Book Review: Blue Light Hours (mother-daughter, college freshman)

Blue Light Hours by Bruna Lobato (Black Cat, 2024, $17, 178pp) Review by Skye Anderson

In a Word: Sweet

Our daughters teach us how to be mothers. 

Blue Light Hours is a story of five years in the lives of a mother and her daughter, separated by thousands of miles and by college for one and aging for the other. They chat nearly every night by Skype and share memories and hopes and dreams but mostly memories.

And yet, this is not a usual relationship but, nevertheless, a loving one, with the mother reliving the previous year with her dying mother while trying to understand her daughter's need to study in the United States while not being able to return to Brazil (living on a scholarship).

The reader will reminisce her own college experience, down to the furniture in her dorm room and life on campus, one of a very few students who stay on campus between terms while fellow students take summer jobs back home or volunteer in Asia or . . . but our daughter relishes the aloneness and the beauty of hot summers to contrast with the first cold deep snow and the colors of autumn.

Mother comforts daughter and tells her to be safe, tells her that riding a bike can be dangerous, while every time her daughter calls, she picks up as if she has no other life (except for the soaps).

We wait for the plot to thicken, but it doesn't. Instead, author Bruna Lobato leaves us with a feeling of love and calmness and the realization that things never change. . . even as they ever so slowly do

Book Review: This Motherless Land (OT)(girl in England and Nigeria)

This Motherless Land, by Nikki May (HarperCollins, 2024, 342 pp, $30), NPR's Best Book of the Year. Review by Skye Anderson.

If a book can be fun while being engrossing, this is it! 

We have two sisters: one good, one not so good, separated by a tragedy. Two countries on two continents. Their two daughters who become best friends and subsequently, also, separated by tragedy. Add a pearl necklace - or is it two, on the front cover?

We smell and taste Nigeria, we wilt in the oppressive heat, we inhale the tropics, rotting and yet beautiful. We experience having to live in a different culture but then return home - and it is the return that can be more difficult so that we never seem to fit in, in either country, on either continent, in either family.

A Sage of Time and Family

Well-written and impossible to put down, This Motherless Land is reminiscent of Persephone (about a girl growing up in revolutionary Tehran and spending her formative years alone in Europe, trying out everything) in covering two cultures but Motherless has a surprising plot within a plot followed by another.

This book will satisfy the OCD reader in that the front cover tells it all and the title is easily comprehendible. The prose is so good that you are not aware of it - the mark of a good author.

We simply loved this This Motherless Land!

Book Review: Honeymoon in Baghdad: The True Story of Two American Newlywed Soldiers Fighting Side by Side on the Battlefields of Iraq

Honeymoon in Baghdad: The True Story of Two American Newlywed Soldiers Fighting Side by Side on the Battlefields of Iraq, by Heidi Radkiewicz (Redwood Publishing, 2018, 250pp, $10.99)

I consented to review Honeymoon in Baghdad with some trepidation because so many war memoirs are too 'reporty' and not well-written but I was enthralled with Honeymoon! It is a fast read, one that when you have to put it down, you can't wait to return to it to see what happened in your absence. It is sweet, exciting and brought back memories of my own deployment, even with all the differences.

What's It All About?

A shy girl in Iowa drops out of college and joins the Reserves as a truck driver. She and her sister move to Colorado where she meets another Reservist and begins her new life as a married soldier, as unbelievable as it sounds to her hometown buddies.

Then the notice comes (nearly halfway through the book): her unit is being sent to Iraq! At least she will be with her husband.  But is that a good thing or not? Will they worry about each other too much?

What's Iraq All About?

Iraq is hot, hot, hot. And sandy. But the camaraderie is priceless and being able to see your spouse every day makes you the luckiest soldier in Iraq.

What Makes It a Good Book?

Author Radkiewicz has a knack for keeping the reader engaged even though there is a twinge that something bad will happen. Whether or not it does, I will leave up to you to discover.

The author also has the ability to keep you engaged with a cliffhanger at the end of most chapters and some unforgettable little gems along the way: "Amusingly, the road signs were in both Arabic and English, as if Saddam was expecting us and didn't want us to get lost. How thoughtful." (p. 137) And with truisms such as, ". . . as their tactics became more brutal, our defenses became more efficient." (p. 197)

All in all, Honeymoon is a delightful, sweet book about being in a war with your spouse. Although few readers share the exact same experiences, all share the same feelings and emotions. And, of course, the story (yes there are some dogs in Honeymoon) has its share of military cuss words but is also written by a woman who intensely believes in God. 

Apologies

Our book reviews have been absent for too long but we have been involved in a series-of-books review that, once begun, just seems to grow and grow like Topsy. As soon as we think we have written enough to cover the subject, we find more information to fill the holes. 

However,  we will continue as usual and post the series review when it is finally complete.

Thank you for your concerns about our absence!

