It’s no secret that quite a few of our residents here at CSNW enjoy looking through magazines and books. They all have their favorites, which got me thinking – let’s chat CSNW Book Club recommendations!
First up, we have recommendations from our O.G. chimp group, the Cle Elum 7. Jamie’s first recommendation would be I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo by Mathea Levine. This has been Jamie’s favorite for a while now, along with the sequels Bonobo Lucy Grows Up and Is Bonobo Lucy Singing? She has a knack for knowing where the current copy is at all times. Today, for example, we were cleaning the playroom on the seven’s side. We had just swept up the floor and taken the trash can out when Jamie started gesturing at the trash can. I looked behind it, beside it, and below it to try and figure out what she wanted. I couldn’t find anything, but she kept gesturing. Finally, I looked inside the trash can and there lay her current copy of I’m Lucy: A Day in the Life of a Young Bonobo. Thankfully, it had stayed clean and I was able to grab it, wipe it off, and give it to her. She happily grabbed it and went off to nest with it in her hip pocket! Crisis averted.
I think Jamie would also recommend anything a la National Geographic, especially if it featured mummies. Extra points if it’s a cowboy boot book, too!!
On the other side of the chimp house, Cy would recommend something a little in the pop-culture scene. At the top of his list: People Magazine.
Often, when we take him a new magazine we will be met with excited grunts before Cy comes down to grab it and take it away for his own private reading session.
Some of the humans at CSNW are also very into reading. If you’re looking for a book to expand your knowledge of chimpanzees, we would recommend The New Chimpanzee by Craig Stanford. A few other favorites are Next of Kin by Roger Fouts, Through a Window by Jane Goodall, and In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall.
A few other staff recommendations, that are not chimpanzee related, are How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur (Diana’s pick), Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Grace’s pick), The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lax by Rebecca Skloot (Sabrina’s pick), and The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Chad’s pick). We’d love it if you would share your latest good reads with us in the comments! 🙂
And don’t forget- we are gearing up to celebrate Cy’s 33rd birthday on March 12th! We are planning a library themed birthday party for our book worm and have added the things we need to our Amazon wish list. Click here if you want to help us celebrate Cy’s birthday!
On a similar note, we are always looking for donations of magazines. If you have extras laying around, please consider sending them to us at PO Box 952 Cle Elum, WA 98922. Or, if you are local, drop them off at The Whole Pet Shop in Roslyn! Thanks in advance! 🙂
Bonus Photos:
Mave and Dora , hanging out, while Mave holds Dora’s foot
Burrito being handsome during a morning play session:
Foxie being her goofy self:
Love you all for what you do for them :100:?
Can’t wait for the big party!
Just finished Pollan’s “Food Rules”, and am currently getting into Hasbún’s “Los años invisibles”, and Backman’s “Anxious People”, because I read “A Man Called Ove” a few years ago and loved it.
A book i would highly recommend is, Amy and me, an oranutan story, by Jermey Keeling. He is one of the onwers of Monkey World in Dorset England. This book will make you, laugh, cry and everything inbetween. Well worth a read.
Can’t wait for my Cy bookbag to arrive. i hope it is in time for the party. I’d recommend My Family Album by Frans de Waal. Bonobos & Chimps, oh my.
Ed Yong, An Immense World, is a recent book about the senses of animals. Anyone interested in the umwelten of animals should read it.
I agree too with the recommendation of any book by Franz de Waal.
How in the world did Jamie’s most beloved book end up in the trash?! Thank goodness you were there, Grace, to solve the mystery of its whereabouts! Love todays photos, especially Mave and Dora with leg-up pose.
Thanks for the book tips! I have never read “Through a Window” by Jane Goodall (How did I mis this?!). Thanks for mentioning it, I was looking for a new book to read so perfect timing. A great recommendation with “Braiding Sweetgrass”, I too would suggest that.
Consider “There There” by Tommy Orange. On the chimpanzee theme, but a work of fiction, “A Beautiful Truth” by Colin McAdam. I read this back in 2013 and I couldn’t put it down. I remember crying over certain pages, very moving. Review : “Told simultaneously from the perspective of humans and chimpanzees, set in a Vermont home and a Florida primate research facility, A Beautiful Truth—at times brutal, at others deeply moving—is about the simple truths that transcend species, the meaning of family, the lure of belonging, and the capacity for survival. A novel of great heart and wisdom from a literary master, it exposes the yearnings, cruelty, and resilience of all great apes. (A portion of this book’s proceeds benefits Save the Chimps, the world’s largest chimpanzee sanctuary.)”
And I’ll toss in an unusual suggestion. During covid lockdown I read “The One and Only Ivan” by Katherine Applegate. It is a book intended for young readers but I was glad read it. Although “The One and Only Ivan” is an entirely fictional story, it is inspired by the true story of Ivan the gorilla, who lived in a similar situation for 27 years. Eventually the real Ivan was adopted by Zoo Atlanta in 1994. So many lessons within this book. Even as an adult I loved this story and Ivan’s voice. A good book to impress upon young readers why you need to say no to roadside zoos/attractions.
AS YOU KNOW, I’M ALWAYS SENDING YOU GUYS STUFF. I JUST MAILED OUT TODAY A BOX OF GOODIES, OF WHICH I BELIEVE WERE SOME BOARD BOOKS. MY WEEKLY TUESDAY VISIT TO THE ANTIQUE/COLLECTBLE STORE AFFORDS ME THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE AND BUY THE VARIOUS SIZE BOARD BOOKS. ALSO MY DOLLAR TREE STORE HAS THE MINI SIZE ONES TOO. I’M ALWAYS TELLING THEM ITS FOR THE CHIMPS! SO NOW THEY’RE ON THE LOOK OUT FOR THEM TOO!