Posted on

In the Book Bar: JANE DOE by Victoria Helen Stone

Neither of our silly cats was in the mood to do book poses tonight, so it was sister Sofia to the rescue, even though this book features a cat character 🙂

We got this book as an Advance Reader’s Copy at the RT Booklovers Convention in Reno, which we just returned from and which was, as always, wonderful! The book will publish on August 1, 2018.

We packed this one in our carry-on and are so glad we did; we couldn’t put it down. It’s the story of a woman named Jane who has recently lost someone very dear to her. She knows who is responsible and is hell-bent on getting revenge, however she can.

Jane keeps calling herself a sociopath, and we have to say, she is the most relatable sociopath we’ve ever encountered! As the book goes on, we found ourselves so engrossed in her story, and really rooting for her. At the same time she is plotting revenge, she meets a guy, and adopts a cat, which, of course, we loved 🙂 And they kind of pull her back into life and help her overcome her pain.

JANE DOE is a really suspenseful page-turner with an engaging main character and strong secondary characters. We give it five bonito flakes!

Posted on

In the Book Bar: WISH ME HOME by Kay Bratt

This kitty seems to be reading a lot of dog books lately!

We found this book on Audible – it was an Audible book of the day – and we couldn’t remove the ear buds for practically the length of the book. It’s about a young woman, Cara, who was orphaned at a young age and was raised by several foster families with her sister Hana. At the start of the book Cara’s running from something – we find out what much later. Her car has broken down and she’s walking along the highway, when she finds a stray dog, who basically adopts her. She decides to go to Key West, as she’s a literary gal and has always loved Hemingway, and wants to see his house. (We could so relate – that house is one of our favorite places!) So, Cara names the dog Hemmy and off they go.

They meet many strangers along their journey – most of them good people who help her out, some of them horrible. Just like in life. The book is about finding home, and eventually, she and Hemmy do just that. A home that is perfect for both of them. And the kicker – and the part we so love – is that it is Hemmy who leads her there.

Kay Bratt is a new author to us, but she reminds us of Catherine Ryan Hyde, one of our very favorite authors. We will definitely read Bratt’s other books. WISH ME HOME deserves five bonito flakes!

Posted on

In the Book Bar: Do Some Wolf Yoga with Moon!

After our reading of the mesmerizing A Wolf Called Romeo, we just loved the idea of this debut picture book by Alison Oliver called MOON. It’s about a little girl who leads a very busy life. She longs to take a break from it all and find her true self. She meets a wolf who helps her do just that by exploring her wild side! Try out some wild wolf yoga poses here. 

Thank you to Book Riot for alerting us to this gem!

Posted on

In the Book Bar: Review, THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER, by Lawrence Anthony

I listened to this book on audio, and about halfway through I started crying and couldn’t stop until end. And then I cried even more because it was over. Not because it was sad, although there are parts that are bittersweet, but just because it was so beautiful. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a book!

Written by South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, and co-written by Graham Spence, THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER tells the true story of Anthony’s adoption of a herd of wild elephants who were so unruly, the prior owner vowed to put them down if he didn’t take them. The herd’s matriarch just wouldn’t stay put in the reserve, and she was continuously finding ways to help the group escape. Right after Anthony agrees to take them on his Thula Thula reserve in Zululand, he learns that the leader of the herd and her daughter have been killed. Saddened and angry, he vows to do the best he can with the others.

The herd’s new leader is Nana, a matriarch who takes after the former leader and continuously devises ways to help her clan escape from Thula Thula. The lengths these elephants will go to cross boundaries shows their vast intelligence. But Anthony must keep them put, lest they be shot by other reserve owners who don’t want wild elephants running about on their property. In order to do so, he must make friends with Nana.

And he does. The way she comes to trust him is depicted so endearingly. She listens to him, considers what he tells her: that this is now her home, and it’s a good home. And she stops trying to break through the wire fences. She explores Anthony with her trunk – and he bravely lets her – then kind of pets him with it, soon letting him touch her, letting her delicate little baby get close to him, and then leading the baby to explore him as well. Her troupe follows her example, coming to trust Anthony too, including Frankie, the kind of second-in-command of the herd, and the hardest to win over.

