Book Review: Bark (stories)

Bark, by Lorrie Moore (Random House, 2014, 192pp PB, $15.00)

Seven Short Stories

Although I don't usually review books of short stories, I was willing to try my hand at Bark for two reasons: the title (and front cover illustration) and the fact that the author comes highly recommended (and is an English professor). (The reason for my reluctance, generally, is due to the fact that the writing is too varied in style and accomplishment.)

One of the first things I do is locate the front cover online and append it to my review (see above) and also put in a folder for later reference. The book I physically have right now features a dachshund on the cover but the only cover I could find online has trees on the cover (see above)! Go figure. So, which is it? Or both? (And I apologize for the fuzziness. . . .)

The book on my desk currently has a couple of references to dogs but too few to actually merit the title in my opinion. But sometimes I simply can't ever correlate the title with the content so the slight disconnect here didn't bother me.

Author Lorrie Moore includes short and longer stories in Bark so of course I began with the short ones even though a longer one, the first, seemed to be more about dogs (Debarking). 

Most of the stories are what I call, plotless, which is not necessarily a bad thing: they show the reader what the characters are like more than what they do, so we get to know them, really know them. And if we like them, we tend to like the book. Unfortunately, I could only identify with the characters in one of these short stories making this book a chore to finish. However, your mileage may vary!

Book Review: Drinking with My Dog: The Canine Lover's Cocktail Book

Drinking with My Dog: The Canine Lover's Cocktail Book, by Natalie Bovis (Running Press, 2023, 206pp HB, $22.00) 

I was so excited to hear of this book and it came in the mail quite quickly, along with Cocktails with My Cat* which I reviewed first (here), for some reason (maybe saving the best for last since I am a dog person?)

Author Natalie Bovis is an animal advocate primarily but also a mixology instructor extraordinaire, as evidenced by her classes and books such as Drinking with My Dog. With dog-themed chapters like "Rescue Me" and "A Walk on the Wild Side" (lions and tigers and [bears], oh my!) and "Friends in High Places" (famous owners), she includes more than 60 original easy-to-make fun drink recipes. 

Chapter Three

A Dog Book or a Drink Book?

But is this a dog book or a drink book? "That is the question." Because so much information about man's best friend is jam-packed into this little hard cover book with whimsical illustrations galore that we just couldn't decide. 

My Favorite, Blue Velvet

We did decide to start not only making some of these delicious-looking concoctions but also to create some of our own: Bovis concludes with a chapter on how to invent them, name them and the steps to follow in making the drinks. 

And, never fear, the first chapter has all you need to know about beginning, with eight different shapes of glassware, and seven different bar tools, followed by ingredients to start with on your home bar. And garnishes. "People love dressing up their dogs with a cute bandana. . . . Similarly you can also dress up your drink with a decorative garnish. . . . " (p. 14)

Comparing Drinking with the later book (but earlier reviewed) Cocktails with My Cat, both are similarly organized but just enough different that families with both cats (perish the thought!) and dogs, will want to stock both books in their family bar.

We Learn About Dogs, Too

Did you know that poodles are the second smartest breed, after Border Collies?  After reading that, we wondered about golden retrievers, one of our two breeds, only to find them featured on the very next page, along with five other retriever dogs. Snoopy, the Obama's Bo and Prince's dogs are also included.

Legally Blonde

Honoring Betty White, A Golden Girl

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* Cocktails with My Cat, reviewed here, is hot on the heels of Drinking with My Dog.

Book Review: Cocktails with My Cat: Tasty Tipples for Feline Fanatics (OT)

Cocktails with My Cat: Tasty Tipples for Feline Fanatics, by Natalie Bovis (Running Press, 2024, $24.00, 144pp HB) 

Cocktails with My Cat almost turned me, a dog person, into a cat person. The day after it arrived in the mail, I brought it to Starbucks to meet my cat friends and they all whooped and hollered and wanted a copy for themselves. The title alone is an unforgettable gem, quite the attention grabber.

Did You Know You Can  Invent Drinks?

I don't drink so don't blame me for not knowing that drinks can be invented but now I just may go out and stock my empty home bar, now that I know how to create drinks, thanks to author Natalie Bovis, a bartending guru and instructor who also fosters kittens and cats and shares her life with eight rescue pets.

