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Friday, January 30, 2009

Books Reading Tonight

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 10:19 AM

ff39/1233336430-well-dressed-ape.jpg

Two readings tonight.

Up at Third Place Books, Temple Grandin, who is an "animal advocate," discusses how intelligent pigs and raccoons are in her new book Animals Make us Human. Raccoons might be intelligent, but they are the most evil animal on Earth, including man.

And at Elliott Bay Book Company, Hannah Holmes reads from The Well-Dressed Ape. I wrote about this book in this week's web-only books lead:

Holmes is a chatty, inquisitive guide—she gamely picks apart her decision not to bear children and eats raw meat to see what it feels like: "It slithers between the teeth, crushing a little, but then squirting free. To reduce it to pulp demands minutes, not seconds, of chewing." Much of her writing resembles Mary Roach's breezy, unflinching style. There is preciousness: "Lions and tigers and cats (oh my) can't taste sweetness (oh bummer)." But it counteracts some of the savagery that Holmes reports, as in the story of the black eagle, which lays a second egg as an "insurance policy" that at least one chick will survive. If both eggs hatch, the smaller chick is still doomed: "Over the course of days, it pecks the sibling bloody, then broken, then dead. The parents do not intervene."

You should read the book review, and then go to this reading.

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here.

Comments (4) RSS

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What, none of the background of Temple Grandin? I mean, she's a pretty interesting character.

Posted by leek on January 30, 2009 at 10:33 AM

Agreed with leek, there's a lot more to say about Temple Grandin.

Posted by Aislinn on January 30, 2009 at 10:53 AM

WRONG.

evil rankings:

1. baboons
2. humans
3. raccoons
4. house cats

Posted by maxsolomon on January 30, 2009 at 11:51 AM

Yeah, Temple Grandin is one of the most remarkable members of our species. And I don't care if that Hannah Holmes eats raw meat, Temple Grandin could eviscerate her, disembowel her, and have her for lunch--although I am sure she would do so in a humane way.

Posted by cressona on January 30, 2009 at 2:34 PM