These elephants are so brilliant, so beautiful, so beyond amazing. You feel like you become friends with all of them, and you learn so much about elephant society in general, and about South Africa, its politics, and its immense beauty, by the way Anthony masterfully weaves the narrative of the land in with that of the herd.

My favorite – and Anthony’s as well (well, besides mother Nana!) – was Mnumzane, the oldest male of the herd, who grows to tower over everyone.  Poor Mnumzane,  he is the son and brother of the two killed elephants, and, as a male who’s reached puberty, Nana and Frankie ostracize him from the herd. This is natural, you learn, as elephant society is a matriarchy. So when males reach puberty, they are kicked out of the clan by the dominant matriarch, then go find their kind of “bachelor society,” which is dominated by a wise and older patriarch, who teaches them how to be a man, so to speak. The tragedy of Mnumzane, and of apartheid Africa, is that he can’t go find his bachelor buddies and his wise patriarch because of the way the land is divided. Thula Thula is too currently small to have more elephants; this is the only herd he can have. Mnumzane has a heartbreaking tale, and, for me, he was the emotional epicenter of the book.

But all of the elephants have their own stories: Thula, the granddaughter of Nana, who is born with a foot deformity and must be taken from her devoted mother, Nandi (Nana’s daughter) to be treated. Hers is a heartbreaking tale as well. And E.T., a young elephant orphaned by poachers, whom Anthony later takes in. She never fully trusts humans – for good reason – but she immediately comes to love the herd and finds her place within it in hours. And then there’s Max, Anthony’s beloved and very loyal bull terrier. What a protector. What a companion. I fell head over heels in love with Max!

This is the most wonderful book. Another reason I cried so at the end was that Anthony talks about how the end of apartheid has meant much of the land will be returned to the rightful owners. He and a new owner of an adjoining reserve will join forces and eradicate their boundaries between them so that more elephants can join Thula Thula. Anthony notes that he’s already received numerous offers of a patriarch, of the kind Mnumzane so needed. So, for all the sad things that happen, the book ends of a tear-inducingly hopeful note.

Tragically, Anthony died of a heart attack in 2012, about three years after the book was published. I found articles on the internet showing that the herd he had so loved somehow knew of his death, and came to visit the main house, to pay their respects. You can’t resist loving elephants – their immense intelligence, their sixth-senses, their ability to forgive and love and trust and remember.

You must read this if you’re any kind of animal lover 🙂 I can’t wait to visit Thula Thula. Someday very soon!

 

Posted on

In the Book Bar: Review, A WOLF CALLED ROMEO by Nick Jans

Such an endearing book that now ranks up there as one of my all-time favorite wildlife books. If you haven’t read this book yet and you like wolves, wildlife, Alaska, or even dogs, it’s a must-read!

Published in 2014, A Wolf Called Romeo tells the true story of a large black wolf who lived on the wooded outskirts of Juneau, Alaska from 2003 through 2009 and, amazingly, befriended many of the local dogs. He also became friendly with their humans, but according to Jans, a former hunter now writer and photographer of wildlife, Romeo seemed much more interested in their dogs. He showed up one day, along a big lake in the Mendenhall Glacier and bounced up to Dakotah, Jans’s blonde lab, stopping, then making a play bow to her. Everyone who has a dog knows what that is 🙂 The two regarded each other, then engaged in typical dog play. Later, Romeo chased and caught a ball.

At first, of course, Jans and the others were scared – it’s a huge wild wolf, after all. But Romeo never showed any aggressiveness to dog or human, only wanting to play or just tag along on a walk.

Over time, Jans and the other locals grew close to Romeo, missing him and worrying about him when he didn’t show up to play. They surmised that he was the partner of a female black wolf who’d been killed by a taxi, and had fathered the cubs she was carrying. Hence, the name.

Yet Romeo remained wild. It didn’t seem that he’d been fed by any of the locals. Jans found traces of wild animals – like porcupine quills – in Romeo’s scats, and his stools indicated he was feeding well on deer and other animals that a wolf would normally eat.

To be sure, some did worry about danger, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife considered re-locating Romeo further into the forest, but they never did. There were too many who grew to love him.

