Life-Sized Animal POOP, by John Townsend (Sterling, 2019, $14.99, 48 pp, ages 7-9)
A Big Book of Poop
Author John Townsend has created an educational book that kids will devour. It starts out small and gets bigger and bigger until the last animal, Tyrannosaurus Rex' poop is shown to be
Nose Work Handler: Foundation to Finesse, by Fred Helfers (Dogwise Distributor, 2017, 144 pp, $28.99 paperback)
So, you have just heard about the latest dog sport, Nose Work, and want to find out more about it! Or, you just read a memoir about a Search and Rescue (SAR) dog and want to see if you can train your dog to search and rescue. So, you find a book called Nose Work Handler by Fred Helfers who has decades of training experience.
This reviewer has some experience in the new sport of nose work and even began in the instructor certification path - she finds this book interesting to say the least.
First of all, nose work is the non-professional 'sport' while SAR is for the professional dog. Training methods are the same (positive reinforcement) but pet dogs are in it for fun and enjoyment primarily while the pro-dog must be trained to a much higher level. This reviewer finds Helfers does not get the two mixed up but also doesn't tease out the differences for the novice to understand.
What We Liked
This is a reader-friendly book with not only an index but also a glossary. The detailed table of contents is mirrored in the text to make finding one's way easy.
The large text is a bit amateurish and the text reads more like a text book than an interesting, detailed book - but it is short! For example, the author defines new terms in the body of the book but it would be more memorable if he went into more detail, rather than just defining the term.
Helfers opens the book with 'everything you always wanted to know about your dog's nose but were afraid to ask' (to paraphrase a well-known phrase) with several excellent drawings, but, dear reader, feel free to skip most of this. You do need to at least skim it for a better understanding of our dogs' sense of smell and how sensitive it is.
Also covered is canine body language and its importance, various alerts, leash handling skills, and several drills for the team of you and your dog, but, even though each drill states the goal and when in the training cycle it is best used, they are rather advanced. Helfers also does a super job of explaining how to plan a search and afterwards, what to document, as well as training errors. Loved the short mottos in the last chapter that help you remember what to do. Also, a good reference section.
So, there is a lot to like in Nose Work Handling, but also a lot that needs work. Although the organization looks impressive, and it is, the book lacks entirely in sticking to either the amateur or the professional. A professional may not be as bored and may be able to discern the finer points while the family pet owner will either be inundated with facts and put the book (and sport) down or will try to do it all and then become frustrated.
All in all, a good editor is needed for the next edition.
To Be of Service, a documentary* by Josh Aronson, 2019, 87 minutes
Whether the title of this documentary refers to those who went to war or to the dogs who help save them when they returned home, this is a striking film, long overdue - fascinating, educational, and yes, you may even shed a tear.
To Be of Service
Follow several veterans from across the nation as they explain their PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and how it came about, how it affected both them and their family, and how their service dog (SD) changed their life. Follow the five SD organizations who trained the dogs to save a life.
One soldier -
Greg,
Phil lost a leg in a helicopter accident and still has nightmares but along with his successor SD Champ (short for Champagne), he takes life one day at a time. Champ licks him awake when he has a nightmare.
And, perhaps because of Josh Aronson's To Be of Service, the VA now provides service dogs to veterans, a change that has been a long time in coming. Although it is just a pilot program, it will change the lives of many and the hope is that it will become permanent.
(photo credits: Josh Aronson)
*currently on Netflix
Santa Paws, by Nicholas Edwards* (Scholastic, 1995, $4.50, 151 pp, ages 9-12)
First in a series of six young adult books by Nicholas Edwards (and continued by Kris Edwards) about one lucky but homeless pup, Santa Paws** reminds us of the Old West cowboy hero who "handles" the bad guy and then rides off alone, into the sunset.
Lucky and Homeless in the same sentence?
Our pup is cold and hungry and all alone. Where did his mom and littermates go***? Regardless, the young pup ventures out into the town of Oceanport to find food - and a home. Good people set out plates of leftovers but the humans also get into trouble and have to be bailed out by the young homeless pup who, then shy and fearful, runs away, still cold and hungry.
Like Robin Hood or Forrest Gump, our pup does good deeds, even saves lives but a home and family and a boy to play with still elude him.
How many times must he be a hero before he finally finds his forever home?
This reviewer can't wait to read the rest of the series and believes it would make and excellent movie!
------------------------
Even adults will tear up at some of the situations our reluctant hero manages to turn around.
*actually Ellen Emerson White
**not the Santa Buddies story nor the one by Laurien Berenson
***they were picked up by Animal Control and taken to the town animal shelter to await adoption in a warm safe place
Santa Paws Comes Home
Santa Paws to the Rescue
Santa Paws, Our Hero
Santa Paws and the New Puppy
Nobody Gets Out Alive, by Leigh Newman (Scribner, 2022, $26.99, 278 pp)
With eight short stories about women in modern-day Alaska, one wonders why the title story is number three. In some anthologies, it would be the first story, or the last, or not at all. Perhaps for Nobody Gets Out Alive, it may just be the luck of the draw.
The Best Part!
