Dog Days of Februrary

Week Six
A Dog Named Boo by Lisa J. Edwards

Inspiring. If I had to sum up this book in one word, that would be it: inspiring. As the parent of three rescue dogs, this book made me appreciate each on an even deeper level for their uniqueness and the impact they have had on my life. Even at my darkest moments, my dogs can make me appreciate my life. Even at their worst (like when they spill a gallon of bleach on the carpet) I love them to the core. This book made me appreciate these facts more vividly than I have in the past.

Lisa Edward's memoir is about the journey she is taken on by her dogs - first Atticus, then Dante, and finally Boo. Atticus introduces Lisa to her husband, Dante shows her that her passion is for dog training and animal assisted therapy, and Boo teaches her that, while we're all different, we all have our strengths.

The book, of course, is about a dog named Boo - a puppy she adopts to the dismay of her husband. Bringing this boy into her now three dog household proves complicated; her first two dogs were potty trained very quickly, smart as whips, and trained like a dream. Not Boo. Boo has difficulty with potty training, difficulty learning simple tasks, and seems to have difficulty even with paw-eye coordination. She doesn't realize it at first, but Boo is special in more ways than she would ever have imagined.

These dogs do exactly what us dog owners know they can do - they teach her everyday, they make her a better person, they heal her wounds. In this book, Lisa overcomes many tribulations dating back to her childhood with the help of her dogs and her own personal strength. If you've owned dogs before you know how rewarding and inspiring they can be. Lisa takes the personal rewards of dog ownership to a different level by training and certifying her dogs to be therapy dogs. The difference these animals can make an a life is awe inspiring.

I would recommend this book to everyone. Unless you don't like dogs. Then I probably wouldn't be recommending anything to you...

As I'm a few days late finishing my week six book, I have no idea what I'll be reading for week seven. Hopefully I'll actually finish it before week seven ends... Fingers crossed...

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Week Five
East of Denver by Gregory Hill

I found this book while browsing through Amazon.com - East of Denver won Amazon's 2011 Breakthrough Novel Award, so I figured it was worth a read.

In this novel, Shakespeare, a man living in Denver, returns to his small farming community located a few hours east of the Denver metro area to care for his aging and mentally declining father. If you've ever been to Denver, you know that there is nothing good anywhere east of the city. To be honest, even the suburbs east of Denver are horrible. Two hours east of the city feels like driving into hell. As you can imagine, Shakespeare is not all too pleased with his new living situation. He soon finds out that not only is he living in the small town he grew up in with the people he wasn't too fond of in high school, but that him and his father are in a dire financial situation.

This book was a very easy read - there's nothing too intricate in the plot, the dialog is basic to say the least, and, it's just straight up short. Even though this wasn't the most complex novel I've read, I still enjoyed it for what it is. My reaction to the ending was something like, "Hm... Ok," while I turned the page to see if there was another chapter. Despite that, it was still enjoyable.

Next week, we're going back to the dogs with A Dog Named Boo by Lisa J. Edwards.

The devil and his henchmen walk into a bar...

Week Four

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

In this comedic Russian novel, Satan and his henchmen pay a visit to Moscow, causing havoc left and right. This book took a long time for me to get into (basically half of the book), but when I finally found interest, I loved it. It is a mischievousness love story (yes, a love story), about a writer (The Master) and Margarita (a miserably married woman), though neither of these characters are really introduced until the latter half of the novel

To be honest, I don't really know how to give a good description of this book (give me a break, I started a new job this week and am a little on the sleepy side). The first part of the book is tedious, it takes quite a bit of time to grasp the story line, and as per usual with Russian novels, the characters are difficult to keep straight. That being said, the Devil and his companions are continually interesting, frightening, and hilarious. The love story between the Master and Margarita is intriguing, and, again, hilarious. 

I can't say there are many people I would recommend this book to, as most would give up after the first 100 pages. That being said, for those of you willing to power through, this is an excellent and well written novel - absolutely a classic. I plan on reading this one again; I have a feeling that I will appreciate it even more the second time around. In hindsight, I might have been better off reading this book along with the cliff notes... live and learn, live and learn.

Next week..... is a mystery. Tune in Sunday February 3rd to find out what I read! (Ok, to be honest I haven't even thought about a book for this week.... it'll be a surprise for us all!)

Marriage is a Bitch

Week 3
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

This weeks book sped by. I finished it in two days of leisurely reading, but am now sitting here wishing I would have savored the taste a little longer.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is a suspenseful novel narrated in first person by both of the main characters. Nick, a writer who has been living in New York, is forced to move back to his small Missouri hometown after he and his wife lose their jobs and his mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer. His wife, Amy, is an unemployed magazine quiz writer - a meticulously organized and intelligent woman, she is the daughter of two psychologist parents who made a fortune publishing children's books based on their "amazing" daughter. Life seems wonderful for this picture perfect couple, until Amy goes missing on their anniversary. As we all know, no marriage is perfect - we all have our secrets.

