MAILBOX MONDAAAAYYYYY!!

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme that was originally hosted by Marcia over at The Printed Page, but then she graciously developed it into a lovely blog tour, and this month it is Rose City Reader's turn!

Hello all!  And HAPPY NEW YEAR and all that good stuff.  This Mailbox Monday is going to include some awesomeness I got for Christmas as well as a couple of little ditty's I picked up for myself.. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO MEEEEEEEE!!!!

First off, though, the best news E-V-E-R is that my Mom was released from the care centre and is now home for good and doing FANTASTIC!!!  Life is slowly returning to normal and she is thrilled to be back at home watching football and hockey with my Dad. Life is GOOD!

ANYway, I am looking forward to jumping back into the book blogosphere as I have missed everyone!

Back to my holiday loot:

Here is what I recieved from my family:

This was top on my list and I was thrilled to get it!  At Dog Town they use positive reinforcement training as well as clicker training!  WOOT!  This is  a great book for any dog owner and very user friendly!

If you are familiar with Dog Town and the Best Friends Society at all, you will know that they have rehabilitated some of the worst known cases, such as 21 of the Vick dogs, some of which were adopted to loving homes, and others who will remain at dog town for the rest of their lives. 

I am hugely obsessed with this place, and I am an outreach volunteer, and will hopefully will be travelling down to Utah this summer with my family to volunteer with the dogs and critters at the sanctuary!

Are you sensing a theme here?  I was also super excited to get this little number, and it is full of stories of some of the dogs from the show.  Excellent! 















I also got Oogy from my daughter.  Here's the thing, I really really wanted that book and told her many times.  She was only happy to oblige!  I wanted to like it, even love it, but I couldn't.  It was one of the worst written books I have ever read.  Brutal.  The story itself is sweet, and could have been told in about a paragraph, but the "author" (and I use that term very loosely) chose to blather on with inane details about making coffee in the morning, waking his teenage sons up, an ENTIRE CHAPTER on his sons adoption which, as it turns out, had very littlel to do with the general story other than his sons related to Oogy as another adopted member of the family.  Really really bad.  And people are just loving it, according to his facebook page, so maybe it's just me, but the writing is painful to read.  The guy is a lawyer, and probably a really great one, but he should have had a co-writer or hired an outright writer and left them to do what they do best.  I never did share with my daughter my thoughts on the book, as I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I just told her it was a cute story.   0/5 stars.

On to books I purchased for myself recently: 

KINDLE:     My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Talory Ph.D.
                   This book was FASCINATING!!  And I read it in about 3 days.  Jill Taylor is a neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke and was completely incapacitated by it.  Her book is a riveting tale of her stroke from the inside of a neuroscientist, and her insight is incredible! 











The Lost Dogs by Jim Gorant

So, this book is everything that Oogy isn't.  This is a BRILLIANTLY written book by Jim Gorant who makes his living as a writer and editor of Sports Illustrated.  Some people have shied away from this book as they think it might be too disturbing.  While I will admit that some parts will make you cry, enraged, and want to throw Michael Vick's ass in jail AGAIN as fast as your arms can toss him, the majority of the book is a tale of redemption and the utter glowing spirit of these incredible dogs. 

This book is written so well that you are left hanging on the edge of your seat most of the time as the investigation is rolled out page by page, and simultaneously weaving it together with stories of the dogs themselves, sometimes from their own perspective.  Just a georgous GEORGOUS read.  I am just over halfway done and I have to say I kind of do not want it to end!  I HIGHLY recommend this book to any and all animal lovers, and I can guarantee you that once you read it, you will be INSPIRED by what you will find among it's pages, and you may even be MOVED to action.  Dog fighting is A CRIME and a hideous one at that.  Here is the trailer:

I am also about halfway through His Last Letter by

Jeane Westin.  I have had this book for quite awhile, it was sent to me this past summer by the publisher.  It has been sitting in my huge stack of TBR's from publishers/authors, and when I realized how long it had been sitting there I pulled it out and immediately dove in.  What a fantastic read! 

I can't wait to post my final thoughts when I'm done.






Have a wonderful day, and for more Mailbox Monday click here.

MAILBOX MONDAY - NOVEMBER 1

Mailbox Monday is a weekly bookish meme normally hosted by Marcia at the Printed page but this month is being hosted by Julie over at Knitting and Sundries. 

Okay, so before I do my mailbox I have to say that the last week we had a family emergency in that my Mom had what they THINK may be a stroke on Thursday, or it could be a seizure from a mix of medication that she is on.  Either way I had to call 911 Thursday afternoon and she is still in the hospital but doing very well.  They do not want her to leave until they find out exactly why she had the event and how they can prevent it in the future.  It was one of the most frightening things I have ever been through, for all of us, not the least of which, obviously, for my parents.  SO, there has not been much of reading, blogging or work on my dog training course happening.

Before this happened I did go to the bookstore with my 3 year old and picked up a book I had read about : (which I JUST discovered while looking for an image of the cover that you can read the book FOR FREE onine at google books.  Click here to read it FOR FREE.)  ANYway, I'm not bothered, eventhough for a small book under 250 pages it's 30 BUCKS.  But I digress... just look at the cover..

I mean seriously.  Doesn't that little wee pathetic looking chihuahua mix just make you wanna run to your nearest acreage and open the flood gates letting every stray into your yard??!!!

The book is awesome and Steven Kotler is hilarious.  He was a city slicker with no desire for kids or the country life who fell in love with a woman who, although also wanting no kids, had a "thing" for rescuing dogs.  Before he knows it he is buying a small farm in the middle-of-nowhere New Mexico and taking in dozens of hard luck doggies from high kill shelters.  Okay, so maybe that part's not funny, but the WAY he tells his story IS.

I also received, from Simon and Schuster Canada (THANK YOU!)  a  couple of memoirs and a novel by Nicole Ritchie.  Hm.  I tried to read the first few pages of Richie's book but just could not stomach it, and I feel terrible about it!  But it really is just horribly written drivel.  The other two are:

I have to admit I am a tad curious about this one, Late, Late at Night Rick Springfield's memoir.  There may have been a few occasions in the mid 80's when my 14/15 year old self belted out Jesse's Girl.  But really, did he write anymore songs?  I have no idea...  All I can say is:  EASY on the eyeliner, buddy!  Can you see his eyes on the cover??  ANYway, I flipped through briefly to look at the pictures and one thing I did glean from them is that he has been with the same woman for a ba-zillion years, and that says something pretty cool about him.



The next one I already emailed S and S and told them I will most likely not read it and would be happy to ship it back to them.  I know that sounds awfully cranky of me but I can't help it.  I just have zero interest in reading this:

I mean really, people, an autobiography about Susan Boyle?  REALLY?!  Okay, I'm not insulting those of you that may want to read it, I'm not, but I just don't get the fascination.  So S and S said I did not have to send it back but I could pass it on to someone who might like to read it.

SO whomever would like the Susan Boyle autobiography and this book:

You can have them for free but the only catch is you have to pay for shipping.  So it may or may not be worth it to you to snap either or both of these up depending on where you live.

I am still so grateful for the publishers I am fortunate enough to work with and many many books that I have loved have come in the way of a package I have not expected and got to open like a little kid at Christmas.  But occasionally I am sent a book or two that I just cannot commit to reading to.  I have so many books that I still need to read (I am about a third of the way thru The Distant Hours and I have to finish it in 8 days!) and want to read, so I really have to say no when I receive a book that just isn't for me.

ANYway, that is my mailbox Monday and a bit about the stuff that has been going on around here!

Have a wonderful day!