Quotes and Stories and 60 Recipes and More!

Bovis begins at the beginning with information on stocking your home bar with various  items of glassware (showing eight of them), bar tools, and ingredients such as garnishes, eggs, liqueurs (cordials) and even shrubs (not the green growing kind). She also defines 'neat' and explains James Bond and 'shaken not stirred.'

Chapters two through seven lead with a 2-page intro

followed by almost a whole page story of one breed of cats or one particular cat in history ("Famous Felines") with a final sentence leading into the name or ingredients of the new drink, followed by its recipe. Chapters include those on rescues, wild cats, and the holidays, with the final chapter encouraging you to create your very own signature drink inspired by your own cat.

The Hardest Decision

The hardest job I had was to choose just one drink to show you. So I picked two: "Seven Seas and Six Toes" and "Treetops and Tropics." Enjoy! 

Seven Seas and Six Toes

Treetops and Tropics

More Mocktails, Please

When (if. . . .) 'volume 2' comes out, I hope it features more 'mocktail' recipes (Cocktails has a few, thank you) and perhaps some photos to show off the drink colors to their best advantage. Even though many of the recipes in 'volume 1' are accompanied by whimsical illustrations and feature the storied cats, and drinks somewhere in the pictures if you search hard enough, I would love to see some of these as real-life colorful photos.

Should I have started with Preggatinis: Mixology for the Mom-to-Be?

I also have my eye on Edible Cocktails: From Garden to Glass - Seasonal Cocktails with a Fresh Twist. 

And now to take a look at Drinking with My Dog!

Book Review: Lilac Girls (three lives intersect, WW2)

 Lilac Girls by Martha Kelly (Ballantine, $17.00, 2017, 502pp PB) 

Where was I when this book came out in 2017? Why did I miss all the hullabaloo about this fantastic story of World War II? 

Author Martha Kelly has a habit of ending chapters on cliffhangers. . . . and with three major characters in three different geographical areas, I had to keep reading.

The Title. . . .

I am always cognizant of titles - what they mean and why they were chosen. Lilacs do appear twice in this book but I might have selected something different.

And the front cover illustration of three women walking away, arm in arm. How do our three women's lives intersect, I kept wondering.

I almost posted a preliminary review yesterday when I was about halfway through the book but then found some time and finished it (and it's a long book). And glad I was to read the author's note: Lilac Girls is based on true events which is amorphous, misleading, contradictory at best and doesn't usually tell me anything but the author's note does help tremendously.

Sisters and Friends and Family and the War and a Little Bit of Love

It is hard yet realistic to bounce from a wealthy socialite in New York City to a young woman in occupied Poland and a woman doctor in occupying Germany who believes wholeheartedly in the Reich. Reminds me of the conflicts in recent decades where the wars have been fought far from home and we hardly were affected at all. 

The first woman has a heart of gold and volunteers for the French war effort, seeking funds from the well-off for French orphans. The latter is hindered by her gender in a male-dominated occupation so when she sees an ad for a doctor in a re-education camp for women, she takes it (and finds herself in Ravensbruck!) And the other is a fighter and a supporter of others until she has a difficult time after the war.

We have one of them falling in love with a married man. We empathize with the war wounds that continue to plague another, well after the fighting stops. We follow the women in a concentration camp and really feel we are experiencing daily life there with its acts of generosity and betrayal.

Saga

Most sagas are historical novels about several generations of one family or two. This is a saga but horizontal not vertical in that it takes the reader through only a few years but focuses on three young women in three countries during World War II.

And the sage continues well beyond D-Day.

And, oh My!

Lilac Girls is part of a trilogy, the first book, Lost Roses,

 

also based on true events introduces us to the previous generation and World War I while Sunflower Sisters

begins the trilogy in the Civil War.

Book Review: Life is Golden: What I've Learned from the World's Most Adventurous Dogs (golden retrievers love camping)

Life is Golden: What I've Learned from the World's Most Adventurous Dogs, by Andrew Muse with Kicker Dog (Gibbs Smith [To enrich and inspire humankind], $10.99, 2022, 144 pp)

Every once in a while I see a photo book of goldens (or labs) doing what they do best: accompanying their human photographer (on camping trips) - and I just have to have that book, to drool over the photos*. Whether of the mountains in the distance (that I miss) or the gorgeous goldens, I won't say, but goldens are very photogenic. 

