“I have so many favorite stories in Animal Wise,” says author Virginia Morell. “I loved meeting Alex the African Gray Parrot, a parrot that the scientist Irene Pepperberg had taught to mimic the sounds of over 100 English words. He understood that these sounds were labels – for example, he knew that the sound ‘yellow’ referred to the color yellow. Irene could then ask him questions about his understanding of the world. It was remarkable to watch her ask these questions, and to listen to his answers. He had a sweet little voice, rather like the one Dustin Hoffman adopted for his character in Rain Man. When one of his companion parrots was struggling to pronounce a word, Alex interrupted him and said, ‘Talk clearly! Talk clearly!’ I realized then that Alex truly had a mind of his own.”
nature
“One day I woke up and the reality dawned on me that, good God, I’m living with a rooster; how did this happen to me?” writes Brian McGrory, author of Buddy. “I knew how it happened. I fell for a woman unlike anyone I had ever met. She lived in the suburbs, while I had spent my adult life in the city. She had two daughters. The older of those daughters incubated eggs at an elementary school science fair, and from one of those eggs came a little chick they called Buddy. The chick grew up watching television in their laps and sleeping in a little cage in the living room . . . . When Pam and I bought a house and we all moved in together, the rooster came with the whole package deal.”
“Alex began devouring books at an early age,” shares Patricia Ellis Herr, author of Up: A Mother and Daughter’s Peakbagging Adventure. “She was six months old when she reached out her tiny hand, grabbed a page from the book I was reading, ripped off a corner, and shoved it her mouth. In a moment of sentimentality common only to first-time mothers, I grabbed a pen from the nearby end table and wrote ‘Alex ate this’ by the newly serrated edge. Alex’s appreciation of books continued as she grew though, thankfully, her consumption turned figurative.”
“Try this,” recommends Patricia Ellis Herr, author of Up, “next time you and your child have a warm day to spend together, go for a walk, and let her decide on the destination, but have a ‘no carrying’ rule; this is a particularly empowering approach. Right away, your child knows that she has the power to decide where the two of you are going, and that she will be responsible for getting there on her own two feet. If her desired destination seems unrealistic, don’t worry, and don’t naysay. Without judgment or negative assumptions, let her try.”
The Source of All Things is the story of how, in 2007, I hiked my stepfather into Idaho’s Sawtooth Mountains to confront him about sexual abuse that began there years earlier. I carried the secret for 25 years, until I found the courage to hike him back to the place it began and get a full confession. The book that encapsulates my journey came out last March to great reviews from O Magazine, Elle, More, and others. People called it “an extraordinary journey of anguish and redemption.” Nightline came to my house to report on how my family and I were dealing. And my dad and I flew to Los Angeles to appear – painfully and awkwardly – on the Dr. Drew show. All that, and yet book sales never escalated past so-so. Which leads me to the reason I’m writing.
“It may be that the mystery of Everett’s disappearance will never be solved,” writes David Roberts, author of Finding Everett Ruess. “But thanks to the controversy that swirled around Comb Ridge, we have more hints and clues about the wanderer’s fate – and about his character – than we have ever had before. In that sense, Finding Everett Ruess may form the appropriate rubric for a collective quest to solve a riddle that has no parallel in the history of the American West.”
Popular on RIF
- Enter for the Chance to Win a Mother’s Day Mystery Box
- How to Spot a Sociopath . . . And Our Next Giveaway 64 Comments
- Enter for the Chance to Win Bestselling YA Book 42 Comments
- Enter for the Chance to Win Martha Stewart Living’s Meatless 38 Comments
- Enter for the Chance to Win The Summer of Dead Toys 27 Comments