This book is a classic case of "never trust the narrator." This novel, with its two conflicting narrators, pulls you in every possible direction. I found myself loving, hating, and suspecting the main characters throughout the book. If ever there was a page turner, it's this. I'm not particularly interest in the quality of writing from a critics perspective, only in the entertainment value. This book's entertainment value is through the roof. Gone Girl is a quick and easy read with an amazing story. Highly recommended!

Next week I'll be reading something a tad more difficult: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulakov. Wish me luck! Russian literature has never been particularly easy for me....

For the love of dog

Week Two
What's a Dog For? by John Homans

My book for week two took me a little longer than expected to read. First, it's the playoffs, so my weekends were spent watching football - very time consuming. Second, this book made me feel a bit like being back in college taking a Cognitive Psych course; it's pretty dense with information, and while extremely interesting, shouldn't be taken in large doses. However, this book is fascinating, heartbreaking, and heartwarming; I learned more than I expected, and finished the book feeling satisfied -- and especially loving towards my own three dogs.

John Homans does an amazing job researching the history of the dog in his first published book. He explores everything from the evolution from wolf to dog, to the controversial theories about dogs' cognitive abilities, to the development of pure breeds (the good, and more often the horrifyingly bad), and to how we as society today treat our dogs and their rights.

Homans is an academic (you may or may not know him as the editor of New York Magazine). He is a diligent researcher and does an excellent job remaining a neutral purveyor of information, especially considering how passionate we can get about our dogs. Despite the sometimes pompous undertones throughout the text, Homans is witty and intelligent - he manages to mix in-depth research with comedy and emotion. He is a man that loves his dog, but who questions what really is best for these domesticated animals. Have we moved them too far from their nature? And are we over projecting their human like qualities? Whatever the answer to these questions, there is a strong confirmation of the progress the dog has made. No longer are puppy mills the standard, or are shelters euthanizing more than 80% of dogs, no longer are dogs used for horrific vivisection in the name of science, or tortured to find what kind of pain response they possess. We've come a long way over the years, but that's not to say we don't have more progress to make; puppy mills are still fairly common, dogs are still used for scientific experiments (some which have legitimate goals, some to see what happens when you spray bleach in your eyes), and in many parts of the country, dogs are still seen as disposable pieces of property, to be shot or drowned at will. But Homans manages to show not only how much progress has been made, but how quickly; it's amazing to think where the dog will be in another twenty years.

When I sit and look at my three rescue dogs, it's easy to forget the rich history that's brought them into my home. Thousands of years of evolution, sped along by selective breeding, and quite a bit of luck has resulted in the three snoring dogs currently hogging my couch. What's a Dog For is not a sentimental book, but it certainly has the ability to touch a sentimentalist like myself in just the right way. Highly recommended, though I do warn you the first half is awfully scientific, and sometimes a tad dull.

Next week, back to fiction...
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

New Years Resolutions

Most of us have some kind of New Years Resolution floating in the back of our heads this time of year. I decided that, instead of my normal "lose 10lbs" (ok, still on the list), I'm going to devote myself to reading at least one book a week for the rest of the year. I have no rhyme or reason to what I'm reading... not 52 Best Sellers, or 52 Classics... just 52 Books I Haven't Read Before and Hope I'll Enjoy. Nothing more, nothing less. Reading has always been one of my major passions, but I realized that over the years, daily life has slowly eroded its presence in my life. Well, not anymore. I'm taking my books back, damn-it!

So let's get started.

Book 1, Week 1 - The Twelve, by Justin Cronin

My first book of the year was The Twelve by Justin Cronin. I actually got started on this a little late. Being eternally overconfident in myself, I started reading this on January 5th, with a deadline to be done by the 7th (Eek!) - 564 pages later, I finished the book on the 7th around 6pm. The Twelve is the second book in Cronin's series, the first being The Passage, which I read just before the new year.

Just to get you up to speed on the first novel in the series, The Passage is a post-apocalyptic thriller set in a future North America. The US government begins biological testing on a series of inmates in an attempt to create beings that do not die - their reasons for this seem to vary from philanthropic ideals of curing cancer, disease, and death, to creating indestructibly deadly weapons of war. As you might guess, all hell eventually breaks loose, and a hoard of vampire-like creatures are unleashed, quickly killing and infecting the populace and consuming all of North America, leaving only scraps of survivors fighting for their lives. This book follows a series of characters both in the past and the post-apocalyptic future (around 100 years later).

I was pretty skeptical of this sequel when I started it. Traditionally, my favorite book in a series is always the first. I love being introduced to new characters and having the world described to me in such rich detail; the first book is like the honeymoon stage of a relationship - new and exciting. I feel that most of what I love about a series ends after book one, everything becoming stale and predictable. Not the case with The Twelve. While this book followed the same structure of past to present, following numerous characters from chapter to chapter, it never felt redundant. New and integral characters were introduced, and the characters from the original book evolved, gaining a new depth with each chapter. The tension and apprehension was the same in this book as in the first, never failing to keep me turning the page. A well timed plot twist allowed this follow-up novel to differentiate itself from the first book, keeping you guessing from page to page.

While this probably won't be making my top ten best books list anytime in the future, I really enjoyed it, and would highly recommend the series.

Next week....

What's a Dog For? by John Homans