Book and Film Reviews - The Big Year

One of my favorite book/film combinations is called The Big Year.  The book by Mark Obmascik is the true story of three birders who were competing to win the North American Big Year, a contest to see who can see the most birds in North America in one calendar year.  There are fewer than 700 breeding birds in North America, and each of these birders saw over 700 species.

You have to either have deep pockets, or be willing to go into a lot of debt to complete this contest.  A birder might be in Minnesota looking for a pine grosbeak, and hear of a unique type of hummingbird in Florida.  They drive to the nearest airport, hop on a plane, and go to Florida, and hope that they find their bird.  That combined with other travel expenses means someone can spend tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars to win.

An interesting part of the book is the history of the Big Year.  In one part of the history, the author wrote about one person decades ago who managed to do a Big Year for about 1000 dollars.  He hitchhiked around North America and still managed to see over 600 birds.

You can do a Big Year in less expensive ways.  Some people limit themselves to the Continental United States, their home state, a single county, or their back yard.  I did a couple of Big Years, and only birded in places I was already going.  To see my second Big Year list, go to my blog article on John Silliman's Birding Blog.

I saw the film The Big Year before I read the book.  It is starring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black.  The strong supporting cast features the talents of Rashida Jones and Anjelica Huston.  As you can imagine with that cast, there is some good comedy thrown in.

The film is based loosely on the book, but definitely stands on its own two feet.  It really captures the obsessiveness of many of the serious birders.

Another way to learn about the determination of these birders is to do your own Big Year.  You can compete against yourself, or try to get some friends in on the action.  It is one of the best ways to learn about birding, and to get some great exercise (you often times have to walk a long way to see the birds).

I really enjoyed the film footage of the birds.  Especially interesting is the picture montage in the closing credits showing a picture of every bird seen by the winner.

Another highlight is Rashida Jones' bird call imitations.  She played one of the other birders (not competing for the Big Year) that often times showed up at birding events.  Rashida's character was also the love interest of Jack Black's character.

One of the top banjo players in the world today is Steve Martin.  He won a grammy for one of his albums, yet his music almost never appears in his films.  I was thrilled to hear his Pitkin County Turnaround in a scene in Texas where they are chasing a pink-footed goose (yes that's a real bird).

The book and film have been inspirations for many birders.  Every year, birders compete for the North American Big Year.  People are even starting to expand into a World-wide Big Year.  These works have inspired a huge amount of people to conserve birds, get outside, exercise, and go find some birds.  In an increasingly sedentary and indoor-oriented society, that contribution has been incredibly important.

I highly recommend both The Big Year book, and The Big Year film.  If you are already an avid birder, read the book first and then see the movie.  On the other hand, if you are not yet an experienced birder, I would see the film first.

Book Review - Code Girls

One of the best audiobooks I have listened to in the last year is called Code Girls by Liza Mundy.  It is about a little known aspect of World War II history in which talented women were recruited as code breakers.

The woman that were recruited were talented at math and language skills.  They were found in colleges and universities, as well as through ads in the newspapers.

After a number of tests, the qualified women would be offered a war-time job and told to report on a specific date.  When they were hired, they were not immediately told what the job would entail, but they were told that they would never talk about it outside of the office.  Much of their work remained classified until recently, and some things are still classified.  Liza petitioned for some declassification, so should could write the book.

As the war went on, many of these amazing women joined the military as WACS or WAVES.  WACS were in the Army, and WAVES were in the Navy.

Earlier in the war, these code breakers broke one of the Japanese codes, and found out their plans for the Battle of Midway.  The Imperial Navy was going to try to pull part of the United States Navy to the Aleutian Islands by starting a smaller battle, and leave most of their forces to attack Midway.  The United States Navy learned of their plans, and left the vast majority of their forces at Midway, resulting in a huge victory from which the Japanese Navy never fully recovered.  Without the incredible work of the code breakers, the battle could have ended very differently.

