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The Last Animal
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
10 posts | 10 read | 23 to read
A playful, witty, and resonant novel in which a single mother and her two teen daughters engage in a wild scientific experiment and discover themselves in the process, from the award-winning writer of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty Teenage sisters Eve and Vera never imagined their summer vacation would be spent in the Arctic, tagging along on their mothers scientific expedition. But theres a lot about their lives lately that hasnt been going as planned, and truth be told, their single mother might not be so happy either. Now in Siberia with a bunch of serious biologists, Eve and Vera are just bored enough to cause trouble. Fooling around in the permafrost, they accidentally discover a perfectly preserved, four-thousand-year-old baby mammoth, and things finally start to get interesting. The discovery sets off a surprising chain of events, leading mother and daughters to go rogue, pinging from the slopes of Siberia to the shores of Iceland to an exotic animal farm in Italy, and resulting in the birth of a creature that could change the worldor at least this family. The Last Animal takes readers on a wild, entertaining, and refreshingly different kind of journey, one that explores the possibilities and perils of the human imagination on a changing planet, what its like to be a woman in a field dominated by men, and how a wondrous discovery can best be enjoyed with family. Even teenagers.
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ImperfectCJ
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Mehso-so

I loved Ausubel's No One is Here Except All of Us, so I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it didn't quite do it for me. The portrayal of lab life is outdated at best, and the character interactions mostly seem...weird to me. The baby mammoth is cute, though, so there's that.

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rachelsbrittain
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Visited a new local bookshop and chatted with the guy who runs a local writers group there. And of course got a few new books! I can never resist.

43 likes1 stack add
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Mdion1993
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Mehso-so

A widowed scientist and her two daughters find the frozen body of a wholly mammoth.

Maternal ✨ Isolated ✨ Genetic

Has the plot of a Wes Anderson movie

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LittlebearReads
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Pickpick

A really nice meditation on loss, family, and the bittersweet nature of enduring beyond trauma. I couldn‘t help but rooting for Jane, Eve and Vera, who are all just women trying to be bigger than their gender, age, and circumstance.

9 likes1 stack add
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Christine
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Lovely surprise bookmail! Been meaning to read this one for so long. One of my kids keeps carrying it around the house because he can‘t stop admiring the baby mammoth‘s cuteness. ❤️ Thanks, @RiverheadBooks !

monalyisha Adorable! 8mo
Chelsea.Poole Pretty picture! We love mammoths in our household too 🦣 8mo
43 likes2 comments
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Jess
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Found a beautiful reading spot at Naumkeag in the Berkshires today.

AmyG Such a lovely place to be in summer. 1y
25 likes1 comment
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Chelsea.Poole
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Pickpick

Squarely in my wheelhouse! Ron Charles wrote that this is a mix of Anne Tyler (💛) and Michael Crichton. Not big on the latter, but he means the Jurassic Park element which this had a bit of but v believable. I love learning more about prehistory and the discovery process. Such an interesting premise and a nice read, though I did find the audiobook to be a bit lacking. A great mix of nerdy science with mother-daughter relationships. The cover💛🦣

102 likes9 stack adds
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janeycanuck
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Pickpick

This has such an odd premise but the book isn‘t about the wooly mammoth. It‘s about a woman overlooked at work and struggling as a single mom, her relationship with her daughters, and their relationship with each other.

I had a hard time with the first chapter feeling very, very slow but that seemed to be limited to the first chapter only.

Cinfhen Good to know…I‘ve been on the fence 1y
41 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Hooked_on_books
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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Pickpick

When teens Eve and Vera tag along with their mom on a paleontological research trip, they end up finding a mummified baby mammoth. Genetic hijinks ensue from there is a story that is whimsical and at times profoundly sad. I had tried and not liked this author before, but I really liked this. My only quibble is the choice of the audio reader to voice the daughters to make them sound far younger than teens and I felt that didn‘t work.

Soubhiville I really want to read this one. Maybe print would be better. 2y
Hooked_on_books @Soubhiville Probably so. It‘s a good book that‘s absolutely worth reading, but teenagers don‘t sound like tiny, innocent little girls. It was a weird choice. It didn‘t ruin the book, but I certainly noticed it. 2y
59 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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Chelsea.Poole
The Last Animal: A Novel | Ramona Ausubel
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I have so so many books to read!! If only I could read for my day job 😌

sarahbarnes Truer words were never spoken. 😂 2y
AmyG I had a job once as Secretary to the President of a trading company. He was NEVER there so I read all day. I read 99 books that year. 2y
Tamra @AmyG what a job! You shouldn‘t have left it! 😆 2y
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AmyG @Tamra Ha, I didn‘t. But it took them a year to find more things for me to do. I became in charge of HR! 2y
Tamra @AmyG sometimes a promotion isn‘t a good thing. 😜🤣 2y
Cinfhen SO MANY great titles! 😍 2y
89 likes6 comments