New Leaf Nominations for April 2020 • Tales of Tails, Birds or Beasts

[gmw]

I second My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. I have a few of his books, but have not read this one.

CRussel, Never Cry Wolf is definitely going on my wish list, it's only the current price in Australia that has me reserved about it.

Catlady, it's a shame that Elephant Company isn't available as an ebook here yet, it does sound interesting.

[Catlady]

I'm renominating a book from a while back that didn't make it to the vote: The Perfect Horse: The Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis by Elizabeth Letts (2016, 368 pp.).

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War II

In the chaotic last days of the war, a small troop of battle-weary American soldiers captures a German spy and makes an astonishing find—his briefcase is empty but for photos of beautiful white horses that have been stolen and kept on a secret farm behind enemy lines. Hitler has stockpiled the world’s finest purebreds in order to breed the perfect military machine—an equine master race. But with the starving Russian army closing in, the animals are in imminent danger of being slaughtered for food.

With only hours to spare, one of the U.S. Army’s last great cavalrymen, Colonel Hank Reed, makes a bold decision—with General George Patton’s blessing—to mount a covert rescue operation. Racing against time, Reed’s small but determined force of soldiers, aided by several turncoat Germans, steals across enemy lines in a last-ditch effort to save the horses.

Pulling together this multistranded story, Elizabeth Letts introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters: Alois Podhajsky, director of the famed Spanish Riding School of Vienna, a former Olympic medalist who is forced to flee the bomb-ravaged Austrian capital with his entire stable in tow; Gustav Rau, Hitler’s imperious chief of horse breeding, a proponent of eugenics who dreams of genetically engineering the perfect warhorse for Germany; and Tom Stewart, a senator’s son who makes a daring moonlight ride on a white stallion to secure the farm’s surrender.

A compelling account for animal lovers and World War II buffs alike, The Perfect Horse tells for the first time the full story of these events. Elizabeth Letts’s exhilarating tale of behind-enemy-lines adventure, courage, and sacrifice brings to life one of the most inspiring chapters in the annals of human valor.

Praise for The Perfect Horse

“Winningly readable . . . Letts captures both the personalities and the stakes of this daring mission with such a sharp ear for drama that the whole second half of the book reads like a WWII thriller dreamed up by Alan Furst or Len Deighton. . . . The right director could make a Hollywood classic out of this fairy tale.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Letts, a lifelong equestrienne, eloquently brings together the many facets of this unlikely, poignant story underscoring the love and respect of man for horses.”—Kirkus Reviews

The links reflect new lower pricing in several instances:

Amazon US $9.99
Amazon UK £7.99
Amazon Canada CA $13.99
Amazon Australia AU $9.99

Kobo U.S. $9.99
Kobo UK £7.43
Kobo Canada CA $13.99
Kobo Australia AU $9.99

Also available as an audiobook.

Can be borrowed at Overdrive (ebook and audiobook), Scribd (audiobook), Axis360 (ebook), RB Digital (audiobook).

FYI, there's a "young readers" version also.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Understood, Dazrin, but you're still welcome to nominate, especially if you have one you think we might all like. Look what just happened with Catlady's non-nomination.

I'm always happy when people mention a book they're considering, whether they decide to nominate it or not. It gives me ideas for future reading, and sometimes spurs an idea for a nomination of my own.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by gmw

CRussel, Never Cry Wolf is definitely going on my wish list, it's only the current price in Australia that has me reserved about it.

Yes, I know. Ridiculous. However, I hope you can do a bit of judicious geo-travelling should necessity arise. I'd hope it wouldn't be necessary, but sometimes the idiots in publishing just can't seem to make it easy for people to buy their books. It's a good book, and well worth the read. At that price? Not so sure. But perhaps a physical library copy if you don't want to "travel"?

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Yes, I know. Ridiculous. However, I hope you can do a bit of judicious geo-travelling should necessity arise. I'd hope it wouldn't be necessary, but sometimes the idiots in publishing just can't seem to make it easy for people to buy their books. It's a good book, and well worth the read. At that price? Not so sure. But perhaps a physical library copy if you don't want to "travel"?

It's available to borrow from the Internet Archive.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Catlady

It's available to borrow from the Internet Archive.

Usually my last resort, and then only for books that never got made into eBooks. I actually prefer geo-travelling and buying, since I know that eventually the author should see something from it. Books in the Internet Archive have usually been scanned from physical copies, and not well converted to text. That being said, I have gotten books from there, and then spent the time to clean them up.

[fantasyfan]

I nominate Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Kindle UK £4.24 + an optional 2.99 for an audio addition
Kindle US $5.46
Apple €4.99 for the ebook. iBooks provides the Audible edition for €22.99
Audible UK 1 credit or £2.99 with purchase of the ebook.

I’m reading it at the moment and it is wonderful. The blurb doesn’t really convey how original it is. Spiders are great!

Amazon review:

“Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed novel Children of Time, is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet.

“Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age – a world terraformed and prepared for human life.

“But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare.

“Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?”

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Usually my last resort, and then only for books that never got made into eBooks. I actually prefer geo-travelling and buying, since I know that eventually the author should see something from it. Books in the Internet Archive have usually been scanned from physical copies, and not well converted to text. That being said, I have gotten books from there, and then spent the time to clean them up.

When I've borrowed something, I've only bothered with the pdf, and then only in a pinch. But it's an option.

[gmw]

Thanks for the link to Internet Archive. I've never used it, but it's good to know it's an option.

fantasyfan, I'm out tickets or I'd support that. I enjoyed that book very much.

[CRussel]

Well, two of the books that have been put forth so far are either not available at my libraries, or have a long wait. Children of Time is not at available, and the Attenborough has a 10 week wait. Though it is inexpensive enough that shouldn't be an issue, and I admit it sounds quite interesting.

[fantasyfan]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Well, two of the books that have been put forth so far are either not available at my libraries, or have a long wait. Children of Time is not at available, and the Attenborough has a 10 week wait. Though it is inexpensive enough that shouldn't be an issue, and I admit it sounds quite interesting.

I am amazed that Children of Time is not available everywhere for Kindle or as an Apple iBook considering how highly regarded it is by readers and critics. Would Kobo have an edition?

I note that the Apple iBooks edition I mentioned is not listed on the nomination list and I should have specifically mentioned the Audible edition too—though I implied its existence as an option for Amazon. I have revised the list.

BTW THE Audible version is very well read by Mel Hudson. She reads with excellent dramatic coloration and manages the various characterisations superbly.

[fantasyfan]

I’ll second Adventures of a Young Naturalist.

[Victoria]

Hi, I hope late is better than never. I’d like to nominate Call of the Wild by Jack London. I know it’s a short read, but this month’s theme just demands that Buck, a St. Bernard–Scotch Collie who was thrust into difficult circumstances, be remembered and included.

The Call of the Wild is a short adventure novel by Jack London, published in 1903 and set in Yukon, Canada, during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush, when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The central character of the novel is a dog named Buck. The story opens at a ranch in Santa Clara Valley, California, when Buck is stolen from his home and sold into service as a sled dog in Alaska. He becomes progressively feral in the harsh environment, where he is forced to fight to survive and dominate other dogs. By the end, he sheds the veneer of civilization, and relies on primordial instinct and learned experience to emerge as a leader in the wild.

public domain.

[Victoria]

I’ll second Never Cry Wolf

[Bookworm_Girl]

I will second Call of the Wild. It’s been a long time since I read it, and I have wanted to reread it.