Beloved Animal Rescue Pilot is Buried with a Puppy He Tried to Save - Pilots 'n Paws

In light of the recent deaths of a Pilot 'n Paws pilot and one of his canine passengers, we are reposting a blog article we wrote 10 years ago about this very worthy endeavor. For more information, here is a Washington Post article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/12/08/seuk-kim-pilot-rescue-dogs-crash/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------EverythingDogBlog #186: (Nearly) Wordless Wednesday: Pilots 'n Paws, A Promising Partnership

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs And We’re Flying Dogs and Cats

The other week, I wrote all week (five times) about my (mis)adventures ‘rescuing’ a four-pound three-legged poodle named Pierre on his way to the Poodle Rescue of Vermont, thanks to a wonderful organization called Pilots and Paws (PnP).

Since this is (Nearly) Wordless Wednesday, and since I had promised to feature the Pilots and Paws logo, here we go!

The Need

What could be better than the marriage of pilots who love to fly and dogs who need transportation to new homes – and the countless people who bring them together.

The Logo

Designed by a pilot, the PnP logo says it all, with a small plane superimposed on a paw print. Shop here for logo products and the new book, Radar’s Dream, for children.

To read a review of the inspiring book for adults (with plenty of dog and plane photos), Dog is My Co-Pilot, click here.

Pilots and Paws - PilotsnPaws - Pilots 'n Paws

An idea conceived almost by accident in 2007, Pilots ‘N Paws has grown exponentially to transport dogs and other needy animals mostly from the South and Southeast, places of high density homeless pupsters, to the MidWest and Northeast, where dogs are dearly wanted.

Pilots ‘N Paws is a 501(c)(3) organization so the pilots are true volunteers of their time, fuel, and planes. Thousands of pilots have registered to save dog-lives, flying short hops of a hundred miles to longer flights of more than two thousand miles with some requiring up to 10 legs, including automobile shuttles.

Each pilot in the air and the myriads of dog people working on the ground are truly “angels in the sky” for these very lucky and very deserving dogs.

Sponsored by Subaru* (“Love. It’s what makes a Subaru.”) and Petmate (for kennels, collars, leashes, and seatbelts), Pilots n Paws is a ‘paw-worthy’ organization!

(logo courtesy of Pilots and Paws)

*For a cute Subaru story, read this EverythingDogBlog    

Book Review: The Girlhood Journeys (similar to the American Girls books, dolls, etc.)

The Girlhood Journeys series is like the American Girls series: several girls, each with books. We read Juliet, Book One, and Marie, Book One. The girls depicted each have a talent or a special animal, from dancing to raptors, but they also are typical growing girls, learning how to be patient along the way. In addition, some surmount obstacles as a result of growing up such as getting lost, but finding their way home again.

Juliet: A Dream Takes Flight, by Anna Kirwan (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996, ages 7-11, 71pp, $9.99, grades 3-4) Review by Skye Anderson

Juliet, loyal and courageous, and Marguerite, a young lady of the manor, live in medieval England in 1339. One is destined to live a life in court and the other, to become a servant. Best friends, they are nearly of the age to marry but will they have to part ways?

Marie: An Invitation to Dance, by Kathleen Kudlinski (Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996, ages 7-11, 71pp, $8.99)

Marie, a graceful young dancer in the stylish and dangerous city of pre-Revolutionary Paris in 1775 takes dancing lessons and is quite talented but needs a sponsor in order to continue her career path. Read about the trials and tribulations in pre-civil war France of Marie, her best friend Joelle, and a young girl from the American colonies, Prudence. 

Both books relate real history of the times in the back of the book, with facts and illustrations.

----------------

Other Girlhood Journeys books include Kai, a determined young girl on an important journey for her Yoruba tribe in southwestern Nigeria in 1440,

Shannon, a lively, spirited Irish immigrant making new friends in bustling Victorian San Francisco of 1880, and

Isabella, in A Wish for Miguel, Peru 1820

Book Review: Avenging the Owl (Oregon, California surfer boys, raptors, recovery)(OT)

Avenging the Owl, by Melissa Hart (Sky Pony, 224 pp 2016, $15.99HB, grades 5-8, ages 11-13) Review by Skye Anderson 

About Family and Everything Else!

You live the ideal life of a 13-year-old boy, surfing it up in California when, all of a sudden, to save your writer dad, your family moves to Oregon and lives frugally. The boy next door has Down Syndrome and is a pain in the you-know-what, your mom can't find a good-paying college teaching job, and your dad succumbs to depression. 

To top it all off, an owl commits a "crime" and for revenge, you make a serious mistake and consequently have to spend summer days volunteering at a raptor (bird) sanctuary under bossy Minerva (whom we never really get to know) and know-it-all Lucas. You don't like birds and, as a matter of fact, are afraid of raptors.

Avenging the Owl is a book you will read faster and faster as the pages fly by about a dysfunctional family or two, and a myriad of facts about raptors woven in seamlessly so you don't realize how much you are learning amidst the backdrop of a move to the country, leaving friends behind. Only when a crisis occurs and turns out OK, does everyone value our protagonist, Solo Hahn (yes, it's a play on words - Hans Solo).

And yes, there is a slight foray into boyfriend-girlfriend at the end, helped along by our budding screenwriter and truant-turned-savior. 

You will also want to read Wild Within by prolific author Melissa Hart, the true tale that started her love affair with raptors.

Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls Inspired a Family

Book Review: A Very Marley Christmas (lab trouble, children's book)

A Very Marley Christmas, by John Grogan (Haper Collins, 2008, $17.99, 40pp HB) ages 2-8 years, preschool to grade 3. Review by Skye Anderson.

The book (Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog) 

and the movie (Marley & Me)

stole our hearts in 2008, and 2011, respectively, and every year thereafter. And after that came the paraphernalia - the stuffies, the Tshirts, the pillows and sheets, and more. And even more books and DVDs like Marley & Me: The Puppy Years.

And now we have a series* of 16 Marley books for the younger set (like the movies) that follow Marley through the year, culminating in Christmas with A Very Marley Christmas.

Everyone's Favorite Blond

What is more lovable than a puppy, and a blond puppy to boot! We love Marley even though he is the world's worst dog (because his family lets him) but also the word's most loved dog. 

Marley teaches the world about forgiveness, about love, and about family through his antics and adorable blondeness.

In the Christmas book, Marley attacks the paper snowflakes that little Cassie cuts out, thinking they are snow snakes. He "helps" Baby Louie decorate the tree and all three turn in for the night, to dream of a white Christmas.

This is a book to keep while adding to your collection of Marley books and movies.

------------------------

* Including Marley Steals the Show,

and Bad Dog, Marley!

Book Review: A Dog's Perfect Christmas (dogs, Christmas, crises)

A Dog's Perfect Christmas, by W. Bruce Cameron (Forge Trade, 304pp, 2022, $14.99PB) Review by Skye Anderson

Social Dramas, Teenager Style

Everything happens to this family - mom gets sick, dad has job problems, 8th grade daughter hates everything and everybody at the drop of a hat (typical moody teen), grandpa is still mourning grandma after two years, grandpa's old dog . . . .what could possibly make for a dog's perfect Christmas? Well, there is time since our saga opens in November when everything breaks loose: friends no longer, a hospitalization, grandpa's new lady friends (three), and more - much more.

Grandpa Sander, father Hunter, mother Juliana, teen Ello (Eloise), 3-year-old twin boys Garrett and Ewan, old dog Winstead and puppy Ruby, and would you believe author Bruce Cameron dedicated this book to Eloise, Garrett and Ewan? But it is fiction! I wonder if Sander and Hunter and Juliana are the author's relatives, too - in name only, of course. And what about his other books?

Perfect Christmas is a fast easy read with characters you really get to know and love, including Winstead, the old dog, and what he understands. And doesn't.

A Classic

W. Bruce Cameron's books are modern-day classics: he is a classy classic himself - a true dog lover who understands dogs and the people who love them. As a matter of fact, he has donated to more than 300 shelters and rescues, and you could spend all day on his website.

Cameron is prolific, the author of 15 books for adults, 10 books in the Puppy Tales category like Ellie's Story, 7 Lily to the Rescue books, 6 in A Dog's Purpose titles plus The Repro Madness series and other fiction and humor books!

And, did you know he wrote Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter?

From a Book Reviewer

I am the rare person who reads the dedication and the introduction and the preface and the acknowledgements, and looks at the notes and the index and even the pre-publication quotes from other authors and reviewers. 

You, dear reader, simply must read the Acknowledgements in the back of this book - absolutely funny and explains a lot.

This reviewer has read and watched several of Cameron's works and find them to be somewhat spotty in quality as a whole. The good ones are very good, though - classics even. This book will keep you guessing for a long time even if the turning point is a bit unbelievable, but, after all, this is for Christmas, right?

DogEvals reviews here so far (and my goal is to read the rest of the books!):

The Dogs of Christmas 

Ellie's Story 

W. Bruce Cameron movies:

A Dog's Journey 

A Dog's Purpose 

A Dog's Way Home  

Book Review: The Morningside: A Novel (a most unusual book)

The Morningside: A Novel, by Tea Obreht (Random House, 286pp, 2023, $29 HC) Review by Skye Anderson

The Setting

The Morningside seems to be a sparsely-populated apartment building sometime in the future after a quite destructive war - whose caretaker is a grandmother, then her daughter. The granddaughter and her mother arrive in this town as selectees from a repopulation program (food is rationed and meat is non-existent). The school waiting list for 11-year-old Silvia (Sil) is a couple of years long so she learns vicariously in the meantime, also helping her mother in maintenance duties.

The Plot

The "Dispatcher" broadcasts a few times a day and reads responses to a 3-question survey about how respondents like their life here. Sil figures out who he is (a former resident of The Morningside) and together they venture out into town at times. Sil also manages to steal keys and sneak into apartments which reveal some breath-taking moments.

This reviewer had a bit of difficulty discerning the plot and recommends that you read the slow parts quickly but not miss the few words that describe what happens at times almost in one sentence (that quickly!) - or you will have to backtrack!

The book ends a few years down the road (timewise) and catches us up on what has happened to the various characters, including a girl Sil befriends. Sil believes in omens and that she has special powers (what child doesn't) that cause things to happen. Or perhaps they are just explanations of why something happened?

Nevertheless, I would not have finished this book had it not had a dog, or two, or three. Perhaps they turn into young boys at night. Or perhaps they don't.

