A diligently researched pet-care manual, but some readers may balk at the considerable commitment required.
A wellness plan for dogs featuring a raw food diet.
Krol, who has a background in education and real estate, is neither a veterinarian nor a canine nutritionist; she was motivated to write this book because of a health scare involving Winston, her beloved dog. Instead of accepting the bleak prognoses offered by veterinarians, the author “decided to take my dog’s health into my own hands.” Her extensive research led her to implement a “Monogastric Diet” that, she asserts, turned her dog’s life around. Along the way, Krol discovered what she characterizes as the deficiencies of the American pet food industry and medication-oriented veterinarians who, she says, “are not in the business of restoring health.” The author carefully cites scientific studies and sources and includes comprehensive references to back up her claims, and she deftly and seamlessly weaves her suggested nutritional approach into stories of her dog’s journey to better health. Early chapters lay out the basis for the author’s wellness plan; she clearly describes her dog’s illness and the details she learned about commercial dog food, and she explains why she believes that holistic veterinarians are preferable to others. She also provides a sobering evaluation of the content of dog food, noting that pets “become the recipient of all the byproducts humans will not or cannot eat.” The book offers readers a cogent overview of canine diseases while frankly discussing current veterinary practices, especially regarding vaccinations; on this subject, she cites research that suggests “Vaccinations can hinder and hurt your dog’s natural life-giving state of being.”
Most of the book centers on Krol’s belief that dogs should be fed a raw food diet of meat and plant-based material. However, although she passionately supports this position, she acknowledges that some veterinarians and pet owners may not be raw food enthusiasts. While exploring the diet, Krol candidly concludes that the positives outweigh the negatives, advocating a method she calls “Single Category Rotational Feeding,” which involves alternating meals of meat and plants with periods of fasting. Portions of the plan may meet with resistance or even skepticism from some dog owners; for example, the author endorses feeding dogs raw bones, which, she writes, “are needed for proper nutrition”; despite the inclusion of citations to support this, some dog owners may still be hesitant. The plan calls for creating a menu of raw meats, including fish, cooked vegetables, and fruit. Krol helpfully provides “feeding options,” including daily schedules and “recipe samples and bone details.” She also helpfully includes a chapter on how to modify the plan for puppies and even explains how to adapt it for cats. For pet owners who are interested in administering such a raw food diet, Krol provides justification and sufficient information for anyone to easily execute the plan. At times, however, one may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of detail as well as the additional preparation associated with the author’s dietary method.
A diligently researched pet-care manual, but some readers may balk at the considerable commitment required.Pub Date: May 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73732-011-1
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Riley Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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