABLE CREATURES

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Dutton (Jan 5 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9780525951452

First of all I want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to Penguin Group (Canada) for sending me a copy of this book for review!  I am embarrassed to say that it arrived last November, and what with school and my Mom's stroke, it got forgotten until recently.  Better late than never, right?  RIGHT?!!!

Here's the thing, though, I started this book at 8am THIS MORNING and finished it at 6pm.  And I really read it, I am no skimmer, not with review books anyway.  I have been known to skim through sections of my personal reads (kind of like now with Fall of Giants, some of the war discussion/politics stuff.. SNORE!)  

Remarkable Creatures had me intrigued from the first page and kept me glued to the end.  A small novel, but not in story, you will be able to finish it in short order and it will leave you with thoughts to ponder and best of all curious about the historical characters in the book.  

Some of my all time favourite reads are of books that take real-life but long dead people and fill in the blanks of the history books.  I am a huge sucker for that.  Such as Cane River, which ranks in heavy in my top 10, and Hugh and Bess by Susan Higgenbotham, and my most recent historical fiction His Last Letter.  Oh how I envy those authors, spending years knee deep in research of letters, and journals and news clippings of the day.  Taking fascinating people throughout history and fleshing out swoony love lives and complicated mother/daughter relationships.  It's just pure awesomeness. 

Remarkable Creatures takes the lives of two women in the mid 1800's, one of whom ended up being quite famous as a fossil hunter.  Mary Anning is credited with uncovering the very first complete skeleton of the Ichthyosaurus, and also uncovered another bizarre creature called the Plesiosaurus.  Obviously a woman with a non-traditional job that she literally fell into as a child while playing on the beach with her father, it was soon realized that she had "the eye" and could spot a fossil from a great distance and long before anyone else could.  Searching the beach everyday to bring small fossils home to her family so they could eat. 

One day while on the beach she met a fellow fossil hunter, Elizabeth, and the two formed an odd friendship.  Mary was no more than a child and Elizabeth, 20 years her senior, an aging spinster, intelligent, driven, and lonely in her pursuit of her curiosities.  

Mary and her brother uncover what arguably was the most important fossil find of the 19th century, and indeed challenged the religious and scientific views of the day.  The questions were beginning to surface, could there have been creatures before us that are no longer?  Did God make a mistake?  If God created the world and all of the creatures in it, why would he kill off these ones?  What is extinction?  As you can imagine, this ruffled many a feathers, and the fact that this was discovered by a "woman" made it a particularly hard pill to swallow by many.   

As most of you know by now, I don't like to give big long synopsis' of books and give away the story.  In fact, whenever I read a review, I tend to skip much of a synopsis because I like to go in fresh.  So, mostly I like to give you my impression and if I liked it and why. 

I LOVED it.  It was a great read, fast and the story moved beautifully from one page to the next. There is an element of romance in the story, but not too much and not in a stereotypical way.  There is the complicated life of a woman in that day and age, and what it means to be in your 20's and have no marriage prospects.  It asks the question, who deserves credit?  How does fame change a persons view of themselves and those around them?  

What is most important in life?  

If you have any interest in archeology or dinosaurs, than you will appreciate this book on that level as well.  I live in Alberta, we have arguably one of the most famous and extensive dinosaur museums in the world filled with fossils discovered right here in our province.  Reading the description of the two creatures Mary uncovered was really cool, because in the Royal Tyrell Museum are two exact replicas of the creatures in all their amazing glory, so I could easily picture them in my head.  And not just a photo from widipedia, I have seen the sheer size of the fossils that Tracy writes about, and it really blows my mind every time I visit the museum.  

Remarkable Creatures is a story about friendship between two likely women, one destined for greatness from infancy after surviving a lightening strike that is believed to have given her her gift of "the eye" and the other a prickly spinster.. both fossil hunters who uncover two of the most important discoveries in the 19th centuries and all of the politics and drama surrounding them.  

For more about Tracy Chevalier and her novels and, in particular, THIS one.. click here. 

RATING:  5/5


Interview with Tracy below:

TEASER TUESDAYS!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading, and anyone can play along!

• Grab your current read
• flip to a random page
• select two teaser sentences from anywhere on that page
• remember to include the author and title of the book so we can add them to our morbidly obese TBR piles!

My tt this week is from Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier.  I got this book sometime last year from the publisher and I am embarrassed to say I am just getting around to reading it now!  I have literally JUST started it, and my teaser is from the first page, but judging from the first page it's going to be a gooder. 

"A buzz run right through me.  It was as if I'd touched a hot coal, and I could smell singed flesh and sense there was pain, yet it weren't painful."

For more teasers click here...

MAILBOX MONDAY - NOVEMBER 15

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme created by Marcia over at The Printed Page and is now a blog tour!  This month it is hosted by Julie over at Knitting and Sundries.  I love her blog, she is also doing a giveaway every week of her hosting! 

My mailbox is a combo of freebies and purchases, first I recieved a book from the publisher that I was SUPER excited about as I saw it last year over at The Literate Housewife and really really wanted it then and now I have it!  It is:

Remarkable Creatures by Trace Chevalier
Here is the blurb:
From the moment she's struck by lightning as a baby, it is clear that Mary Anning is marked for greatness. On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, she learns that she has "the eye"--and finds what no one else can see. When Mary uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious fathers on edge, the townspeople to vicious gossip, and the scientific world alight. In an arena dominated by men, however, Mary is barred from the academic community; as a young woman with unusual interests she is suspected of sinful behavior. Nature is a threat, throwing bitter, cold storms and landslips at her. And when she falls in love, it is with an impossible man. Luckily, Mary finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a recent exile from London, who also loves scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy. Ultimately, in the struggle to be recognized in the wider world, Mary and Elizabeth discover that friendship is their greatest ally.
Remarkable Creatures is a stunning novel of how one woman's gift transcends class and social prejudice to lead to some of the most important discoveries of the nineteenth century. Above all, is it a revealing portrait of the intricate and resilient nature of female friendship.

I have purposefully NOT read the blurb because a lot of the time I like to go in completely fresh with only a vague notion of what the book is about.  I know that it is about fossils and given the cover I am guessing it is set in the 18 or 19 hundreds. 

Some books I bought:

The Culture Clash by Jean Donaldson

This is perhaps one of THE most important books written about dogs and their relationship with humans ever written.  It is a classic in the dog training world, and I have only just started it but already am completely enthralled and learning a TON. 

And:

Dogs:  A new understanding of canine origin, evolution and behavior by Lorna and Ray Coppinger

A great book based on years of study by a husband and wife.

And this one:

Canine Behavior:  A Photo Illustrated Handbook

by Barbara Handelman

Dogs have deliberate, subtle, and often humorous ways of expressing themselves. Canine Behavior - A Photo Illustrated Handbook includes 1,000 images of dogs, wolves, coyotes, and foxes. It was created for everyone interested in dogs—pet owners, trainers, veterinarians, ethologists, and behaviorists. Using the interdisciplinary language of photography, Barbara Handelman illustrates and explains canine behavior and communication. Her book establishes a common understanding and vocabulary for people interested in, and working with, dogs.  

This book is loaded with pictures of dogs and wolves in various behaviors in play, agression, fear etc.  Fantastic!

For more mailbox Monday posts and to add your link to the fun click here!