Book Review: Penelope Gets a Birdhouse (OT)(making friends with birds)

Penelope Gets a Birdhouse, by Pauli Libsohn* (Page Publishing, 98pp, 2023, $31.95 HB, ages 5-9) Review by Skye Anderson

Penelope Gets a Birdhouse will serve as bedtime stories for many a night if the 'reader' is 5 years old. If the 'reader'  is 9, it will keep that child quiet for quite some time - a long and large book that only gets better as one reads further into it.

Penelope wants a birdhouse: she seems to have a special way with the birds in her backyard who come to play in the birdbath and fly through the water spray from the hose that Penelope and her mom hold.

Join Penelope as she goes shopping for a birdhouse, as she picks the perfect spot, as she befriends a chipmunk and many many birds but especially one that she names Wendy. And learn about birds and learning to fly and where they spend their winter vacations!

Follow Penelope

Read along as Penelope goes (and grows) through the spring, summer and the beginning of autumn, day by day, with her backyard buddies and human friends who come for a bird party. Live her excitement with lots of words in all caps and lots of exclamation points. And plenty of illustrations. 

* also author of two more Pauli Libsohn books reviewed here: Penelope Causes an UPROAR and Julie's Big Day but I would start with the wonderful Penelope Gets a Birdhouse, based on a true story

Book Review: Firewood and Christmas Potatoes (OT)(from Oklahoma to Callifornia in the 30s)

Firewood and Christmas Potatoes, by Robin Carole (Mindstir Media, 2023, 56 pp, $19.65 PB, ages 5-12) Review by Skye Anderson

Living History and Learning Compassion

Delia (the author's mother) and her family left Oklahoma for California in the 30s to find work and with it, better weather. Times were hard and food was not plentiful. Living in a camp for farm workers, the five girls all had to pitch in when their mother was working the cotton fields. 

"The Hardest Times Can Teach the Greatest lessons."

Delia thinks ahead and keeps a secret for all the nearby families she knows: she prepares Christmas gifts from the heart, but they take a long time and meanwhile, more affluent girls at school make fun of Delia. The suspense mounts, however, as nobody knows Delia's plan but, one day in Deember, it starts - and ends with the preacher using Delia's gifts as the basis for his sermon. And you just know the bullies stopped calling Delia a 'dumb Okie.'

Families

This large-sized paperback version has a lovely cover* with firewood and potatoes on either side of an old wood-burning stove, radiating warmth, all framed by lovely pine boughs and pine cones on a backdrop of foggy stars, inviting you inside for a little history and also some family history.

Author Robin Carole has included photographs of her family and, in the back, a few pages to teach the younger set about Okies and the Dust Bowl and Great Depression and even includes a recipe for potato soup (what else!).

*Found out the cover artist lives in the town I grew up in, clear across the country!

Book Review: My First Day of Kindergarten (a dog story, and 11 others)

My First Day of Kindergarten: A Beechview Elementary School Series book, by Andy Gutman* (Independently published, 2023, 28pp, $9.50)

Authors and Characters

The Most Unique, Helpful Book!

Guess who the author is of My First Day of Kindergarten? The twelve fifth-graders on the cover! (With the help of real-life author (of several books) and adult Andy Gutman.)

Each  young author also chose a teacher from the elementary school to serve as a writing mentor, so thanks also must go out to the school's teachers and their principal. And each chapter features a character from one of Gutman's books**!

Do You Remember Your First Day of Kindergarten?

Were you just a little bit nervous (yet excited) because you didn't know anyone and your mother left you? Was your best friend  in the other classroom and you couldn't see each other until after school and couldn't even eat lunch together? 

Or did you have an older brother or sister who told you what to expect (since parents are too old to remember?) 

What if you had had a book written by kids, telling about their first day of school? Now you do!

Some kids cry because they don't know anyone and they are afraid they won't have fun or make any friends but everyone does, thanks to their caring teachers. They do make friends quickly and have fun, learning new rules - they can't wait to return the next day. And your child will have his favorite chapter or two.

BD's First Day: Nerves and Tears Turn into Best Friends

Juliet writes about BD, the dog on the cover, and his first day at kindergarten in Miss Kitty's class, which is typical yet different from all the others! Your child will learn that whatever his experiences are, other kids share them, and best friends are there to be made before the day is over.

My First Day is the first in the Beechview Elementary School Series, so expect more books to help kids in the near future.

*and 12 fifth-graders!

**It was a requirement to use at least one character from an Andy Gutman book, so the reader will learn more about dogs and bugs and even kids. Some authors used the same characters but gave them different names, something else fun about this book. We especially love how the people and dogs are illustrated.

Book Review: Accidents Happen (OT) (a children's book to keep)

Accidents Happen, by Jennifer Stupey (JETLAUNCH, 2024, 46pp, $14.99, ages: baby - 18 years) Review by Skye Anderson

Accidents happen! 

And this is a wonderful book for all ages to cherish - forgiving and inspirational. With illustrations by Loren Billington, this little book is one that will help you and your children through hard times. We also love the greenish-white pages and simple yet meaningful drawings. As a bonus, most of the people depicted have red hair!

