I’m not sure I have fully divulged this before on the blog but I am 100%, whole-heartedly, without a doubt an animal lover. As a child I always wanted to be a veterinarian or a dolphin trainer. Clearly that ship has sailed and I wasn’t on it, but I still do take the chance to spend time with and enjoy animals whenever I can. In our house we rescue bugs, birds, and even baby squirrels when we fear they are in harms way. Knowing that, you can imagine how I would feel reading a book about a conservationist who buys a game reserve, turns it into a land preserve, and adopts a herd of rogue elephants and befriends them to save their lives. The Elephant Whisperer, cowritten by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spencer is by far the best book I have ever read about animals. Anthony’s account of life in the wilds of South Africa is highly informative but the book is at it’s best when the author lets his guard down and allows the reader to catch a glimpse of the relationship Anthony built with the elephant herd. I had never considered or imagined how intelligent and frankly thoughtful these big beasts can be. There were many times I shed tears while reading – both inspired by the lengths that Anthony went to to keep his herd alive and the lengths the matriarch of a pachyderm tribe will go to to protect her elephant family. Anthony who lived in South Africa during the years of Apartheid does a beautiful job of helping the reader to also understand what it was like to live in Africa after Apartheid ended, and the scars those years left on the local population. He paints a spectacular picture of the people, land and creatures who inhabit that area of the world and how they interact. Reading made me want to book a safari in Africa immediately.
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