Last night my book club discussed Creatures of the Kingdom-Stories of Animals and Nature by James Michener. This was my turn to lead the discussion of this book of short stories. Michener is known for his lengthy writing. Several of his books are over 1000 pages. Born in 1907 he was an orphan. A Quaker woman adopted him and raised him in Pennsylvania. During World War II he served in the Navy and those experiences as a naval historian led him to write his first book, South Pacific, which was later made into a musical play by Rogers and Hammerstein. He has written books about Hawaii and Texas and Poland. When he describes dry material such as geology and dinosaurs he makes it more pleasant to read by giving mountains and diplodocus dinosaurs human emotions. Of the many chapters in this book my favorites were the ones on squirrels and armadillos. Both of those chapters describe the frenzied behavior of home owners who want to keep these animals out of their yard. Any huge fan of Michener would not like this book because he takes the beginning chapter out of many books and puts it into this one. Therefore it would be waste of time and money to buy this book if you have already read all the others. I have read several Michener books in the past but I didn't think this one was a waste of my time because I read the other books so long ago I didn't remember them. Most people enjoyed this book as much as I did.
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