Accidents happen! 

But it is what happens after the accident that is important. What you do and how you recover.

Author Jennifer Stupey has written an almost-autobiography on two levels: one for the younger set learning that apologies go a long way to heal both people concerned, and one for older kids who may have had a recent death in the family (in the author's case, her husband in a car accident). 

We drop ice-cream cones, we spill milk, we play too rough with our siblings, we break things of value, we say hurtful things, we trip and fall: but we can wipe up spills, mend broken things, apologize for hurting a friend's feelings, kiss an "ow-ie" and bandage it.

Accidents can make us sad or mad, we can learn that it's OK to not be OK and we can learn to understand and to accept what we cannot comprehend, we can become strong and brave, we can gain knowledge and perspective, persistence and patience. We can live with grief and learn to move forward into the future together.

Accidents Happen!

And then there are big accidents, like car accidents that we can't reverse but "with a little help from our friends" (and family) and the words and pictures in Accidents Happen, we can move forward through it and come out the other side, stronger and with memories to last a lifetime.

This is such a charming heart-felt book that we are sure it will be on our Top Ten list for 2024!

Book Review: Persepolis (OT)(contemporary girlhood in Iran, graphic novel)

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, Volumes 1 and 2 together (Pantheon, 352pp, 2007, $25.95, highschool and above) Review by Skye Anderson. Also a movie, a major motion picture that won the 2007 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize.

Persepolis, A Former Capital of Persia (Iran)

Persepolis, A book

Persepolis, An Archeological Site

Persepolis, A movie with Sean Penn, Catherine Deneuve, Gena Rowlands, Iggy Pop which was banned in Iran (remember that Anna and the King of Siam was banned in Thailand?)

I never thought I would read an adult comic book. I guess they are called graphic novels and this one is 341 pages long and quite famous, thanks to it also being a movie.

Young Marjane Satrapi is an only child growing up in Tehran during some wars in the late 20th century. She traces the history of her country starting in the 1950s and especially during the removal of the Shah and the new Islamic government that then took over. Members of Marjane's family were imprisoned and executed for speaking out for freedom. Her immediate family exists by revolting in private but that is a lesson this young girl simply cannot learn. Her parents (somehow well-off) send her to friends in Vienna where she does not have to wear the veil but meets a barrage of characters - she takes drugs, smokes, plays around, gets kicked out and returns to Iran where she also doesn't fit in. What happens to her creativity and personal life then is a merry-go-round that is sometimes hard to follow.

Suitable for highschool students and up, the author tells it like it is with all the swear words she needs and depicting the underlife of Vienna and the inside life of Tehran.

A table of contents would make reading Persepolis easier though chapter titles are descriptive. The print may be a bit small for some and the figures are rather primitive but the reader can always tell who is who.

All in all, this is a story of family, and growing up, and leaving family. It is also a story of love for parents and their unconditional love for their offspring. All in all, it is a hopeful book.

Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice (OT)(British, murder mystery, senior citizens)

The Man Who Died Twice, by Richard Osman (Penguin Books, 2022, 400pp, $13.13 PB) Review by Skye Anderson

"Highly Recommended"

The Man Who Died Twice came highly recommended to me by a couple of friends in their 70s, the ages of the quartet of British sleuths in this book, and is a multi-million copy bestseller (whatever 'bestseller' means), so why was it so hard for me to finish. over several weeks with a break in the middle?

NPR's Book of the Day for October 3, 2024, is the newest Richard Osman title and series (We Solve Murders)

while Man is a "Thursday Murder Club Mystery." The best thing about Man, to this reviewer, is the large print and 84 short chapters, some with titles, plus the two pages of discussion questions for readers and a cute fox on the cover.

If you like voluminous Russian novels with numerous characters and long Russian names (lots of consonants), you will love Man, set in England with just as many characters (but shorter names) of all generations and genders (so the names transcend the generations and genders, thereby making it even harder for me to remember who's who)

Man is the second in the series (and soon to be major motion picture) starting with The Thursday Murder Club (soon to be a major motion picture from Steven Spielberg and Amblin Entertainment) and followed by The Bullet That Missed and The Last Devil to Die (in that order). I really should try reading another Osman book, but, in the meantime, here below is a sample of the humor.

Two women cross the Channel into Belgium for the day and buy souvenirs for their friends: "It was quite a long journey back, so somewhere in northern France I unwrapped Ibrahim's chocolates and we ate them, and then I unwrapped Ron's beers and we drank them."

Book Review: Have You Met Stephanie Plum? (single, female bounty hunter)

Have You Met Stephanie Plum? by Janet Evanovich (St. Martin's Press, 52 pp, 2003, FREE Sampler) Review by Skye Anderson

If you like the Kinsey Milhone alphabet mysteries by Sue Grafton (set in California) and have read all 25 of them like I have, you will love Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum!

And if you haven't read the Kinsey books, try them, along with Evanovich's 31, and you will be hooked!