The best part of Nobody is the cover illustration! I simply love it! With colors of orange and yellow, and a bit of green tossed in, the very striking cover reminds one of army boots perhaps, as the illustration is a shoe print, but a shoe print with a paw print and two (probably) women - one with a heavy back pack and one with a fur anorak (parka with a hood lined with fur). And, if you look carefully at the boot print you may just see a wolf. So, the book is a collection of stories about women in the wilderness in winter, with a dog or two thrown in?
I Beg to Differ
Starred by Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and Booklist, Nobody also was long-listed for the National Book Award. Plus, it is a Most Anticipated Book by Vogue, Lit Hub, Oprah Daily and The Millions. Although this history is not exceptional, it is quite impressive at first sight.
However, I beg to differ. Even though author Leigh Newman is adept at dialogue and funny to boot, we don't really get to know the characters and the plots are weak, so much so that I didn't finish the book, though I did read about 25% of the stories. I realize I may have missed some great ones in the remaining six but I didn't want to wade through any more tedium.
Your view may differ.
Newman does, however, paint a realistic picture of Alaska (Anchorage) and even mentions my hometown! (Spokane, Washington) in the first selection, of a young girl whose mother left. In another, "High Jinks," fourth- and fifth-grade girls go river camping with their fathers, flown in by private plane.
Nobody's Pilgrims, by Sergio Troncoso (Cinco Puntos Press, 2022, 278 pp, $17.95)
Not Your Usual Road Trip Story
Here we have three "pilgrims," three 17-year-old kids on a road trip, but not your usual road trip. They have "taken" a nice truck and are driving from Texas to Missouri to Connecticut. Why? Several reasons, one being that that state seems beautiful with its autumn colors and cooler weather.
As for the truck, it may be hiding something illegal because the kids are being hunted, inadvertently, with the innocent families' help.
As for why they left Texas and Missouri, one wants to get away from an abusive extended family, one wants to escape a small town and living with her brother's girlfriend with whom she doesn't get along, and one is undocumented, so they have to stay off the radar.
And we have one girl and two boys. . . .
How is Your Spanish?
This reviewer's knowledge of Spanish is less than rudimentary, having taking one class many years ago, but I did recognize some words and could guess at others, except for the whole sentences. In other words, readers with a knowledge of migrant workers or undocumented Mexicans might feel right at home in Pilgrims while others will learn much about another way of surviving.
Presaging COVID?
Is it drugs that cause the kids to travel so fast and secretively or is it something worse? What could be worse than drugs in a book written before COVID? Have you heard of Marburg? Regardless, the bad guys are quite believable and good at what they do.
A Fast Read
With the exception of the first 50 or so pages, this was a page-turner. I couldn't wait to start the next chapter to find out if I would be following the teens with hearts of gold who just want a good start at life, or the bad guys, or the family who inadvertently did the wrong things because they believed.
What Would I Change?
I would probably open this tale with an exciting scene in Connecticut and then start at the beginning which I would condense - 50 pages of setting the story loses too many readers. I would redraw the front cover to make the kids look more attractive to draw in more readers, and, finally, I would rewrite the ending rather than leaving it up in the air with the reader expecting the worst.
And I would include a caveat about the physical violence.
Having done all that, Nobody's Pilgrims would make for one on-the-seat-of-your-pants movie!
Television, A Memoir, by Karen Brennan (Four Way Books, 2022, 151 p, $19.95)
Is Television, A Memoir a book of poetry or prose? Or, perhaps poetic prose? Or a collection of prosey poems? Whatever, it is slightly askew.
Regardless, it is fun and sweet with three sections of short chapters - would you believe 76 of them, mostly one-pagers, single paragraphs? However, the author's clever quirkinesses will bring a smile to your face unless you are reading this in public, in which case you will embarrass yourself by laughing out loud.
How long is a short story after all? (or a short short story, if there is such a thing?)
The answer: 1,000 to 10,000 words. That is from 3 to about 30 pages. Pretty long in my opinion. Flash fiction is 500 words or less so perhaps this is a flash fiction book that is not fiction.
Author-poet Karen Brennan tells us the story of her life, from living with three siblings and a mother in a wheelchair (polio) to her own marriages, being on welfare in grad school with a child, living in the desert, and other situations which, if you lived through them, you will think again. For example, how many of us remember the nightly TV news reporting on the number of troops killed in VietNam? Or, where we were when we first watched television? For the author, it was at a neighbors' across the street, a small black and white screen, 15 people watching, standing up. (For me, all I recall is that I was four and my brother was six and our two channels were 4 and 6.)
Two chapters are titled "Television" as depicted on the front cover, which will make sense as you read about the author's children.
You will have your favorites, among a very few you may not understand. I recalled, reading "Bomb Scares," how we would file out into the hall, crouch down against the inner wall and assume the nuclear bomb position, heads tucked. In California, however, the author merely crawled under her desk.
And what about when you are teaching elementary school, and a man enters your classroom, interrupting a lesson. Thinking he is the person to fix the air conditioning unit, you immediately tell him to wait outside, and he does. Of course, you do not recognize Paul Newman, whose son is in your class.
