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.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Hello everyone!  I just wanted to come on here and wish everyone a Merry Christmas, or if you do not celebrate Christmas, a HAPPY HOLIDAY!!!

Things with my Mom over the last 3 weeks were slowly becoming a total nightmare, but things have begun to turn around!  We are very hopeful now that she will make a complete recovery, and my Christmas wish is that she is able to enjoy the holidays and come home for more than just a day pass on Christmas Day.

All of your support and love is SO APPRECIATED and has touched me and my family more than you will every know.  Although I have lost a few followers in the last 3 weeks, I treasure each and every one of you that have chosen to stick around!  :0)

I have a few bookish things on my Christmas list, here they are in no particular order!

OOGY by Larry Levin

In 2002, Larry Levin and his twin sons, Dan and Noah, took their terminally ill cat to the Ardmore Animal Hospital outside Philadelphia to have the beloved pet put to sleep. What would begin as a terrible day suddenly got brighter as the ugliest dog they had ever seen--one who was missing an ear and had half his face covered in scar tissue--ran up to them and captured their hearts. The dog had been used as bait for fighting dogs when he was just a few months old. He had been thrown in a cage and left to die until the police rescued him and the staff at Ardmore Animal Hospital saved his life. The Levins, whose sons are themselves adopted, were unable to resist Oogy's charms, and decided to take him home.

Heartwarming and redemptive, OOGY is the story of the people who were determined to rescue this dog against all odds, and of the family who took him home, named him "Oogy" (an affectionate derivative of ugly), and made him one of their own.

Dog Tips from Dogtown
Following in the paw prints of the successful first DogTown book, companion to the hit show on the National Geographic Channel, Dog Tips from Dogtown is the pet owner's practical guide to building a healthy, happy relationship with a dog. Relying on the unparalleled expertise of the trainers at the Best Friends Animal Society, this manual shows, with step-by-step illustrations, how to apply the power of positive reinforcement to train a pet. From adoption tips to canine communication lessons and training strategies that make a regimen fun for everyone, Dog Tips from DogTown is a complete guide to the tried and true methods that work miracles every day at the Best Friends Animal Society.




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
What bookish things are on YOUR list this year??  I LOVE to hear what books other people are dying to see under the tree!!