Have You Met Stephanie Plum? is a sampler. In this very short book with episodes from the first nine of her 31 books, we can read samplers ranging from just a couple of pages to 14 pages as we are introduced to all the main characters from Grandma Mazur to police officer Joe Morelli and former Army ranger, Ranger, along with Golden Retriever, Bob, plus Lula, the former 'ho' turned assistant bounty hunter. Our heroine, Stephanie, attracts unsavory characters, many of whom she went to school with, along with Morelli. And speaking of Morelli - and Ranger - Stephanie can't decide which one she should end up with.

Set in Trenton, New Jersey, with all of its culture, this sampler book also has a short summary of each of the nine books so far. I'd recommend starting with the first book but if you can't get it, start anywhere and get ready to laugh at the antics and exploding cars!

Book Review: Poppies of Iraq (OT) (hardback comic book, a graphic novel)

Poppies of Iraq, by Brigitte Findakly (Drawn & Quarterly, 120pp, 2017, ages 14 and up, $21.95) Review by Skye Anderson

I never thought I would read a comic book that wasn't for kids (shades of Dennis the Menace) but this was a lovely experience with pages of photographs interspersed among pages and pages of story-text with each sentence illustrated by the author's husband and colored by the author.

A story about growing up in Iraq (before moving to France to live [and marry]), written in and translated from French, Poppies of Iraq is a quick read but one you can put down and pick up again, easily. 

Brigitte spends her childhood in Mosul, Iraq, and comes from a very large Christian family. Her story begins before she was born: her father went to France for his degree in dentistry and married his French wife there before returning to Iraq. The author takes us through the next few decades and episodes of being a minority, of visiting relatives in France for the summers, living in a 'war' torn country (civil wars) but as a child, so we learn how she sees and is shielded from politics and discrimination. 

One  Page

When Brigitte then spends the rest of her childhood in France, she is also a minority - someone who speaks French but doesn't read or write it and is therefore 'put back' in school. After a few trips back to Iraq over the years she finally comes to the realization that she may never fit in, in either country.

The story weaves back and forth and touches upon Saddam Hussein and some of his acts, as well as being a pretty good history text book of a few decades.

What is it really like to be a child in turbulent times? What is one aware of and what does one remember - perhaps the pet you had to leave behind, perhaps playing with the little girl next door after months of the families ignoring each other because they are 'different.'

And the drawings are fun!

Book Review: Dog Days (another Olive and Mabel treasure)(bemused and confused)

Dog Days: Life in Lockdown with Olive & Mabel, by Andrew Cotter (Sourcebooks, 336 pp, 2022, $16.99) Review by Skye Anderson.

I've had this book for about a year, started it but didn't get very far until I picked it up again and am I glad I did! Actually I got sidetracked by viewing most of the 44 videos! (see below)

Dog Days: Life in Lockdown with Olive & Mabel is author Andrew Cotter's second book about life during COVID with Olive (black lab, 8) and Mabel (yellow lab, 4), his two very world-famous Scottish Labrador Retrievers who have entertained the world recently, starting with their daily life and non-antics during COVID depicted in short video snippets with accompanying hilarious non-stop commentary by their person, a COVID-underemployed sportscaster.

Sportscasters are known to get excited and talk lickity-split: Cotter does both in a Scottish accent to boot but he also writes like he speaks - fast with long sentences that I cannot read out loud in one breath. You can simply imagine his voice coming through the written words and laugh often as you read a book written as a diary over the course of a year.

Second Book, Amused and Confused

Dog Days starts in the middle of COVID and sees it to its finale, so I suspect Cotter's first book, Olive, Mabel and Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs, begins either before or at the start of COVID. Now I shall have to read Olive and report back if it's really necessary to begin at the beginning (shades of Julie Andrews!). I suspect not.

The Family and Its Environs

Olive, the elder, and Mabel, the younger and cover girl on Outside magazine, live with Andrew when he is home and not galivanting around the world covering international sports events in his Scottish lilt (or brogue). The world's best labs also live with the shadowy Caroline who is mentioned perhaps three times in the book so we can surmise she and Andrew are married. But the stars are, of course, Olive and Mabel.

As you read through, you come to know the stately worried Olive and the puppy-like Mabel. The written voice of their human grows on you and the color photos of the dogs being dogs in the middle of the book are, in British words, lovely, especially at the PGA championships and on stage, begging an audience for treats.

How It All Began

All of a sudden, sports events across the globe were cancelled so, with nothing to do, and two dogs to do it with, who wouldn't stage sporting events between the two laconic canines, video them and post them to the world.  And do it again. And again. Forty-four times, to be exact. 

But not all are narratives of the silent dogs looking and acting cute - like dogs. The author takes his dogs on hikes and camping trips up north. Unfortunately, this reviewer preferred the cute antics of the dogs at home with the creative repartee of their human - as far as she could understand the British vocabulary and references to people, places and things English (and Scottish).

The book's pages eventually and gradually depict the re-opening of society as COVID wanes and the author begins to write about more philosophical topics, like their hiking and camping trips. 

The Bond

This reviewer was unable to divorce the book from the 44 videos but I do want to point out the relationship between man and dog(s) - the dogs stay close to him, follow him without leashes, gaze upon him with acute adoration. In like manner, the man teases his dogs with love-felt humor that keeps you coming back for more. 

