Book Review Club December 2019

The book I will be discussing this month is The Mueller Report.  I'm going to assume that anyone reading this post knows the general content of the book so I won't spend a lot of time on that.  But if you've been living under a rock for the last three years, the book is about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and what role the Trump campaign and administration may have played in that interference.

I'm not going to review this book in the way I would normally review a book here and my recommendation for reading it isn't based on how much I loved it or because of any political position I may hold.  The reason I am recommending this book for reading is because there is so much conflicting information out there about what it says and about what was discovered during the investigation.  For me, I wanted to know what it actually said so that I wasn't hearing cherry picked excerpts that would seem to support whatever narrative the reporter may have wanted to push.  This is also the reason I have been watching the impeachment hearings, despite how exhausting it has been.

I will say that it's not an easy read by any means.  But it does tell a story.

In the interested of full disclosure, as of right now, I haven't completed the book.  I've read all of volume I  and am currently working on volume II.

Volume I covers Russian interference in the election and the contacts made by Trump campaign officials.  It started with a broad overview of the investigation, followed by the laws used and applied to make decisions.  It then broke things down by individual and dates before it summed up the decisions made on who to prosecute and for what crimes.  It was clear that from the start that since a sitting president can't be indicted that no application of the law(s) would be applied to the president or his actions. "We determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes." (Page 195, Volume II)

Several campaign staff members were working hard to make a meeting with Trump and Putin happen.  Among those was George Papadopoulos.  He sent an email that Paul Manafort forwarded (without copying George).  In the forwarded email Paul said "Let[']s discuss.  We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips.  It should be someone low-level in the Campaign so as not to send any signal." (Page 103, Volume I).

At one point "Denysyk thanked Papadopoulos 'for taking the initiate,' but asked him to 'hold off without reach (sic) to Russian-Americans' because 'too many articles' had already portrayed the Campaign, then campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and candidate Trump as 'being pro-Russian.' " (Page 106-107, Volume I)

I know that Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that the report found no evidence of collusion but the report states - in several places - that the "evidence was not sufficient to obtain and sustain a criminal conviction". (Page 163, Volume I). That's not an exoneration but rather a prosecutorial decision not to move forward.  That said, I personally found the evidence very compelling.

Something else I found interesting.  I had finished Volume I before the impeachment hearings started and was shocked to find that a lot of the same players were involved in both the Russian interference case as are involved in the Ukraine episode.  In my opinion, there's definitely a pattern of behavior between the two scenarios.  And in the report there's even a mention of a quid pro quo.

The last quote from the report that I noted was on Page 207, Volume II where it discusses witness tampering.  It states "Corrupt persuasion is shown 'where a defendant tells a potential witness a false story as if the story were true, intending that the witness believe the story and testify to it.' " Draw from that what you will.

The last thing I will say is that the book had a lengthy introduction by Alan Dershowitz included in it.  I have seen Alan on shows defending Trump so wasn't surprised when he was discussing why the report never should have been written.  He states that Rosenberg was more conflicted than Sessions and therefore should have never been put in charge of the investigation.  He states that no special counsel should have been appointed, no report should have been written and it should have never been released to the public and he provides arguments for each of these convictions.  None of it surprised me.  What did surprise me is that at the end of it he stated that he had voted for Clinton in the 2016 election and voted all democrat in the 2018 election.  My guess is he felt this disclosure would give more credibility to his opinions.

Whatever the argument, I feel this is an important book to read so that people can form their own opinions and make informed decisions going forward and that's why I chose this book to discuss this month, particularly with everything going on right now.

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

Book Review Club - November 2019 (Finding Dorothy)

I've been borrowing a lot of books from the library lately and I recently logged in to find a book and saw that they were hosting a book club and the book they would be discussing was Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts.  I must've read a little about it and found it interesting because I put a hold on the book for myself.  I did get the book before the book club met and had I read the book (or remembered about the meeting) I might have participated.  As it was, I started reading it after the group would've met.

