Facing Rushmore by David Lozell Martin

A skewed vision, yet pertinent considering the current immigration debate, Martin’s novel is one endless diatribe against the “white man” and yet for all that, is warm hearted and fantastic or at least, I hope it is only a fantasy. I sailed through this story with its odd, relatively action-less plot, continuous dialogue and incredible vision. More than you may want to know about our history with Native Americans, this is nonetheless, a challenging, exciting story.

Search for the Golden Moon Bear by Sy Montgomery

I don’t usually read non-fiction, and especially not books on biology. So it must have been the big, friendly picture of a bear on the cover of this book that led me to pick it up. Though the book is slower-paced and took me a long time to read, I’m glad I read it.

Search for the Golden Moon Bear follows its title pretty closely. Sy Montgomery, the author, and a biologist friend hear strange reports of a golden moon bear in the region of Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. Until then, the only known moon bears were deep black. Could this be a new species? In the scientific world, that discovery would be nothing short of amazing. Braving a landscape rife with landmines, unstable governments, poachers armed with AK47s, illness, dangerous methods of transportation and bug-ridden hotels, they travel the back roads of Southeast Asia, looking for this elusive golden bear.

This book is very hard to sum up: at times philosophical, at times a funny travelogue, Montgomery brings Southeast Asia and its jungles and cities alive in her prose. One thing I very much appreciated was that this book is not simply an environmental polemic. Montgomery writes about poachers and conservationists with equal respect and understanding. Like a true scientist, she describes, as much as possible, without condemning. The result is a fascinating journey of discovery into one of the lost corners of the world.