Video Episodes

1 The Dogs' Breakfast Grand Final

2 Game of Bones

3 The Walk of Shame

4 The Company Meeting

5 From the Sporting Archives

6 Mabel's Dream

7 Behind the Scenes

8 Not a Smooth Criminal

9 The Trust of Dogs

10 Intermission

11 Looking for Love

12 Run with Us

13 Home Help

14 Trick or Treat

15 Still Taking a Paws

16 Scent of a Dog

17 Exit the Stage

18 Home Gym

19 Lockdown Life

20 Card Game

21 Keeping Up Appearances

22 The Long Walk

23 Call of the Wild

24 Alternative Olympics

25 Co-authors

26 Squeak and I

27 The Inconstant Gardener

28 Escape to the Beach

29 Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

30 Their Master's Voice

31 World Dog Day

32 Sea Dogs

33 Just Being Dogs

34 Dogs of the Mountains

35 Once More to the Hills

36 Simple Dog Joy

37 Flora and Fauna

38 Butterfly Minds

39 Golf

40 Working Like a Dog

41 Mabel's Free Solo

42 Puppy Love

43 Ear-Flap Beach

44 Non-Gardener's World

Book Review: Border Collie Training Guide: Training Your Border Collie Dog (a mixed review) (Grade: C)

Border Collie Training Guide: Training Your Border Collie Dog, by Paul Allen Pearce (Paul Allen Pearce Publishing, 2015, 178pp, $19.95 HB) Review by Skye Anderson

"Your Complete Border Collie Guide for Caring, Raising and Training Your Border Collie Dog: From the Car Ride Home, Training Your Border Collie Begins"

First of all, we are not sure of the exact, complete title: in addition to the two titles above, it may include Border Collie Think Like a Dog. . . But Don't Eat Your Poop! and Here's Exactly How to Train Your Border Collie - all these appear on the front cover. Secondly, we received four border collie books at the same time, unsolicited. Third, this book is self-published (however, many self-published books are excellent - they just come with caveats) and a few years old.

On the whole, Border Collie Training Guide is a good training and care book in that author Paul Allen Pearch explains clicker training (positive reinforcement training). However, clicker trainers who have transitioned from traditional, force-based dog training, use positive methods and vocabulary whole-heartedly and as exclusively as possible. Pearce still uses vocabulary such as 'command' rather than 'cue' plus the words 'alpha' and  'obedience.' He also includes some protocols for traditional training methods, but, fortunately he says these are a last resort. And he also seems to skip a step here and there.

The husbandry sections are very good: nutrition, handling, how to lift a dog, e.g. The book also includes information on barking, digging, dog body language and other topics. 

What We Would Change

Here at DogEvals, we are trainers who also work with behavior cases and don't specialize in nutrition or other topics but, though this book is divided into three  parts, and we sort of figured out the different chapters, there is no table of contents or index which makes the information difficult to find.

On second thought, we did finally find a table of contents but it includes Part 111 without mentioning Parts 1 or 11 and appears a dozen pages into the text so we easily did miss it on first reading (or forgot it).

And, of course, DogEvals would delete the non-positive old-fashioned terms. We would also delete the traditional information and found the author's URL to be non-existent so the good reference section may also be outdated.

Last Words

This book is, for the majority, helpful and would be totally helpful if your positive-reinforcement trainer could black-out the information that is old-fashioned and misleading. The instructions that are omitted can also be figured out with the help of a good trainer.

And, finally, the author has numerous guide books - one for each of many dog breeds!

Book Review: How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science (Grade: A minus)

How to Train Your Dog with Love and Science, by Annie Grossman (SourceBooks [Penguin Random House], 352 pp, 2024, $17.99) Review by Skye Anderson

In a Word - Wow! The best book I have read in several years!

I have been known to start writing a book review before finishing the book and even to suggest the Book of the Year very early in the year - but only for exceptional books. This is one such book! 

A non-fiction, how-to book that reads like a story and keeps you enthralled, a book you hate to put down. 

A book I used up an entire yellow highlighter on!

I knew, after reading the Introduction, that I would love this book! (How many readers read the Introduction, or the Acknowledgements or the Preface, other than book reviewers like me?)

Author Annie Grossman of School for the Dogs. . . 

School for the Dogs in NYC

makes the love, and the science, and the psychology of dog training easy to understand and use at home (she even takes a stab at explaining the difference between habituation and sensitization). And, she is an entertaining author to boot! But then, I should have realized that with her background as a journalist (I find books written by reporters and journalists to be, on the whole, excellent reads and when I find a book that I like, I love to read everything that person has authored - just like I tell my undergraduates to take every course from your favorite professor that you can because you will learn the most from them! But I digress.) 

Who is Train Your Dog with Love and Science For?

Ah, this took me a while to figure out and what I came up with is that Train is a resource book plus a textbook for serious dog people and a book for dog-trainers-in-training to discuss amongst themselves and with their mentors. It would also make a great book for undergraduates in a behavioral psychology course. Educators will be able to easily transfer the principles to their classrooms as Ah-ha! moments.

Dear Reader, Take the Good Dog Training Pledge on page 283 and send it to Annie!

