by Chapman Pincher ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1995
Acting as ghostwriter for his ``chocolate'' Labrador, Dido, well-known British espionage author Pincher (The Spycatcher Affair, 1988, etc.) here attempts to make a detailed study of the human- canine relationshipwith middling results. In the various chapters on eating, sleeping, fitness, sense, communications, discipline, and both physical and psychological behavior, Pincher/Dido comments on the differences and similarities between people and dogs. The comparisons are ongoing and relentless, from the big things (both are pack animals by nature and in need of constant companionship) down to the little things (the manner in which each yawns, sneezes, and snores). Pincher uses the book as a venue in which to rail about various ills of mankind, like overindulgence in eating, drinking, and smoking and how, for example, human sewage is much more of an environmental problem than dog droppings. The book is rife with punning expressions``not my cup of milk,'' ``the answer is sticking out like a sore paw,'' ``I'll be man-gone''that simply get annoying after a while, as do many of Pincher's sentiments on other topics: He's a strong hunting advocate; he's against having his dog neutered yet makes no statement whatsoever on the pet overpopulation problem. This is not to say that there isn't some material of interest here; there are many valid insights into the nature of canines and humans, and there is one rather enlightening chapter at the end in which the author speculates on whether dogs have souls and, thus, an afterlifea subject rarely, if ever, explored in books of this nature. Instead of the lighthearted approach one might expect from a book written from a dog's point of view, this work is, on the whole, serious, intellectual, and rather dry. (6 wash drawings, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1995
ISBN: 1-56836-116-5
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Kodansha
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1995
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by Charlayne Hunter-Gault ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1992
From the national correspondent for PBS's MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour: a moving memoir of her youth in the Deep South and her role in desegregating the Univ. of Georgia. The eldest daughter of an army chaplain, Hunter-Gault was born in what she calls the ``first of many places that I would call `my place' ''—the small village of Due West, tucked away in a remote little corner of South Carolina. While her father served in Korea, Hunter-Gault and her mother moved first to Covington, Georgia, and then to Atlanta. In ``L.A.'' (lovely Atlanta), surrounded by her loving family and a close-knit black community, the author enjoyed a happy childhood participating in activities at church and at school, where her intellectual and leadership abilities soon were noticed by both faculty and peers. In high school, Hunter-Gault found herself studying the ``comic-strip character Brenda Starr as I might have studied a journalism textbook, had there been one.'' Determined to be a journalist, she applied to several colleges—all outside of Georgia, for ``to discourage the possibility that a black student would even think of applying to one of those white schools, the state provided money for black students'' to study out of state. Accepted at Michigan's Wayne State, the author was encouraged by local civil-rights leaders to apply, along with another classmate, to the Univ. of Georgia as well. Her application became a test of changing racial attitudes, as well as of the growing strength of the civil-rights movement in the South, and Gault became a national figure as she braved an onslaught of hostilities and harassment to become the first black woman to attend the university. A remarkably generous, fair-minded account of overcoming some of the biggest, and most intractable, obstacles ever deployed by southern racists. (Photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-374-17563-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1992
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by William Strunk & E.B. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 15, 1972
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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