Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods

3/2013

I wanted to like this book a lot more than i did. Daddy gave this to me right after Teco died, and there's certainly a lot of information in it about how dogs became domesticated and the relationship between humans and dogs, but it became hard to read because the writing turned into very clinical textbook-like prose, which got tedious.

Merle’s Door

Lessons from a Freethinking Dog

Ted Kerasote

4/2013

My friend Chrystal gave me this book and said, as she handed it to me, "the dog dies in the end." So i was prepared, but it was still sad. Ted is an excellent writer and painted a vivid picture of his dog Merle from finding him as a stray to his death in his house at age 14. The interesting thing is that many of the topics covered in The Genius of Dogs are also covered by Mr. Kerasote, only with much more writing flair. Beautiful biography of one independent partner dog.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Tilia Klebenov Jacobs

7/2013

I went to highschool with Tilia and she has helped me with proofreading my books. I don't usually read crime drama books like this, but i felt that i oughtta. It was a good read, although i felt that the climax of the book came too soon and there was a lot of post-drama story left in it. It reminded me a little of the TV show Law & Order, in that there was the first part, which was the crime committed, and the second part, which was the trial.

Emily the Strange - The Lost Days

Rob Reger & Buzz Parker

7/2013

I bought this because i thought that it was a graphic novel and it looked cool. Turns out it was mostly text, but still cool. It's presented as Emily's diary, complete with drawings and photos pasted in. Emily the Strange is a 13-year old "Dark Girl" who is a killer skateboarder, shreds on the guitar, and is a genius inventor, schemer, prankster, and all-around anti-social night-living dark-loving adventurer. The plot of this starts with the reader and Emily not knowing anything, as she has amnesia, so it's cool to learn about Emily as she learns about herself.

Emily the Strange - Stranger and Stranger

Rob Reger & Buzz Parker

8/2013

Since i'd bought 3 Emily the Strange books at once, i dove into the second one, which involves Emily accidentally making a duplicate of herself, who is perhaps her evil twin. Good fun.

Emily the Strange - Dark Times

Rob Reger & Buzz Parker

8/2013

The third book finds Emily traveling back in time to 1790 to help one of her great aunts, another in a long line of Dark Girls in the Strange family.

Emily the Strange - Piece of Mind

Rob Reger & Buzz Parker

9/2013

The fourth book seems to be an ending point, with Emily coming into her full Dark Girl powers. One of the cool things about these books is the occasional reference to a punk rock lyric or a Monty Python quote, just scattered in the text.