Love, devotion, and slobbery kisses abound in this heartwarming story of a man and his treasured chocolate Lab.
A man and his dog travel the country after a grave diagnosis.
When Kugler, a photographer and former Marine staff sergeant received the diagnosis, he was shocked: Bella, his beloved chocolate Lab, had advanced osteosarcoma that had spread to her front leg. The cancer was predicted to kill her in 3 to 6 months even if they removed the leg. Still, the author rejected the vet’s suggestion of euthanasia. “There’s no way I’m going to put her down,” he writes. “Bella means the world to me. She’s stuck with me through everything. She models the components of what it means to be alive—happiness, freedom, service, purpose, pleasure, joy. She prizes the very act of being. No, as long as there are viable options, I will not take this dog’s life.” As he recounts, Bella was there for him during the toughest moments of his life—e.g., when he found out his brother had been killed while on duty near Baghdad. Determined to make Bella’s last moments the best he could, Kugler set out on a trip across the U.S., visiting family and friends and staying with strangers who connected with him via social media and invited them into their homes in order to visit with Bella and hear their inspiring story. Throughout the narrative, it’s abundantly clear how much loving attention he gave to Bella—and vice versa—and while much of the book is reflective and poignant, the author also captures the silly moments. Kugler made heroic efforts to make their last days together as memorable as possible, knowing he would never have another dog quite like Bella. His tale is engaging and sometimes heart-rending, and it will be a certain tear-jerker for dog lovers.
Love, devotion, and slobbery kisses abound in this heartwarming story of a man and his treasured chocolate Lab.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-16425-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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