Book Review Club - December 2018

Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

This month I will be reviewing THE GIRL WITH SEVEN NAMES.  Our host, Barrie, reviewed it in February and I requested an eBook loan from my library.  The hold list was such that I had to wait more than four months for the book to become available.

The book is about Hyeonseo Lee's life and journey from North Korea to South Korea.  Her journey started more as teenage rebellion rather than an intention to defect.  China was literally across the river from her house.  A friend wanted to cross the river to prove she could but Lee's mother told her no when she asked permission to join her friend.  This frustrated Lee because she knew her brother had crossed the river several times.  Then one day she decided to just do it.  She decided to go visit family members in Shenyang for a couple of days and told her brother to let her mother know after she had left.

Shenyang and China were so different from her home in North Korea and she was enjoying seeing all the sights and getting to know her relatives so she didn't immediately return as planned.  She received a shock when her mother called a month later and said they were in danger and she couldn't come back.  Shortly after she had left a census was being done for an upcoming election and since she was of legal age to vote her absence was noticed so her mother had to report her as missing.  If she had returned it would look suspicious and she and her family would likely be subjected to punishment that could include public execution.  So she stayed away.

She stayed with her aunt and uncle for about two years before they coordinated an arranged marriage for her.  Not wanting to marry the man she'd been promised to, she ran away and lived on her own for the first time.  Knowing that if she was discovered she would be deported back to North Korea she felt she couldn't trust anyone.

Eleven years after she first crossed the river she was finally legally in South Korea and had convinced her mother to join her.  Arrangements had been made for her brother to get her mother across the river in China where Hyeonseo would meet them.  Her brother was not planning to defect with them as he was planning a wedding to a North Korean woman whom he deeply loved but things did not go as planned when they crossed the river and if he returned to North Korea he would've been subjected to punishment which could include public execution.  As a result he had to defect as well.

One of the things about their transitioning into their new lives that stuck with me is as bad as things were in North Korea, none of them had ever intended to leave.  It made me think of a child that has the alcoholic, drug using, abusive parent who gets put into the foster care system and is placed in a healthy environment for the first time but the desire to return to this abusive parent stays with them because that's all the know - they don't understand people being kind to them and treating them well because it's not their known experience.  According to Lee's telling, free thought was not only discouraged but not allowed.  She mentioned that her parents never discussed their feelings about things in front of her for fear she'd repeat them in public and get them all in trouble with the government.  It's hard to believe such controlling leadership exists in this day and age and makes you appreciate the freedoms we currently have.

This is one of those books that makes you stop and think about things.  It's also a compelling and interesting read.  I would highly recommend it.

For more reviews click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Risk Factors

I saw a doctor the other day to discuss a medical concern I had.  It was at a facility where they have the ability to run a surprising amount of tests.  And to pay for this equipment I think they run every test they can on every patient they see.

Before I saw the doctor they ran a few tests on me.  Everything was clear.  So they ran more tests.  I still hadn't seen a doctor.

When the doctor finally came in to see me, he told me the tests were clear before he proceeded to tell me my options.  You see, this facility has the capability of having overnight guests, so to speak.  The doctor informed me that there were two risk groups - high risk and low risk.  A low risk person would be sent home.  A high risk would be invited to stay overnight.  He said I fell in between those two and that the option was mine as to whether I stayed or not and he would give me time to think about it and he left the room.

Shortly after he left the room someone came back to get me so they could do even more tests on me (equipment is expensive!).  Again, everything was clear.

When the doctor came back to see me he asked what I had decided - as if it's still my choice.  I told him I was going home to which he replied "okay but you're going to have to sign a waiver stating you're leaving against my orders".

Huh?!

At no time did he so much as suggest I needed to stay overnight.  Although, as I type that, giving me a choice may have been that suggestion but he definitely did NOT make it sound like it was necessary.

In any event, I asked why I needed to stay - what were the risk factors that kept me from being low risk?  His response - my age and weight.  That's it.  Every test had disproved any issues that would warrant an overnight stay but then, if I left they couldn't charge more for my visit.

