Memoir Monday presents... Moby-Duck

Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn... What Publisher's Weekly said of Moby-Duck: Whimsical curiosity begets a quixotic odyssey and troubling revelations about plastics polluting the seas in former high school teacher and journalist Hohn's charming account of what he learned searching for 28,800 rubber bath toys lost at sea in 1992. His curiosity, prompted by a student's quirky essay, begins in 2005 around Sitka, Alaska, where yellow "duckies," frogs, turtles, and beavers washed up after three-story waves buffeted a container ship traveling from China to America. Hohn, a senior editor at Harper's magazine, eventually tracks more rogue ducks bobbing up from isolated Gore Point, Alaska, to Maine beaches. The author's quest leads him to a research vessel trawling for degraded plastic in Hawaiian seas, to the Chinese factory where the toys were manufactured, aboard a container vessel traversing the same route as the original ship (a particularly hair-raising section), and finally to the high Arctic to study the science of oceanic drift. Packed with seafaring lore and astute reporting, this enthralling narrative is the Moby Dick of drifting ducks.

Who can resist knowing the fate of 28, 800 cute Rubber Ducks? Well actually 28,800 rubber bath toys. The cover alone made it worth a look through, but Donovan Hohn has intrigued me with this story, which on the outside may look like a cute little tale of a cute little duck, but promises to be so much more. And Moby-Duck has garnered quite a few great reviews too! This is definitely on my wish-list, and today's Monday Memoir, even though it's not quite a memoir, but a high sea adventure!

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard... A Review

Do you have Stuff? Where exactly does your stuff come from? And do you know what happens to your stuff when you throw it away? Well The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard answers these questions and more...

Whether you're an environmentally green person or not, we all agree that the planet that we live on is important to us. We basically live off the land even in the 21st century- the planet sustains our lives. Our stuff whether we admit it or not impacts the environment in some way. Annie Leonard in a humorous, but in all seriousness, writes about "each stage of the life of our stuff" and how it impacts us. The book, The Story of Stuff, is divided into 5 chapters: Extraction (getting the ingredients), Production (how we turn the ingredients into our stuff), Distribution (how we get our stuff), Consumption (or in Annie's opinion overconsumption), and Disposal. With cartoons and anecdotes Annie Leonard takes us behind the scenes of our everyday lives and shows us what really goes on.

"Nothing is more important to human beings than an ecologically functioning, life sustaining biosphere on the Earth. It is the only habitable place we know of in a forbidding universe. We all depend on it to live and we are compelled to share it; it is our only home." ... Joseph Guth, lawyer, biochemist, and the legal director of the Science and Environmental Health Network

Annie began her expertise in stuff as a college student in New York City. As she walked 6 blocks to class every morning to Barnard College she passed mounds and mounds of garbage. When her college day ended and she walked the six blocks home, miraculously all the sidewalks were empty- NO garbage. She wondered what was all that stuff and where did it go. Her fascination with garbage lead her to a degree in environmental science and landed her a job at Greenpeace. She traveled the world learning about garbage. Anne is an expert in international sustainability and environmental health issues. In 2008 she was named one of Time magazines Heroes of the Environment. And in the Story of Stuff, author Annie Leonard "sheds light on America's consumptions craze as she connects the dots between all the Stuff in our lives and the environmental, economic, and social issues we face."

The Story of Stuff is a fascinating look at the environment and how everything, us included, effects each other. Annie does a great job of laying it all out for us in a readable and accessible way. Her writing is good, evident by her ability to make all this "stuff" so interesting!

Want to learn about our impact on the environment (and where all our stuff ends up)?! The Story of Stuff is the go to book. Not a preachy "you've got to recycle" kind of book, but a book that will raise your eyebrows more than once and will make you think twice before tossing that water bottle!

I want to thank Free Press for sending along a review copy of The Story of Stuff! It was an interesting and fun look at "Stuff"! You can pick up a copy of The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard at your favorite bookstore now! And if you'd like to learn more about Annie and The Story of Stuff, visit her website The Story of Stuff and watch her short and sassy video.