One thing so remarkable about the book is Jans’s ability to weave facts about wolves seamlessly into Romeo’s narrative. Wolves travel in packs and they mate for life – which was part of the sadness of Romeo’s story. Of course they are dogs’ wild ancestors. So, it makes sense that dogs are so loyal, since we basically take away their ability to mate for life when we spay and neuter them. They then become our mates for life 🙂

This is a truly fascinating book. Jans is such a brilliant writer, the language is beautiful, pensive, and he brings you so fully into his world you grow to love Romeo along with him and the others.  I’ve never been to Alaska, but am now dying to go. In the epilogue Jans talks about the planned installation of a memorial to Romeo in the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. I’m going to Yellowstone this year to wolf-watch, but I’m hoping for a trip to Juneau next year!

Posted on

In the Book Bar: Review of MERCY FOR ANIMALS by Nathan Runkle

Wow. I’ll be honest; this book is not easy for animal lovers to read. But it’s SO important, you simply must.

MERCY FOR ANIMALS is a memoir – partly of Nathan Runkle, the founder, and partly of the organization of the same name and the movement in farm animal protection that it fostered.

This is the first book I’ve read about factory farming. I’ve heard of the horrors of it, but this is the first time they were presented so clearly and so thoroughly to me.

Runkle begins by talking about the farm where he grew up, which was in a small town in Ohio, actually pretty close to where my mom grew up. So I wasn’t unfamiliar with it. His small family farm, operated by his parents, is where he learned to love animals so. It reminded me of those in which country veterinarian James Herriot tends to animals, in his ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL books. Those farmers care greatly about their animals – they have become friends, who are also responsible for the profitability of their business. These farmers wouldn’t think of hurting their animals, and they immediately call the doctor when something’s wrong. This is the idyllic life I would love to believe still exists. Okay, not so much the eventual slaughter, but at least the treatment of the dairy cows and the egg-laying hens, and of the pigs during their lives.

Sadly, horribly, when factory farming took over, that system disappeared, only to be replaced with one where the owners of these huge football-field-sized operations allow their workers to treat animals as inanimate objects at best, objects of animosity and even hatred at worst.

The book provides background on several of the organization’s early investigators, who bravely (because I know I could NEVER have gone through what they did) conducted all-out Upton Sinclair-esque examinations of the farms. Dairy farms, pig farms, and chicken and turkey houses are all included. What the investigators saw and documented – via a hidden camera – and eventually presented to law enforcement and the media, are laid out. It’s painful to think about, or write about. Animals are beaten to death regularly, sometimes because they’re ill from lying in manure and cramped conditions, sometimes because they’re not needed (male chicks in egg farms, calves in dairy farms where the female cows need to be kept continuously pregnant to produce milk, etc.), and sometimes for no real reason – or because badly treated workers need to take out their frustration on someone. I don’t want to go on, but suffice it to say, this is an immensely educational, eye-opening book that everyone who wants to know where their food comes should read.

Its last chapters end on a positive note: clean meat. I didn’t know anything about this either, but big-time investors like Bill Gates and Richard Branson are backing young, brilliant, forward-thinking scientists who are striving to create actual meat – not vegetarian alternatives but real meat – from stem cells. With the world population increasing at the rate it is, there’s no way we’ll have enough land to continue to farm animals this way into the future. So clean meat will not only prevent the killing of approximately 10 billion animals per year, but is crucial to sustaining the planet.

I am so thankful to Runkle for exposing this all to me, and to Changing Hands bookstore for hosting his reading (which is where I learned of the book and met him). As I said above, it’s a difficult book to read, but incredibly important and necessary for anyone who wants to know what is going on in our world.

 

 

Posted on

In the Book Bar: SUSPECT by Robert Crais

With so many dog lovers and so many readers of crime novels, we find it strange that there aren’t more K-9 mysteries out there. Why?

Well, we were thrilled to find this one – SUSPECT by Robert Crais, which we originally found as an Audible daily deal, then loved it so much we bought the hardcover. It’s the story of Scott, a detective, and his K-9 partner, Maggie, a German shepherd who served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and who has now retired from Marine service. Both Scott and Maggie lost their former partners – Scott’s Stephanie was killed in a shoot-out, in which he nearly died as well – and Maggie’s Pete was shot by an IED sniper. The book begins with that attack, in Afghanistan. It’s an excruciating scene and I felt so much compassion for Maggie as she stood over Pete barking and whelping, doing everything she could to protect him, not to let him be taken away by medical helicopter, even though it was clear he was gone. The snipers start shooting at her as well, so she must be flown away to safety too.

