Bookworm: ‘Big Meg’ – A shark-lover’s dream read

“Big Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator that Ever Lived”

• By Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery
• c. 2024, Atlantic Monthly Press
• $27, 208 pages

Look over here and say “Cheeeeeeese!” Let’s see those chompers, those pearly-whites. How ‘bout a big grin, ear to ear. You’ve got a full set of gorgeous teeth, why not show them off? Smile – especially if, as in the new book “Big Meg” by Tim Flannery & Emma Flannery, one tooth is as big as a toddler’s hand.

Growing up in Victoria, Australia, Tim Flannery enjoyed fossil hunting on both land and just off the coast. It was more than a hobby for him – it was an obsession, a way to make money and to learn about that branch of science. He still recalls a large fossil he found in 1973, the tooth of Otodus megalodon, a shark that had gone extinct millions of years ago.

At a possible 101,600 kilograms (around 112 tons), a theoretical 20 meters long (nearly 22 yards or almost 66 feet), and a bite force roughly twice that of a Tyrannosaurus rex, the Otodus megalodon was no shrinking violet. Informally known as “Meg,” was the largest predator the Earth had ever seen. Ever.

Flannery wasn’t the only one who was fascinated by the gigantic predator.

It’s thought that Ancient societies used megalodon teeth in rituals and as tools. Fossil hunters avidly look for them in known spots. Museums love having Meg’s teeth and dealers sell them to private collectors online. Flannery says that there are likely millions of teeth not yet discovered, mostly because each Meg had “tooth stacks” and hundreds of razor-sharp, killing-machine teeth in its mouth at any one time.

And yet, despite that humans’ evolutionary lineage and Meg’s overlapped a bit, our knowledge about the megalodon is really quite limited. Little can be learned from its bones, since Meg had a cartilaginous skeleton and cartilage doesn’t fossilize well. We can extrapolate information from any of the fifteen species of its cousins that live. And maybe, says Flannery, we’ll know first-hand: some people believe that the megalodon still exists ...

If you’ve read this far, it’s pretty safe to say that deep, deep inside you lies the heart of a five-year-old who thinks sharks are the coolest creatures alive. They’re the coolest creatures dead, too, as you’ll see inside “Big Meg.”

It’s unfortunate, actually, that most kids are too young to read a book like this. Authors Tim Flannery and Emma Flannery, a father-daughter team, write in great detail about creatures that can hold a lot of fascination for all ages: longer than an average ranch-style home, Meg didn’t live in a vacuum, so the authors include facts about other marine animals, both ancient and current, in their narrative, as a touchstone. This may irritate some readers – it means a lot of subject-bouncing and an overabundance of seemingly-irrelevant, seemingly-superfluous info – but stay with it. The mind-boggling is ultimately worth it.

This is the kind of book that makes you want to drop “Did you know?” at the dinner table tonight. It’s a shark-lover’s dream read. Share it with a kid, if you can; “Big Meg” will make you both smile.

“Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making? Letters of Love and Lust from the White House”

• By Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler
• c. 2024, Simon & Schuster
• $28.99, 293 pages

Four bills, a political flier, a request for a charity, and a magazine.

That’s what came in the mail yesterday, which is about average. If you get a letter, man, that’s unusual because almost nobody does that anymore. Imagine spending all that time writing, then waiting ten days to hear back from friends and family. Imagine, as in the new book, “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Love Making? by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, romance in an envelope.

Your phone is never too far away.

It’s literally your line to your loved ones, a place to catch up, pick up, or follow up on what’s happening, whether by call or text. For most of our country’s history, though, the only means of communication was through written letter – and that includes private, unofficial Presidential notes written to actual or potential First Ladies.

“This,” say the authors, “is a book of love stories...”

While John Adams was away from Abigail Smith, they obsessively wrote letters to one another, some eleven hundred of them, expressing their longing. Not to be outdone, James Garfield and Lucretia together wrote more than twelve hundred letters.

Martha Washington tried to burn everything George ever sent her. Thomas Jefferson did the same with his letters.

Grover Cleveland fretted about life after the White House, praising his wife, Frances’s idea of raising chickens for income. Teddy Roosevelt worried about not making his fiance, Alice, happy enough. Woodrow Wilson seduced his first wife through the mail. Louisa and John Quincy Adams argued through letters, and Lyndon Johnson ordered his Lady Bird to tell him she loved him with “a continuous flow of letters.” Abraham Lincoln missed his sons through the mail. Without Elizabeth Johnson’s tutoring, Andrew Johnson wouldn’t have been able to send her letters at all: she taught him to read and write. Franklin Roosevelt kept Eleanor apprised of his many health matters. And the most poignant love letter Thomas Jefferson ever wrote still exists on his wife, Martha’s, tombstone...

Admit it: it’s almost impossible not to read notes and letters you find in random places. They’re permissibly voyeuristic, also magnetic, and some are delightful. Others are weird, pragmatic, or really kind of boring. You’ll get a taste of this and more inside “Are You Prepared for the Storm of Lovemaking?”

Acting as guides dropping little breadcrumbs of trivia along the journey, authors Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler frame dozens of Presidential letters with historical references before they share them, which gives readers a sense of why each President was thinking what he was thinking. These men presented a public front, but your suspicions will be confirmed on both the awkward and the amorous, as Hoobler and Hoobler reveal a few surprises. Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon, you’ll never think of them the same. Lincoln, Obama, LBJ? Yep, them, too.

For the romance reader who also likes history, or the history lover who wants a hint of spice, here’s your book. Read “Are You Prepared For the Storm of Love Making?” You’ll love ever letter of it.

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The Bookworm is Terri Schlichenmeyer. She has been reading since she was 3 years old and never goes anywhere without a book. Terri lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Read past columns at marconews.com.