After reading the book on the Death Valley Mule team (post of August 17, 2018) I decided I needed to know more about mules, and I found that in Know Your Donkeys and Mules, by Jack Byard. There is just one type of mule that can stand that sort of heat (they are also used for taking supplies and mail to the town in the Grand Canyon (see post of February 7, 2015). So many mules for so many uses, but because of industrialization, many are endangered. (Groups are working on this, thankfully). There's even a mule related to Secretariat! Wonderful photographs and nice descriptions of each mule or donkey.

I read Brighty of the Grand Canyon, by Marguerite Henry, and illustrated by Wesley Dennis several times when I was young, but I did not remember that it was based on a real burro! Seems this is the little guy for whom the Bright Angel trail is named, the trail still used today. During his life Brighty interacted with several men, including President Theodore Roosevelt. It was nice to reread this book, even though I also forgot how nasty one of the characters was. :-)

Decades ago now there was a wonderful show on PBS called Connections. The host was James Burke. (See my post from December 27, 2016, too). I recently came upon a book of his I think I read back when it first came out (some of the chapters were familiar) but read it again anyway (much of it seemed, new, too). :-) Circles: Fifty Round Trips Through History, Technology, Science, Culture is a collection of essays that first appeared in Scientific American and is Burke at his best, making connections of all sorts of seeming little things that result in something we use every day.

Here's a book (well, special issue magazine, actually) on a favorite subject of mine: Dogs! As with past books and magazines from Time Life, it is well written and with wonderful photographs. Make yourself a cup of tea and enjoy Dogs: Why We Need Them. Why They Need Us.

Reading Hermit With Dog