Learning to be Brave in NYC

Grossman's personality and sense of humor shines through so much that I'll wager there are dog trainer wanna-be's out in Idaho that wish they could fly to New York City to apprentice under Grossman! I know I would, if I were a few years younger.

What Did I Like the Best? 

Author (left) and Business Partner Kate

I noticed some of my favorite words: homunculus, halcyon, Mobius strip, minions and others. I liked how the author defined terms that needed defining, right after using them in the beginning of a chapter. I like how she kept referring to future chapters when appropriate and referring to previous chapters as well. I love her sense of humor and how she makes science easy - and gives the reader the stories of scientists in little bites as well as some anecdotes from her own life. I like how, rare in a non-fiction book, this book transitions into the next chapter so well, to keep you reading - and often with humor!

Positive-Reinforcement Training - What's it All About?

Training should be fun and it can be easy if reward-based methods are used. Grossman makes it fun and easy, too, to learn this method and to apply it in other situations in daily life. Excellent teachers and parents already (unknowingly) use a lot of rewards and reinforcement.

What Would I Change?

Author Grossman clearly states in the Intro that there are four parts to her book but the table of contents does not clearly reflect this and the last part of the introduction clearly points out parts three and four only. I found a few typos in a couple of chapters* but on the whole, it was well edited.

My first thoughts that seven pages of pre-publication praise from leaders in the dog field was a bit much, even if I knew most of them but when I finally put the book down and reread those comments, I was a convert.

A Gem

I did eventually get used to the polka-dotted dogs on the cover, too! And I want to reiterate what a fun, engrossing, educational book this is. But here's a friendly warning: you will need a highlighter unless you like to take notes - so much of Annie's words are gems to remember.

Now I am waiting for a play-by-play manual, a workbook!

*perhaps more than one copy editor was used or, if one, they were interrupted mid-chapter.

Movie Review: Inside the Mind of a Cat (Netflix documentary)

Inside the Mind of a Cat (2022, 67 minutes, Netflix documentary) Review by Skye Anderson

Previously, DogEvals reviewed Inside the Mind of a Dog, so it is only "fitting and proper" that we give equal time (and space) to their nemesis, the cat, in Inside the Mind of a Cat. Consequently, as promised yesterday, here is the other side of the story. . . . 

Our Most Puzzling Companions

I am not a cat person but I loved this documentary - for its educational value. It almost made me want to live with a cat. Almost.

With a population of four million, cats are in the top ten of animals species that have ever walked the earth. They have a fondness for boxes and bags because they are ambush predators from way back. Cats also like to climb but do not need to be taught how to do so. This is a left-over trait from many many years ago and if you do not  provide cat furniture, your cat may just find the Christmas tree or the venetian blinds or . . . !

These most puzzling companions are the fastest land animals, thanks to their oh-so-flexible spines: plus they can jump 5-6 times their height.

Why Do Cats Do What They Do?

Ask a cat psychologist! Or ask Dr. Wailuni Sung, a veterinarian.

But, "Forget everything you think you know about cats." It's true that feline research is logging behind canine research* by about 15 years, but cats have done amazing tricks on America's Got Talent (e.g., the Savitsky Sisters' cats from Ukraine) - the same tricks dogs can do: jump through hoops, weave through weave poles (albeit slowly), . . . . We have discovered that they even know their names but whether they choose to respond is another story. (Haven't dog people always known that?)  They also understand pointing, just as dogs do but chimpanzees do not (and neither do wolves).

How To Read a Cat

What are whiskers for? What is the difference between a dog wagging its tail and a cat swishing its tail? How do cats purr and why? Can you clicker train a cat? Why do cats bring their owners 'gifts'?

Low and slow is the way to go - not a hand coming down from above to pet a cat: that is like a bird of prey coming in to attack.

*Comparing this documentary to the Netflix documentary on dogs, Cats is more educational and perhaps fascinating for the new cat owner while Dogs focuses more on cutting-edge research about our best friends (dogs) (and on service dogs).

Movie Review: Inside the Mind of a Dog (Netflix documentary)

"Inside the Mind of a Dog" (2024, 75 minutes, Netflix documentary) Review by Skye Anderson 

Fascinating!

A very well-done documentary, Inside the Mind of  Dog, opens with cartoon-like hypotheticals of history because, after all, who was there then to see it all and live to tell about it today? 

When did dog become man's best friend and why? 

Why are dogs the most varied of all species? Big and small, hairy and not, living in hot climes, living in cold climes. Etc., etc., etc.

With segments of differing lengths to keep our interest, Inside easily succeeds in that. From cartoonish speculations to research scientists and veterinarians. . . . but perhaps the longest, most entertaining and educational segment is about the training of service dogs, how they are matched with their humans, and what a life-changing difference they can make in the lives of their special humans with whom they are so closely bonded. You may even become teary-eyed watching some of the dogs the documentary follows!

Other segments cover working dogs, canine research, the dogs' fabulous sense of smell, and, best of all, no dogs die in this film! Instead,  you will see plenty of dogs jumping around.

After watching Inside the Mind of a Dog, you may be interested in Netflix' Inside the Mind of a Cat! (next)