An engaging, instructional work that could be a pet owner’s best friend.
An appealing debut that aims to enlighten dog owners about their pets’ ailments.
When Rade’s canine, Jasmine, became terribly ill, she agonized over whether she’d neglected any of her beloved pet’s symptoms. It led her to write this book so that other dog owners would be aware of potential signs of sickness. “Potential” is the operative word here; one of the book’s strengths is in how it identifies observable symptoms without drawing definitive conclusions. Instead, Rade rightly advises dog owners to get to know their pets’ habits, understand when something isn’t right, and seek veterinary assistance when needed. The book begins with a good overview about how dog owners can advocate for their pets’ health. Included are helpful chapters on interacting with vets, obtaining second opinions, scheduling wellness exams, and dealing with emergencies. The bulk of the content, however, revolves around the symptoms themselves. Rade tackles them chapter by chapter, identifying each one individually, describing it in detail, and including a section titled “When is it an Emergency?” Panting and drooling, for instance, may or may not be normal behaviors, depending on the circumstances, and the author does a fine job of differentiating normal from abnormal. She goes into graphic detail about such subjects as vomit and feces, which some readers may find repellent, but it’s unquestionably highly educational. For example, “What’s in the Poop?” provides useful intelligence about the appearance, consistency, color, and content of a dog’s feces—all of which could be helpful information for a dog owner and, ultimately, a vet. Rade writes conversationally and informally, applying wit where appropriate, and the black-and-white photographs of dogs are charming. She acknowledges the input of veterinarians as she was writing the book, which supports its credibility. As for Jasmine, the dog that started it all, Rade was told by one vet the situation was terminal, but she got a second opinion. As a result, “Jasmine recovered from that medical disaster, and others, and lived over four more happy years.”
An engaging, instructional work that could be a pet owner’s best friend.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9952474-0-6
Page Count: 186
Publisher: Dawg Business Publications
Review Posted Online: Feb. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Elegant essays marked by surprising shifts and unexpected connections.
Largely autobiographical meditations and wanderings through landscapes external and internal.
National Book Critics Circle Award–winner Solnit (River of Shadows: Edward Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, 2003, etc.) roams through a large territory here. The book cries out for an explanatory subtitle: “field guide” shouldn’t be taken as a literal description of these eclectic memories, keen observations and provocative musings. Four of Solnit’s essays have the same title, “The Blue of Distance,” but the first segues from the blue in Renaissance paintings to a turquoise blouse the author wore as a child, then to the blue of distance seen on a walk across the drought-shrunken Great Salt Lake. The second presents Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish explorer who wandered for years in the Americas, and then several white children taken captive by Indians; their stories demonstrate that a person can cease to be lost not only by returning, but also by turning into someone else. The third blue essay explores the world of country and western music, full of tales of loss and longing. The fourth introduces the eccentric artist Yves Klein, who patented the formula for his special electric blue paint and claimed to be launching a new Blue Age. How does it all fit in? Don’t ask, just enjoy, for Solnit is a captivating writer. Woven in and out of these four pieces and the five others that alternate with them are Solnit’s immigrant ancestors, lost friends, former lovers, favorite old movies, her own dreams, the house she grew up in, harsh deserts, animals on the edge of extinction and abandoned buildings. All become material for the author’s explorations of loss, losing and being lost.
Elegant essays marked by surprising shifts and unexpected connections.Pub Date: July 11, 2005
ISBN: 0-670-03421-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The memoir of George Dawson, who learned to read when he was 98, places his life in the context of the entire 20th century in this inspiring, yet ultimately blighted, biography. Dawson begins his story with an emotional bang: his account of witnessing the lynching of a young African-American man falsely accused of rape. America’s racial caste system and his illiteracy emerge as the two biggest obstacles in Dawson’s life, but a full view of the man overcoming the obstacles remains oddly hidden. Travels to Ohio, Canada, and Mexico reveal little beyond Dawson’s restlessness, since nothing much happens to him during these wanderings. Similarly, the diverse activities he finds himself engaging in—bootlegging in St. Louis, breaking horses, attending cockfights—never really advance the reader’s understanding of the man. He calls himself a “ladies’ man” and hints at a score of exciting stories, but then describes only his decorous marriage. Despite the personal nature of this memoir, Dawson remains a strangely aloof figure, never quite inviting the reader to enter his world. In contrast to Dawson’s diffidence, however, Glaubman’s overbearing presence, as he repeatedly parades himself out to converse with Dawson, stifles any momentum the memoir might develop. Almost every chapter begins with Glaubman presenting Dawson with a newspaper clipping or historical fact and asking him to comment on it, despite the fact that Dawson often does not remember or never knew about the event in question. Exasperated readers may wonder whether Dawson’s life and his accomplishments, his passion for learning despite daunting obstacles, is the tale at hand, or whether the real issue is his recollections of Archduke Ferdinand. Dawson’s achievements are impressive and potentially exalting, but the gee-whiz nature of the tale degrades it to the status of yet another bowl of chicken soup for the soul, with a narrative frame as clunky as an old bone.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50396-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
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