But it makes me wonder, do they offer overnight stays to everyone of "a certain age" and weight?  Because those "risk factors" are present with me at this time, even if I hadn't gone in to discuss a particular issue.  I can't change my age so I guess that will always be a risk factor.  And I know my current weight puts me at a higher risk for a lot of things.  But that I have some control over.

So, I decided to start walking again.  I have a treadmill in my living room but I decided to walk outside.  Today was my first day.  One of my neighbors was out so I asked her to join me - and she did.  The funny thing was she didn't want to take the longer route I suggested, yet she took off like it was a foot race!  I was winded and sweating half way through and she had no discernible side effects from the walk.

Anyway, we agreed we'd walk together when we could and hopefully I'll whittle away at the weight risk factor that makes doctors wishing to pay for their expensive equipment offer me overnight stays. In the meantime maybe I can find a counter thing for my blog to track weight loss so I'll feel a bit more accountable.  :)

Book Review Club - October 2018

Click icon for more

book review blogs

@Barrie Summy



This month I will be reviewing The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.  I came to know about it because Sara Haines of The View recommended it as a summer beach read thriller and I borrowed it from my library.

The story is about what happens when Richard and Vanessa Thompson divorce and Richard is about to remarry.  It's primarily told from the viewpoint of Vanessa and tells / shows the great lengths she goes to to try to stop Richard from getting remarried.  Part of the book flap and amazon blurb is:

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions.
You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife.
You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love.
You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle.
Assume nothing

That is all true.  There are twists and turns that are completely unexpected.  The book is divided into three parts.  At the end of each "part" there is a bombshell revelation that you don't see coming - or at least I didn't.  It left me with a 'what the heck' feeling at the end of each part. 

But speaking of a what the heck feeling, I want to compare it, to a degree, to a murder mystery.  In a murder mystery the author deliberately misleads you and has you second guessing the conclusions you've come to.  The author will drop little clues for you to follow.  You might have thoughts like "but I thought . . . didn't he say . . . wasn't it the brother who" and I think that's normal for a murder mystery.  It makes me feel more involved in the story, like it's an interactive book almost.  I had those type of thoughts with this book too, well actually only in part one of the book.  The thing is, this wasn't a murder mystery and when I had those thoughts I was going back to find passages earlier in the book to clarify.  I thought the author had screwed up.  Even when I got to the bombshell moment where it's all explained I was a little confused for a minute.  Again, this was only in part one of the book but part one is roughly 150 pages of a 340 page book.  Part one was told in a unique way that initially confused me before I realized that I'd missed clues the size of boulders that could be seen from outerspace!  I can't say anymore without giving away spoilers but I will say that when all is said and done, it was totally worth it.

That all said, I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down.  It was totally worth the read and has some jaw dropping revelations in it.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the thriller genre.

For more reviews, click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - June 2018

Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

This month I will be reviewing My Pride and Joy by George Adamson.

Before I go into the actual review of this book I want to put out a couple of disclaimers.  One is, I read this book between two and three years ago.  Having just watched Born Free today though, I felt inspired to write this review for the book review club.  The second disclaimer is that around the same time I read My Pride and Joy, I also read all of the Born Free books (there are three) written by George's wife, Joy, as well as a bunch of articles and I watched a number of interviews and documentaries.  I mention these things because there may be some unintentional bleed over from other materials captured in this review.

With that said, My Pride and Joy is the life story of George Adamson, as told by George Adamson.  It starts from when he was a young boy and follows his life to becoming a game warden in Kenya and his work with rehabilitating "domesticated" lions so that they can live in the wild.

I'll be honest and say that the first part of the book about his childhood and young adulthood did not hold my interest well and therefore I didn't retain a lot of that information.  (Maybe I needed a third disclaimer?  :-/ )

But I do remember when he first met Joy.  She was married to husband number two at the time.  George was drawn to her but considered her off limits until one day she bluntly told him that she was interested, her marriage was over and she had permission to divorce and marry George.  George was stunned but confirmed with the husband what Joy had said and when he found it was true, he did marry Joy.  He had concerns that she would be too "delicate" for the life he led but he quickly found that she held up just fine and never complained about the conditions in which they had to live.

From many of the things I've read about Joy, she wasn't a particularly pleasant person and George actually addresses that in his book.  He admits that she was difficult and put off many people because of how she was.  Despite the fact that Born Free had been written mostly by using his notes and that he had helped edit the book, he didn't receive any proceeds from the books or movies.  She used this money to manipulate situations and eventually cut him off completely financially when he refused to do as she "demanded" when Bill Traverse (who played George in Born Free) refused to make her the star of a documentary he was working on.  He (Bill) had wanted to film a documentary on the work George was doing on lions to help bring awareness to the need for conservation.  By this time Joy had moved on to working with cheetahs and wanted the documentary to be about her.  George refused to insist that Bill do his documentary on Joy so Joy cut George off financially.  George was unable to pay his workers (who stayed with him anyway) and had to eat camel and military rations to survive.  But he never complained and continued to have affection for Joy up until her murder by a disgruntled employee she had refused to pay.

A lot of the book was about his work with lions.  He talked about working on the movie Born Free.  He was the film consultant (Joy wasn't allowed on set, much less allowed to give input, even though she "authored" the book).  He didn't like the treatment the lions were getting and he threatened to walk off the film, if they didn't change.  They changed and he stayed. 

When filming ended he bought as many of the lions as he could so that he could work with them and help them to be able to live in the wild.  Two of the lions from the film were brother and sister and named Boy and Girl, respectively.  He spent a period of time in one particular area with the lions.  Girl had adjusted well but Boy had gotten injured.  When George was told they had to move on, he left Girl behind and took Boy with him.

George loved Boy to the extent that when George was murdered (trying to save tourists, I believe, from poachers - something from another source not the book since his book doesn't cover his own death), he was buried next to Boy, per his known desire (Joy's ashes were spread over Elsa's grave - at least some were anyway).

He also talks about a lot of other lions that he worked with and the trials, successes and failures he had in doing that.  It was abundantly clear that he loved his work and the animals he worked with.  Some of the animals went off and he didn't always find out what became of them.  He related those stories to question marks, saying that the best possible outcome was the question mark because it likely meant a successful re-introduction into the wild (some animals they found evidence of their lack of success in the wild, which is why the question mark was a good thing).

In general, the book was a story of a man who was a true conservationist who cared more about the animals in the wild than he did just about anything else.  He didn't seek fame or fortune and got by with whatever he had to without complaint.  I think a testament to the type of man he was is that his crew stayed with him even when he wasn't able to pay them.

I really enjoyed this book, even though I did have difficulty in the beginning of the book which covered his early years.  Otherwise, top notch book that I highly recommend!

For more reviews click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Heartbroken

This post is going to be a hard one to write.  Just over two months ago (March 15th), I had to make the gut wrenching decision to have my sweet Harley put to sleep.  Two weeks prior to that I had taken him to the vet for a quarterly check up (I took him that often because he was on steroids and I wanted to keep tabs on how they were affecting him).  He didn't seem symptomatic to me so I wasn't expecting (or prepared) for a bad report on him, but as it turned out (unrelated to the steroids) he was suffering from age-related kidney failure.  Once I knew what was going on, he went downhill fairly quickly so I took him in for a follow up well before I was expected to only to find that things were much worse than Harley had let on, and that's when I decided I had to do what was best for him even though it broke my heart.

I remember the first time I met Harley.  I had two other dogs, Max and Brewsky at the time.  I also had (and still have) a doggy door.  You see where I'm going with this, right?  I came home one day to Max and Brewsky greeting me at the door like they always did but there was a third dog there as well.  He seemed the most happy to see me of the three, like he'd heard a lot about me and was happy to finally be meeting me.  He was very sweet but I assumed he belonged to someone, so I put him out.

He howled outside my living room window (after I fixed the hole in the fence that had allowed him into my backyard and then my house) for hours.  He started camping on my front porch and howling when my alarm would go off in the morning (even though I liked to snooze for an hour or so before getting up).  He'd be waiting for me when I got home to be let in to play with his new friends.  He wouldn't ever eat anything here though.

Then one day I saw him follow two girls and another dog to a cul de sac a block over.  When he wasn't on my porch a few days later when I came home I drove over to the cul de sac and found him in a front yard chewing on a toy near a water and food bowl.  I knocked on the door to talk to his owner only to find they were only feeding him and were tired of doing that and planned to call the pound on him because his previous owners (who they knew who were) had just discarded him.  Knowing that if they called the pound he would be destroyed, I took him home with me saying I'd find a home for him.  From that day forward, he was my dog.

Harley was unlike other dogs that I've had in my life.  He marched to the beat of his own drum, as they say.  He did things I'd never seen other dogs do.  For one, I had a kiddie pool in my backyard when I got him.  He didn't get in the pool often but he would stick his face in the water and blow bubbles.  It was funny to watch.

Of all the dogs I've had in my life, he was probably the most curious of them all.  He would see or hear something and he had to go investigate.  Whenever I would have workers over to my house he would have to follow them, wherever they went.  If they went into the attic he would sit by the pull down ladder and wait for them to come back down.  He just liked being in the thick of things.

He was unable to tell the difference between real life and the TV - in some areas anyway.  Many years ago there was a movie trailer to some animated movie that had a cat meow - Harley thought it was a real cat and would come running through the living room out the doggy door every time it played on TV.  He'd look over his shoulder to see if Max and Brewsky were backing him up but they'd look at him like "dude, it's the TV, be cool!" and not go out with him.  One night I found the trailer online and played it several times and he came running every time.  It may have been cruel of me but it was funny.  :)

 

 

Harley was a pretty laid back dog but if he didn't like something, he would let you know it.  If I disturbed him and he didn't want to be bothered, he would let out a low growl.  He wasn't aggressive about it at all, and it wasn't even really a warning, it was just his way of letting me know he wanted some "me / Harley" time and I should come back later.

 

A few years ago I had a surgery and couldn't lift anything for a period of time.  Prior to this time I was having to assist Harley getting onto the bed at night.  Since I wouldn't be able to do that for a while, I moved the ottoman from my sofa to the foot of the bed for him to use as a stepping stone.  I figured it would be there a month or so and then I'd move it back into the living room.  Well, it never made it back into the living room because Harley decided he liked it for a bed - not one on the floor (and I had four of those in my bedroom alone) and not one he had to "share" with me.  I tried to move it back into the living room and it didn't go over well, so it stayed in the bedroom for the remainder of his life.  In the living room he had his own couch (pictured above), in addition to two other floor beds.  Harley wasn't spoiled or anything.  :)

 

The last four years of his life it was just the two of us.  I knew he was in tune with me and my movements but since his death I'm becoming more and more aware of how in tune I was with him.  It's been two months and I still hear things and look to see his reaction.  When I drop or bump into something, I still expect him to come running to check it out.  I was aware on some level I was doing that when he was alive but that I'm still doing it to this day, I realize I was more in tune with him than I really understood.

 

I miss him so much.  There's no doubt in my mind that I made the best decision for him but my head and my heart are still at odds about it.  He has a very special place in my heart and I'll be eternally grateful that I was allowed to have him in my life for as long as I did.  He was 12 years old.

 

 



Book Review Club - May 2018

Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

 

A new month, a new book to review!

This month I will be reviewing Sweet Tea Tuesdays by Ashley Farley.

Here is the blurb from amazon:

Three best friends met every Tuesday for twenty-six years. And then they stopped.

From the author of the bestselling Sweeney Sisters Series comes a novel of friendship, family, and hope.

When new next-door neighbors Georgia, Midge, and Lula first assembled on Georgia’s porch in Charleston for sweet tea, they couldn’t have known their gathering was the beginning of a treasured tradition. For twenty-six years they have met on Tuesdays at four o’clock, watching the seasons change and their children grow up, supporting each other in good times and in bad. With their ambitions as different as their personalities, these best friends anticipate many more years of tea time. And then, one Tuesday, Georgia shares news that brings their long-standing social hour to an abrupt halt. And that’s only the beginning as unraveling secrets threaten to alter their friendship forever.

I agree with amazon that it's a book about friendship, family and hope.  It's also a story about what happens when life throws you curve balls - we don't all handle it all that well.

From a storyline standpoint, I read this book very quickly and wanted to know what happened next and how things all worked out - it definitely kept my interest.  From a writing perspective I felt that at times it was a bit stilted but not overly so.  The characters were interesting and sympathetic. 

The story was told from the perspectives of Georgia, Midge, Lula and Lula's youngest daughter, Lizbet in alternating chapters.  There were things that were somewhat predictable but there were two story threads that ended in ways I hadn't expected.

I enjoyed the book.  I started it Sunday evening and finished it early Monday afternoon.  I would recommend it.

For more book reviews click on the button at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - March 2018

It's that time again, to review great books that we've read.

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm only about two-thirds of the way through THE RHINO WITH GLUE-ON SHOES but I feel confident writing this review because it's a compilation of stories told by various vets from across the world about their experiences with their animal patients.  This book is one I'm reading for my zoo volunteer book club.

The stories are wide ranging and the amazon description is as follows:

A moray eel diagnosed with anorexia…A herd of bison whose only hope is a crusading female doctor from Paris…A vet desperately trying to save an orphaned whale by unraveling the mystery of her mother’s death…This fascinating book offers a rare glimpse into the world of exotic animals and the doctors who care for them. Here pioneering zoological veterinarians—men and women on the cutting edge of a new medical frontier—tell real-life tales of daring procedures for patients weighing tons or ounces, treating symptoms ranging from broken bones to a broken heart, and life-and-death dramas that will forever change the way you think about wild animals and the bonds we share with them.
From a root canal on a three-thousand pound hippo to one doctor’s heartbreaking effort to save a critically ill lemur, here are acts of rescue, kindness, and cross-disciplinary cooperation between zoo vets and other top scientists. We meet highly trained specialists racing against time and circumstance to save the lives of some of the most exotic animals in the world. Shoes designed for racehorses help a rhinoceros with a debilitating foot disease. A kangaroo survives spinal surgery performed by a leading human doctor. These unforgettable stories capture the bonds that develop between vets and their animal patients, the ingenious measures many vets have tried, and the remarkable new insights modern medical technology is giving us into the physiology and behaviors of wild animals.

At once heart-quickening and clinically fascinating, the stories in this remarkable collection represent some of the most moving and unusual cases ever taken on by zoological vets. A chronicle of discovery, compassion, and cutting-edge medicine, The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes is must reading for animal lovers, science buffs, and anyone who loves a well-told tale.

Two of the stories actually come from zoo vets where I volunteer . . . dung beetles who have bugs and a story about a giraffe who needed orthopedic help because she didn't stand up right away and her mother accidentally stepped on her.  The giraffe story is beyond where I've technically read but because of the zoo connection (and my love of our giraffes), I read it out of turn.  That chapter's opening paragraph is:  "Hello.  My name is Lauren Howard and I'm calling from the zoo.  I was wondering if I could speak with one of your orthopedic surgery instructors?  No, I'm not a patient.  You see, I have a giraffe with a leg problem . . ."  Click.  "Hello?"

All of the stories I've read are well written and compelling.  While not all the stories have happy endings, you see the collaboration between veterinarians across the globe and the compassion and bonds that develop with their patients.  I'm really enjoying it and highly recommend it to animal lovers.

For more reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

February 2018 Book Review

 I recently saw a bumper sticker that said "I like animals more than people."  My first thought was I needed one of those bumper stickers myself.  The book I’m reviewing this month is THE ELEPHANT WHISPERER by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence and I would venture a guess that Mr. Anthony might share that sentiment as well.