At the beginning of their partnership, both Scott and Maggie are, understandably, suffering from PTSD. These are my favorite novels, where animal and human heal each other. It helps that there’s a great, page-turning suspense at the same time! Which is why we want more K-9 mysteries… Anyway, when Scott returns to his job and begins K-9 training, he spots Maggie from afar. He is supposed to be assigned a Belgian Malinois, but there is something about this German Shepherd that he connects to, he senses they share something, and he begs his Lieutenant, the wonderful, hard-exteriored but softy-at-heart Leland, to give him a chance with Maggie. Leland explains that Maggie is too afraid of loud noises to be a sufficient member of the force, and she is about to be returned; Scott is her last chance. So, Scott has his challenges cut out for him.

And of course he succeeds. What I loved was watching him train her, get her to overcome her fears. And she helps him in return. I also loved that Crais delves so deeply into his characters’ psyches, including Maggie’s. He details her progress from knowing Scott first as a guy who’s nice to her, then a real companion, and finally to her pack leader, just as Pete once was. The shoot-out that got Stephanie killed is the subject of their investigation, as the crime still hasn’t been solved. This is both a page-turning suspense and a detailed character study, and we can’t wait for more. There’s one more book involving Scott and Maggie – The Promise – though it appears to feature mainly Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, the stars of Crais’ two main mystery series. I will definitely read it. But more Scott and Maggie, please, Mr. Crais!

And, if anyone finds any other good K-9 mysteries, please let us know!

Posted on

Review: CAT AMONG THE PUMPKINS, by Mandy Morton

We’ve been reading a lot of cat cozies lately, and this is a quite original addition to our collection!

The original “cat mysteries” – written by Lilian Jackson Braun and Rita Mae Brown – involved cats as sleuths themselves, at least to an extent. Braun’s cats help their human solve the crime by giving him clues, while Brown’s cats – and other animals – actually speak to each other (though humans can’t understand them), have strong, memorable personalities, and take a very active part in solving the crimes. We personally like Brown’s Sneaky Pie series the best because we like when the animals are memorable and have main roles. It seems like most cat mysteries published lately feature cats mainly as props; they’re really not even characters. Everyone knows cats are darn smart and make excellent sleuths so we’re not sure what that’s about…

Anyway,  Mandy Morton‘s No. 2 Feline Detective Agency series is a welcome deviation from that. In this series, there are only cats; no humans and no other animals. Since the cats alone are the sleuths, they are obviously anthropomorphized. That may confuse some readers. But we find it fun!

In Cat Among Pumpkins, the second book in the series, Hettie Bagshot, a former musician, runs the agency, along with her trusty sidekick, Tilly Jenkins, an arthritic older tabby whom Hettie took in. Later, an aging outdoor tomcat named Bruiser – our favorite! – shows up tired and weary of the outdoors (though too proud to outright admit it). They let him stay in the shed out back and give him a role as driver of the motorcycle-with-sidecar, in which they do their sleuthing. These cats are all drawn so well. Hettie has a little catnip-smoking habit, while Tilly enjoys her tea 🙂

Oh, we should mention that Morton is British and the books are set in England and full of English flavor, which we loved. There’s a Guy Fawkes day celebration that the town is preparing for, and the riverside towns have Stratford-upon-Avon-type names such as Much-Purring-on-the-Rug, Much-Purring-on-the-Chair, and the like. There’s an Indian family – the Doshes – who run a store chain. The mother, Pakora, desperately wants her son, Balti, to learn to run the business, but Balti wants to play sitar professionally – and he’s quite good at it, according to musician Hettie. We enjoyed the camaraderie between Hettie and Balti.

When Mavis Spitforce, who is researching an old, unsolved mass murder, is found dead with her research papers torn up and stuffed into her mouth, Hettie and Tilly must delve back into the cold case to find the killer. Along the way, they come across a good deal of very colorful suspects. Details bring the town and its inhabitants to life and the mystery is well-paced and plotted. We did not figure it all out until the very end. But, as always for us, it’s all about the main characters. They drive the story. And we definitely want to spend more time with Hettie, Tilly, and Bruiser!

Four delicious bonito flakes!