Television is an entertaining, fun book that will cause you to reminisce, if you are old enough. If not, ask your grandmother about things like typewriters!
Side Effects of Wanting, Stories by Mary Salisbury (Mint Hill Books, 2022, 145 pp, $15.95)
Smooth Writing
A good book has a good story, well-written. Side Effects is well-written. Very well-written. Very smooth. Magical. I don't know how good authors do it, but they do, and Mary Salisbury is one of them.
The Stories
A compilation of 16 short stories from 4-10 pages set mostly in Oregon (Medford) but also Colorado and California. Much like a Russian novel with almost too numerous characters to remember, plus a couple of typos, you are suddenly dropped into someone else's life, sometimes mid-conversation. This makes you smile as you figure out who is who, and is the Claire in this story the same Claire as in the earlier story but 20 years later?
One
A 17-year-old girl selects a college out of state and her older brother with his two friends and a dog drive her (her parents do not - a mystery for a later story perhaps?). The boys are mostly stoned: the story is set back in the 70s and when the girl arrives and sees her dorm room, she immediately withdraws from the school and goes to live with her aunt. Wow! Can you identify with any of that?
Other stories are written about different generations of people, about infidelity, with a man as the protagonist - or a woman. Author Mary Salisbury's pen is quite versatile and believable.
PS - many collections of short stories are titled after one story, perhaps the best or most well-known in the collection but not Side Effects. Is this title perhaps related to each of the included stories? Is each about one or more side effects? Or about wanting something? Some of the stories seem to just end as if they are cut off, perhaps for the reader to write the ending.
Joan is Okay, by Weike Wang (Random House, 2022, $27, 224 pp)
The Question and the Answer
When I first saw this cover, I thought the title was Joan is A Okay, perhaps because I am more used to the spelling OK than of Okay.
The question is not "Is This a Good Book?" but "Is Joan Okay?" The answer is for you to determine for yourself (as with all good literature) and you can probably do so well before the end, even as our protagonist, and especially those closest to her, know their answer (especially with the title as a hint). She, however, waffles a bit but those around her never do.
A Different Viewpoint
Joan is Okay has garnered kudos in many prestigious places: The New York Times, The New Yorker, NPR, and The Washington Post, plus it was long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. However, this reviewer begs to differ.
I have read the kudos and still beg to differ, plus the Amazon 'reviews' are all over the place. I usually give a book at least a 50-page read if I'm not mesmerized by it before then, but Joan was hard to do this for. It was fairly easy reading and fast and because I kept waiting for a plot, I did keep reading until the end. And, actually, the last 40 pages or so did keep my attention. However, it was a long read.
A Plotless Plot
A fascinating premise: a 30-something successful woman physician in a New York City hospital, of Chinese origin, is pressured by her even more financially successful brother (and their mother) to move closer to him, not work so hard, and settle down to raise a family.
And Another. . . .
Although I was sent Joan is Okay, I was more intrigued by Wang's earlier novel, Chemistry: A Novel because it was written with me in mind a bit more than Joan. However, I think I will check Chemistry out of the library to skim it before deciding to purchase it. What about you?
The Running Body: A Memoir, by Emily Pifer (Autumn House Press, 2022, 216 pp, $17.95 paperback)
The Plot or Lack Thereof
Not divided into chapters but into sections, The Running Body is a most unusual book - little in words but big in philosophy.
Questions to Muse About
What makes an athlete? Why is one sport more suited for a certain person than another? Or you more suited for one sport than another? And what if you never find the sport that is meant for you? Do you then become a pentathlete or decathlete - or a spectator?
Does the author really love running, or just love what it does to her body and how it makes her body look? Did she become a long-distance runner because she idolized how female runners looked - thin in all the right places? Is she borderline anorexic? Where is that fine line drawn? Karen Carpenter's disease took a toll on her heart and Emily Pifer's constant striving takes a toll on her skeletal system yet she still manages to live the college experience and reside in Ohio and West Virginia and New York and Wyoming and Oregon.
What is disciplined eating for an athlete? Where is the line between pleasure (a high) and pain? Can one eat too little? Too much? And what about when other athletes and your coach remark on your seeming weight loss? What's more important: to look like a runner, to have a running body, or to be a successful winning runner? And then, you graduate.
Pain. Discipline. Overtraining. Undereating. Why do so many athletes incur injuries? What is the cost?
Style
Now a PhD candidate, author Emily Pifer writes in stream of consciousness style about how she finally found her sport and what it did to her - good and bad. Though a female college athlete, she relates college experiences a university football star also lives and explains the consequences, but those, mostly from a coed's point of view, focused on how her body looks and the striving for perfection.
Some of the sentences don't make a lot of sense alone but, strung together, they do. And Pifer keeps skipping around her life, back and forth, requiring some readers to stop and ponder, but is it really important?
I kept reading, not to see how the plot would unravel but because I was mesmerized - the flow reminded me of honey yet the sentences would repeat themselves, would be fragments, would be otherwise unique.
Title? Cover Illustration?
You will 'get' the title, but the cover is food for thought. . . .