The book also portrays women who constructed the code breaking machines which were used to crack the German Enigma code.  They were brought to a factory in Ohio, where they were trained to make specific parts of the machine.  Very few people were given the knowledge of what their machine did, but many figured out that it had something to do with code breaking since they had to make 26 of every part, and that is how many letters are in our alphabet.

The reason the work of these code breakers was so secretive is if the other side found out their code had been broken, they would totally change the code, and it would take months or even years to break the code again.  This happened after the battle of Midway when a reporter credited the code breakers with helping to turn the tide of battle.

When a code was broken, they had to take steps to make sure the other side didn't know.  For instance, they would send a spotter plane ahead of the bombers to make it look like a ship was found by such instead of a broken code.

Every great audiobook needs a great narrator, and Erin Bennett fit the bill very nicely.  She had a good, consistent delivery throughout the book.  Her voice was expressive enough to do justice to the material presented.

I recommend this audiobook to young adults and adults.  It is a great portrayal of some of the silent heroes of World War II as well as a fascinating aspect of women's history.

Film Review - They Shall Not Grow Old

A few months ago, I met some British people on one of my naturalist activities.  They found out about my love of history, and recommended a film called They Shall Not Grow Old.

The film was directed and produced by Peter Jackson.  He was able to access film and audio recordings relating to World War One, and put them together in an amazing way.

The silent black and white footage showed life at the beginning of the war, and footage of the front lines.  It was meticulously restored and colorized.  Realistic sound effects were added, included the speech of those filmed.  Lip readers read the words, and actors from the army unit's region were used to voice the lines for the film.

Throughout the film were stories from the veterans themselves.  I found out in the extra features that those were recordings of the actual veterans made in the 1960s.

There were also some still shots of drawings done for a magazine during the war to fill in the things (such as hand to hand combat) that could not be filmed during the battle.

The film was very graphic.   It would be impossible to accurately depict that war without being graphic.  This is definitely not a film for kids, as it would likely give them nightmares.

I think adults should see the film because I am a firm believer that we should all know our history.  We should learn from the good and bad parts of our story.  That way, we can repeat some fo the good things, and avoid repeating the bad parts.

They Shall Not Grow Old was humbling, sad, and amazing.  I'm glad I watched it, and grateful that I did not directly experience the war to end all wars.  I've always had a huge amount of respect for veterans, and this film made me respect their sacrifices even more.

Recommendations - Audiobooks

In this time of sheltering in place, I decided to write about some of my favorite books and films.  Hopefully, they will help you get through this time.

I enjoy the audiobook format for both the writing and the performances.  Here are some of the audiobooks I enjoyed in recent years:

• Code Girls by Lisa Mundy (History)
• The King's Speech by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi (History)
• The Beautiful Brain by Hana Walker-Brown (Science)
• Dream More by Dolly Parton (Inspirational)
• Medical School for Everyone: Emergency Medicine by Roy Benaroch (The Great Courses)
• Gut by Giulia Enders (Science)
• A Grown-Up Guide to Dinosaurs by Ben Garrod (Science)
• The Next Pandemic by Ali Khan and William Patrick (Science and History)
• The Mystic School of Musicraft by Jessica Khoury (Young Adult)
• Leadership by Doris Kearns Goodwin (History)
• Berlin 1961 by Frederick Kempe (History)
• Climbing with Mollie by William Finnegan (Family)
• The Unteachables by Gordon Korman (Young Adult)
• Interview with the Robot by Lee Bacon (Young Adult)
• Medical School for Everyone: Pediatrics Grand Rounds by Roy Benaroch (The Great Courses)
• Alone with the Stars by David R. Gillham (Historical Fiction)
• Our Harlem by Marcus Samuelsson (History and Culture)
• A River in Darkness by Masaji Ishikawa (History)
• Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen (Historical Fiction)
• The Ravenmaster by Christopher Skaife (Nature and History)
• Devotion by Adam Makos (History)
• A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
• The Miracle of Dunkirk by Walter Lord

My goal is to write in depth reviews of several of these works.  I'm also planning on reviewing some regular books, films, and television shows.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!