Life is Golden is one such book that I bought on a whim. Or, rather, it took me three hours in the bookstore to walk out with it and a few other books, which is why I don't often frequent bookstores in person - I can break the bank and have trouble carrying them all out to my car in one trip!

I took a long time reviewing this book because I didn't want to let it go (I donate the books after I review them).

Plotless Plot

There is no plot! Just a story of the travels of a man and his dogs and some of the lessons he learned along the way and the people they met and the places they visited around the country (mostly mountains) and the (extreme) sports they participated in - both man and dog - from the oceans to the mountains and Alaska to Ohio and hang gliding to snowboarding - and glaciers along the way.

The trip started with Golden Retriever Booter in Utah and finished with Golden Retriever Kicker (also in Utah) but along the way, author Andrew Muse grows up (though he started the adventure in his 20s) and also found a career - that of a content creator - of a podcast called Tiny Home Adventure, first sponsored by Go Pro and lasting three seasons (so far).

Most of the photos star Puppy Kicker and scenery, though Muse does appear in a few himself.

Love the font and I want so many of the photos on my wall as posters! However, not all the photos were identified and I would have loved a map of their travels.

*Puppy Kicker and Puppy Fun

Puppy Kicker

Puppy Fun

Book Review: Woodrow on the Bench - Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog (Boston, well-loved old dog)

Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog, by Jenna Blum (Harper Collins, 2021, 197pp PB, $17.99) 

"Sometimes, it seems, when you let people know what you're going through, help arrives when you're least expecting it, bringing you what you didn't know you needed, in forms above and beyond what you've ever imagined." p. 61

The Story of a Lab, His Life and Friends

I am partial to labs. OK, I am in love with labs, and black labs are classic. So I thought Woodrow on the Bench was about a judge and a trial.

Was I wrong! Woodrow is a lovely memoir of a Boston Labrador retriever who lived across the street from a park with a bench where he and his person, Martha, would  hang out and collect friends - for who can ignore a friendly lab!

Martha's love for Woodrow comes through on every page in the way she cares for him but, not only that, Martha's bevy of friends caring for him and for Martha, whom Woodrow left behind. We read starting in May, through to December, with each month having its own subtitle. And we empathize with Martha who struggles and struggles with the question, "When?" even as she carries "Kooks" (aka Woodrow) up and down three flights of stairs every day to his park bench and his myriad of friends who stop as they walk by.

We learn of one friend all the way over in Minnesota who comes for a last visit. We meet several Boston authors, friends of both Martha and Woodrow, who come to help. Even the doorman has a special place in his heart for Woodrow - and some dog biscuits.

This is a short read for it contains the Quality of Life questionnaire (one of several) and short inter-chapters.

A Love Story

The inscription reads: "For Woodrow and for anyone who's ever loved an old dog. . . . " so have some Kleenex at the ready.

Book Review: White Cat, Black Dog (short stories)

White Cat, Black Dog, by Kelly Link (Random  House, 2023, $18, 276 pp PB) 

This is not my usual book review in which I write about plot and style. White Cat, Black Dog is a hard book to review, for me. I always have a difficult time reviewing a collection of short stories: the plots vary too much as do, sometimes, the writing. 

I wanted to read White Cat because it is short, has Dog in the title and comes highly recommended. Author Kelly Link is highly regarded: she won a MacArthur Genius Grant. 

So, how could I go wrong? I generally like books other reviewers like and pan those that others also pan. Sometimes I am the lone voice in the wilderness. 

The stories did get better and more understandable but I just don't see how they could be the basis of a book club selection or the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle  (CLSC) list for 2026 or even a finalist for the 2024 Chautauqua Prize. Obviously many people disagree with me. You might, too.

A collection of seven stories can usually be read in any order, so I started with one of the short ones, sort of in the middle. It was hard for me to understand: I found even sentences were hard to comprehend. The premise is great however: stories that are modern day remakes of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales.