Book Review: When Harry met Minnie (two bull terriers in NYC)

When Harry met Minnie: A True Story of Love and Friendship, by Martha Teichner* (Celadon Books, 2021, 246pp HB, $26.99) 

Fast Friends, Dogs and People - one black, one white, with their own coat of arms (Sir Harry Fertig and Lady Minnie Teichner). Chance made them friends, as it does for all of us.

A Lovely Read for a Lazy Afternoon (about 6 hours)

I would read any book by a journalist or reporter (except some 'report' style non-fiction that tends to be b-o-r-i-n-g) - When Harry met Minnie is no exception. A lovely first book about love and friendship - the love between dogs and humans and the friendship between women and also between men and women.

But, About that Title, . . . and a Delightful Front Cover Photo

"Harry"met Minnie and, like many humans, they ended up living together but their meeting (or any meeting) certainly cannot be the crux of a book, and it isn't. We get to know New York City (and its traffic) through Harry, we meet some high-society** designers, single people in their later years, and, of course, dogs (some, also in their later years).

I'm a dog person, a trainer who prefers sporting breeds (Labs and Goldens, ready to please) over the more independent terriers (like Harry and Minnie) but having judged the temperaments of Bull Terriers (BTs), this reviewer almost fell in love with the breed. Any book about stubborn, independent BTs is bound to be full of their antics but they have to share space with stories of human friendship, new and old, as they are honored. 

Martha has a bull terrier (BT) and is gradually convinced to take in an older BT belonging to a woman who is terminal. Gradually, the two women introduce the two dogs as the women also become good friends over six months. 

But, about that title, . . . I can't think of a better one!

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*"CBS Sunday Morning" - How does an international radio reporter ever manage to have a dog? With a canine au pair, of course!

**and Teichner refers to the description of a high-end line of ladies shoes ("Too much is never enough") which is also the (approximate) title of a book about Donald Trump by his niece, a psychologist 

Book Review: Lab Dog (Beagle)

Lab Dog, A Beagle and His Human Investigate the Surprising World of Animal Research, by Melanie Kaplan (Hachette, $32, 2025, 344 pp HB)

A Long Book that Covers Everything Dog

From research to companions, cadavers and adoptions, author Melanie Kaplan must have spent 10 years researching this book. And her rescue Beagle Hammy went along, too, for most of her interview trips across the country.

I'm not a barky Beagle fan. At least I wasn't until I was confronted with the relationship Kaplan had with her dog and although I'm a Lab and Golden Retriever person, I may just look into the Beagle world.

Part non-fiction, part memoir, part name dropping , part research summaries, Lab Dog has the admiration of canine behavior people, most of them PhDs, less so in the world of veterinary research. though. Change happens slowly.

I thought Lab Dog would be a gory tearjerker but Kaplan tells about research animals (and their scientists) with humor and caring. However, I give you, dear reader, permission to skim chapters 3-5 since they are quite repetitive with experiment after experiment and chock full of science. A cursory read will suffice.

Kaplan is a talented writer when it comes to human interest stories (the ending to this book is a real tear jerker). Although I am a scientist, I felt some parts of the book (chemistry, the FDA)  could be shortened. 

Basically, Kaplan adopts a Beagle and wonders about his history. Did he live in a small cage in a noisy research kennel? Was he subjected to hurtful experimentation and, if so, did the technicians consider the dogs mere "things"?

As Kaplan (and Hammy) learn about research and rescue on animals, dogs, Beagles and Hammy himself, Kaplan searches for two things: Hammy's personal story and someone in his former life seeking forgiveness (restorative justice). And Kaplan herself grows as she learns she already has the answers. 

Ethical Reality Check

I would have liked to know more about the three R's of replacement of animals with non-animal models, reduction in the number of animals used and refinement of the process by minimizing pain and suffering. I would have liked to learn more bout the four pillars of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice (p 302).

But, on the whole, if you want to know more about animal experimentation (dog, Beagle) Lab Dog is a great place to start knowing who's who in the field - the veterinarians, the universities and other research facilities. And the dogs, of course. Hopefully there will be fewer research dogs in the future as test tube and petri dish models proliferate.

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Fun Facts

It takes an average of 14 years for a drug's approval

Of the drugs that show promise in pre-clinical studies (a euphemism for animal studies), more than 95% fail in human clinical trials, because they prove toxic or ineffective in humans

Until 2021, new drugs for Alzheimer's came with a 99.6% failure rate.

The average cost of each drug that makes it to market is more than $1 billion

And, finally, read this book and meet PBM, Peanut Butter Man!

Book Review: My Life in Dog Years (dogs, of course)

My Life in Dog Years, by Gary Paulsen (Yearling Nonfiction, $6.99 PB, ages 8-12, grades 3-7, 144 pages, 1999) Review by Skye Anderson 

Somehow, I bet you are familiar with the title, My Life in Dog Years, and may have seen this book in bookstores, but you probably haven't read it. 

Yet. 

Do. Read it.

It's worth it, for a lazy Sunday afternoon, and, even with interruptions, will take only an hour or two. Unless you are reading to your child or he is reading to you.

Then listen to the CD here.

Born around 1940, Gary Paulsen, a Newbery award winner, lived in 'the olden times' when dogs (and boys) ran loose in small towns. He had a dog, Snowball, when his dad was stationed in the Philippines after World War 2, then another dog in small town Minnesota, then in larger towns in Minnesota, then in the country in Minnesota and Colorado and New Mexico - I have probably mixed up these locations (I didn't take notes while reading - I just enjoyed the book) because they played only a minor role in the saga of a boy and his dog(s).

Stories of unforgettable dogs. Meet them here in Paulsen's book. 

I read this years ago and still remember three of the dogs. There was: 

Cookie who saved his life, 

Snowball in the tropics, 

Dirk who saved him from being beat up as a kid by bullies, 

Rex the 24/7 farm dog who constantly patrolled the farm and herded the kids, 

Caesar the great gentle Great Dane who knocked over the couch, 

Fred the five dollar "destructo" pup, 

Quincy who moved on to a better match and became just a regular old dog, 

Josh, the smartest dog in the world, the quintessential Border Collie who epitomized the phrase, "Watch one, Do one, Teach one" (without the teaching), 

and my all-time fave, Ike, who went home to someone who needed him more (and this chapter is a tear-jerker, but a sweet one)!

Book Review: Chasing the Bear (A Young Spenser Novel)

Chasing the Bear: A Young Spenser Novel, by Robert Parker (Philomel Books [Penguin Young Readers Group], $14.99 HB, 169pp, 2009)

Remember Sheldon and then young Sheldon of the Big Bang Theory? Now we have Spenser and young Spenser, the PI (private investigator). We have 54 (or 40) Spenser books as well as other series that author Robert Parker has bestowed us with. 

Chasing the Bear begins in today's world (not the world of Spenser's childhood) with his girlfriend Susan, a brilliant Harvard psychiatrist,  and Spenser having a conversation in author Robert Parker's delightful manner: full of one-liners that come out with a bang over and over again - delightful!

Young Spenser is 14 and manages to save a friend who is a girl, not a girl friend, then inserts himself into a bullying situation. And young Spenser is raised by his father and two uncles, a family not known before in literature but unique and with plenty of situations to get into. 

Adults will like this book as it vacillates between the young Spenser of yore and the current-day of Spenser and his girl friend. Young boys will like this book for all the boxing terms and even young girls will like this book, skipping over the fights, but dwelling on young love.

If you are familiar with the Robert Parker who-dun-its, you will like this book, if not, you may just become a fan - and there is always a dog named Pearl!

Book Review: Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (OT) (also, a movie)

Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women, by Kate Moore (Sourcebooks, 2016, 480pp HB, $26.99)

In the 1920s with the 1898 discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie, the "healing" properties of this new element came to people's attention. Plus its ability to shine (glow) in the dark.

It was this latter property that made it so valuable. Girls* were hired to paint the numbers on watches and clocks with this new 'magical' paint that allowed people to tell time at night. This was especially valuable for soldiers in the field so these dial-painting companies became quite busy and the girls who were the dial-painters made a very good salary during the Depression. And 'girls' they were: some started in the 'studios' at the age of 14.

Dial-painting was a very prestigious job and not only for the rather high salary. The girls worked as much as they could and became very close: it was a fun job. 

Until they started dying. First their teeth fell out, then they had skeletal weaknesses. All this took from mere months to  years. They became living corpses and were fired for limping. By 1925 the world knew radium was  poison but the companies refused to believe it.

Ghost Women

The living dead became shrunken and shapeless, mere eggshells of their former selves. Most of them.

Radium Girls is a long book (nearly 500 pages) that reads quickly. Author Kate Moore wanted to give credence to all the girls so the reader may have a hard time remembering who is who: that's why the list of key characters goes on for four pages. And perhaps because they were young girls, their legal fights went on longer than necessary but may be the main reason we today have organizations like OSHA - to protect the naive who work so hard for the company executives.

Also a play in England and a movie, Radium Girls will stay in your mind for a long time.

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*I found it interesting how the girls were called 'girls' in the book but men were called 'men,' This might have mirrored society as a whole during those days. This reviewer also noticed some other little quirks in the writing that made her think English may not have been the author's (editor's) first language (then I found out the author is British).

Book Review: Green on Blue (Afghanistan civil war)

 Green on Blue, by Elliot Ackerman (Simon and Schuster, 243pp PB, $18, 2015)

Ah, Afghanistan - but from the viewpoint of a 'sort of' conscripted Afghan boy-soldier with an American, Mr. Jack, in the far background (blue refers to the US military while green refers to the 'other' side).

A Couple of Short Stories

Much of Green on Blue gives us the daily life of a soldier in the Afghan 'civil war' around a couple of critical incidents that might easily be missed. We start out meeting two brothers growing up alone in a village whose market is bombed by the Taliban: Aziz and his older brother Ali learn to  live on the street as beggars. Ali loses a leg but medical care is rationed, generally for the wealthy. Therefore, in exchange for Aziz joining a militant* group, his salary goes to care for his brother.

Pashtunwali

Author Elliot Ackerman gets the Afghan Code of Ethics down pat: nang** is honor, badal is justice, revenge or retribution, and the book is a demonstration of Pashtunwali all the way through, the unwritten rules that the country lives by. 

Coming of Age

Besides the theme of honor, Green on Blue takes us through winter, the season for military training, followed by the spring offensives, using roadblocks as a common method of gaining funds for supplies. Aziz somehow quickly ascends in rank and is requested by name to accompany some of his higher commanders.

The climax is very much food for thought in that some readers just won't 'get it' while others will thank the publisher for the book club guide and for Phil Klay's (Redeployment) interview of Ackerman in the back.

And yes, there is a dog in this novel and a pet dog at that (an animal not usually considered a pet in this country).

Writing Style

Ackerman, who spent a couple of tours in-country, knows the Afghan military. Still, I wonder at Aziz and his cohorts having IBAs (individual body armor) which would protect them but also slow them down. I also wonder about Mr. Jack, the American traveling alone to coordinate some of the Afghan troops. 

The author also has a unique writing style consisting mainly of many short choppy sentences interspersed with longer ones. The reader does become accustomed to this though.

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*Afghanistan is composed of many tribes, the largest of which is the Pashtun (the two main languages are Pashtu and Dari [similar to Persian Farsi]) tribe who usually rules even though they are located primarily in the south, in Kandahar, rather than around the capital Kabul. During the conflict of the Taliban around 2000, Afghans either took the side of the Americans or of the Taliban.

**Ackerman's book is missing a glossary that would make the reading so much easier:

shalwar kameez (like the Vietnamese woman's ao dai, wide pants with a long tunic)

shura, jurga, loya jurga (council)

zakat (tithe)

Book Review: The Fault in our Stars (OT)(teen love story, cancer)

 The Fault in our Stars, by John Green (Penguin Books, 318pp, $12.99, 2012, a number one book on many lists and now a movie) 

A true, made-up love story but also a life lesson in growing up. . . . another book that is probably on your list of books to read, that keeps getting longer and longer. My advice to you: get it and read it. Then watch the movie. Or, watch the movie and then get the book.

Love the Names!

Our teens are Hazel Grace and Augustus "Gus" Waters - the perfect pair - of names, that is. As far as being a couple, they are so much older than their years: they sprout poetry (with a surprise poet at the end).

Hazel has been stable for three years but homeschooled for that time. Her lungs are weak from thyroid cancer so she must use oxygen. Gus, on the other hand, seems quite healthy, in remission since his leg (and the cancer) was removed. He latches on to Hazel when they meet in a teen cancer survivor therapy group in the basement of a church. Eventually they become close and live through the demise of some of their friends.

Perhaps you have heard of the last wish? Hazel used hers for Disneyworld a couple of years ago but Gus has saved his so far. 

Poetry

The teens speak in poetry more and more as the pages fly by and Hazed and Gus end up in Amsterdam to see their favorite author - a trip full of memories, both good and frustrating. Fortunately, Hazel's mom is wonderful (and her dad is the sensitive one).

After Amsterdam, they hold a pre-funeral that is meaningful and . . . but I won't tell you how the book ends. Suffice it to say that this is a book you will hold in your heart for a long time.