(Above pic is of our sis, Rhea, with the book.)

Posted on

Review: LILY AND THE OCTOPUS, by Steven Rowley

This review was originally published July 9, 2017 but this is WK’s very favorite book for the past few years – yes, despite it being about a dog! So, we are putting it up at the top of our brand new Cat Cafe and Book Bar 🙂 Since, as we said, one of the main characters is a dog, we had our Sofia pose with the book 🙂 Here is the original review from our old Tumblr book blog:

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley is a fitting starting book for my new blog! I found this book at my favorite local mystery bookstore, the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, even though it’s not a mystery. I’m a sucker for anything with a dog on the cover – and anything blurbed by Garth Stein:) So, I snatched it. And so glad I did. It became one of my favorite books of last year … well, one of my favorite books ever, actually.

It’s kind of hard to describe – mostly realistic with a slight bit of fantasy thrown in. Ted is a gay man living in Los Angeles, approaching middle age, his writing career is not going so well, he’s broken up with a long-term boyfriend, he’s not tremendously close to family. And then, his dog, Lily, his best friend in the world, becomes sick with cancer – the “octopus” which he finds one evening on her head, with its tentacles creeping down over her temples, taking root. It’s a rather fitting image of cancer. The book is basically about his dealing with this horrible impending loss.

I found myself relating to so much of Ted’s life. I’m not a gay man, but I am a writer and I lived in LA and I know too well how it feels to be stuck in your writing career, to not be in a relationship, and to have your pets be a huge part of your world, even if it’s largely a world of your own human-centric creation. Ted and Lily have movie nights, pizza nights, they have lively discussions of actors and actresses. My dog and I have different kinds of discussions – we talk about passing scenery and prior travels when we’re on road trips, people when we’re at outdoor cafes, books and news and Facebook friend updates when we’re lazing on the living room couch. She goes practically everywhere with me, she sits at my side when I read or write, we eat together, sleep together, we experience the world together. I can’t imagine losing her. It physically hurts to think about it. Everyone can relate to this book because everyone has someone they share their life with, whom they can’t imagine living without.

The book is about love, the deepest friendship imaginable, about surviving grief, and about surviving death. Ted is an agnostic throughout most of the book, but at the end, he comes to believe that Lily will experience the afterlife. He tells her to look for her mother up in heaven; she will take care of her. And, later, when he embarks on a new (human) relationship, he tells the new man the story of Lily, making Lily very happy. So, Lily will survive, as we all will, through story, though art. This book is ultimately about the power of literature, which, as the owner of Gatsby Books in Long Beach, CA, once said, connects us all through time and place.

Rowley recently toured to promote the paperback. So fabulous to meet him at Changing Hands in Phoenix!

Posted on

“We Are Not the Only Species Who Grieves”

 

(Originally published 7/22/2017 but I am re-pubbing since I loved this reading so much, and since this wonderful author has inspired me to tour Yellowstone National Park this upcoming spring.)

Last night I went to a talk at Changing Hands bookstore given by Terry Tempest Williams discussing her latest book, The Hour of Land. She told a story about her visit to Yellowstone National Park that I thought was beautiful and fitting for this blog.

She and her husband wanted to catch a glimpse of white wolves, so they found a little lookout over a canyon bed, where they saw a bison carcass being eaten by several coyotes and birds. Their guide told them that yesterday the bison had given birth to a stillborn calf and hungry wolves had attacked her during this vulnerable moment. They continued watching as suddenly the coyotes’ hackles rose and the birds quickly fluttered away, followed by the coyotes. They then saw a majestic white wolf, who came down from the hill, licking his lips. He ate more of the carcass. The next day, they returned in hopes of seeing the wolves again. Instead, they saw that the carcass had been completely eaten. Only the skeleton remained. Soon, a trail of bison appeared. They walked in a line toward the bison’s bones, then walked in a circle around her, their pacing identical, their bodies evenly spaced apart. They made a circle three times, then stopped and lowered their heads toward her bones. After a moment, they raised their heads and walked, again in a line, their bodies evenly spaced, up the hill, leaving only one small buffalo, who stayed with the mother.

She let us envision it for a moment, then said, (I’m paraphrasing) “We are not the only species who loves, who feels, who thinks, who grieves.” Yes, something anyone who’s a close observer of animals knows very well.