The blurb on the back of the book says:  When Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of ‘rogue’ wild elephants on his reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse.  But he was the herd’s last chance of survival and in order to save their lives, Anthony took them in.

In the years that followed he became a part of their family.  And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.  In The Elephant Whisperer, he tells of his heartwarming, exciting, funny, and sometimes sad experiences with these huge yet sympathetic creatures.

The main thread of the book is about his relationship with the elephants.  They had been badly treated and witnessed family members being killed in front of them so they were very distrusting of humans when they reached Anthony’s game reserve, Thula Thula.  They escaped the confines of the reserve not long after arriving and were aggressive enough that the townsfolk wanted them destroyed.  Anthony plead for their lives and managed to get them back to his game reserve but was told in no uncertain terms, if they escaped again they would be shot on sight.  As a result, Anthony took extra measures to ensure they didn’t escape again while also attempting to gain the trust of the matriarch of the herd, Nana, knowing the others would trust him if she did.

Through this story you get to know the animals and care for them.  But the story wasn’t just about elephants.  It was about life in Africa as well.  There were side stories about other animals and incidents and things he went through having to deal with poachers as well as African traditions, among other things.  It wasn’t a one note story.  The writing was fluid and there were parts where I laughed out loud and parts that were, as the description says, sad.  But it was very good book.

Actually, I absolutely loved this book.  I think anyone who loves animals or has an interest in African culture would also love this book.  I highly recommend it.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I read this book because it was the February choice for our zoo’s volunteer book club.)

For more reviews go to www.barriesummy.com.

January 2018 Book Review

The book I will be reviewing this month is We're Going To Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union.

This is another book where I didn't know who the author was but I saw her in an interview and she got my attention.  In my mind I knew I would read and review this book and, also in my mind, I had the review written before I got the email from the library telling me the book was available.

After I finished reading the book I felt there was an unintended message in the book that needs to be talked about.  Based on what she said in the interview I thought the book would be inspiring and an "every woman" book.  What it is is a black woman's book - I would even go so far as to say an angry black woman's book.  I wasn't expecting that. 

She doesn't hold anything back either.  She goes deep and unapologetically lays it all out there.  She talks about growing up in a predominantly white community and trying to pretend she was white as well, going so far as to snub other black students who enrolled in her school.  Her parents had told her that to be successful she would have to work harder than anyone else and she would have others take credit for her work.  It's a message some of us have heard before but she was told this because her skin color would hold her back.

She talked about a guest appearance she made on a sitcom.  The director came over to her and told her they'd need her to stand on a mark and went on to explain that this allowed the cameras to keep her in the shot.  She took offense to this because she believed he did this because he thought she was stupid because she was black.  She then went on to talk about all the things she had accomplished up to that guest appearance and compared it to the "lack luster" accomplishments of the white stars of the show she was appearing on.  It was clear that she wasn't over the incident, even though it happened more than fifteen years ago.

Later in the book she talked about having to teach her sons about what they could and couldn't do because of their skin color.  She had talked about this in her interview and it broke my heart and was one of the reasons I wanted to read the book.  If I had been asked a couple of years ago about racism in this country I would have said it was dying.  But because of the events of the last couple of years, I now know that's just wishful thinking.

The conversation, as I've heard it, has always been about the racists though.  It's been that racists aren't born, they're taught to be that way.  In reading this book though, I feel that there needs to be a conversation on the other side as well.  Black babies aren't born believing that their skin color puts them at a disadvantage, that's something that's taught as well.  And maybe that is a conversation that's happening but if it's not, it should be.  Gabrielle was upfront with what she had been brought up to believe (work twice as hard so someone else can take credit for your accomplishments) and it was stated as if it were fact and not something that was wrong with the system.

Given the climate we currently live in I know that dramatic changes are unlikely in the near future but we've got to stop teaching our kids that skin color matters because it doesn't and shouldn't.  I didn't go into reading this book thinking I was reading a black woman's story but that is what I read and while I don't know that I could say this book was for everyone, I did feel that there was a message in it worth sharing that made it my pick for reviewing this month.

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com