On Amazon it's listed as biographical fiction and that seems fitting.  I loved the "disclaimer" at the beginning of the work because it says "Finding Dorothy is a work of fiction.  All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical figures, are products of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real.  Where real-life historical persons appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are entirely fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the entirely fictional nature of the work.  In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental."  I can't think of any characters in the book that weren't well-known historical figures.

In any event, the story is about Maud Baum's life.  Maud is the real life wife of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  There are records regarding where they lived and what businesses and jobs they had and the author takes all that and expands on it, which is why it is a book of fiction.  There are incidents and conversations that there would be no way of knowing about but in some instances it fits a pattern of certain individuals.  Such as Arthur Freed who was a part of the production of the movie based on the book.  He is known to have exposed himself to a young Shirley Temple and the author has him be inappropriate with Judy Garland.  It's not known for a fact that he was inappropriate with Judy but it fits a pattern for Arthur Freed.

Maud's mother was Matilda Joslyn Gage, a woman who fought hard trying to get women rights, including the vote, and Susan B. Anthony was considered a friend and a frequent visitor to the Gage home (although she's only referenced a few times in the book and according to the story, Maud called her Auntie Susan).  As I was reading these names and actions of these leaders in history (and considering the disclaimer at the start of the book), I wondered if any of it was true.  So I looked up Maud Baum on wikipedia and it lines up.  Which made me question wikipedia and which came first the wikipedia entry or the book.  😃

On wikipedia Maud has a sister not mentioned in the book which added to my confusion.  But, at the end of the book the author has an Afterword which explains a few things.  First of all she did EXTENSIVE research (and lists some recommended reading) on the matter, reading several biographies and even the diaries of the sister who was mentioned in the book!  So basically, the author stuck pretty much to the truth of events as they relate to Maud and her husband and added her own take as to conversations and events that lead to Frank writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and her part in the filming of the movie.

The story is told in a way that suggests events in their lives inspired the book and as it does so there will be a chapter from the making of the movie.  What I'm trying to say is that in alternating chapters it goes back and forth between telling the story of Maud and Frank's lives and 1939 when the movie was filmed after Frank's death.

It didn't read like a biography and would've been an interesting story even if it had been 100% fiction.  It had stories about Maud growing up with a mother who was a leader in the women's movement.  It told stories about Maud going to Cornell University and meeting and marrying Frank and where their life took them after that.  It's a work of fiction, based on facts.

I really enjoyed the book and wish I had participated in the book club, but at least I got to read the book and that's the important thing.  I would highly recommend it, particularly to anyone who read Frank's books or enjoyed the movie based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

To read more book reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - November 2019 (The Secrets We Kept)

I decided to review a second book this month because, like the first review I wrote, this book is a historical fiction story.  It's based on facts obtained through extensive research, including reading declassified CIA reports on the matter.  It's considered a work of fiction because things like personal conversations that cannot be known (although, per the author, some are pulled directly from the CIA reports and included in this work).

The book is The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott.  The story is about the efforts made to make public the novel Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak from the perspective of his mistress and CIA operatives.  Pasternak worked on the book for 10+ years and the Russian government did not want it to see the light of day as it was considered anti-government, something that was punishable by death.  People who were perceived to even have anti-government thoughts would go missing, never to be seen again.  So despite this potential threat hovering over him, Pasternak continued his work.

Like the other book I reviewed, this would be a great story even if it wasn't based on known facts.  It was primarily told from the perspective of Olga - Boris' mistress, Irina - a new CIA employee and Sally - a veteran of CIA missions.  I say primarily because we do get into the heads of other characters but those are the main three.  I don't know if these were real names of people involved other than I do know that Boris Pasternak did have a mistress who went through and endured the hardships described as a result of her relationship with Boris, including being put in a hard labor camp simply because she was Boris' mistress.  The intent was to hurt Boris so that he would stop working on the book.

The book also explores the lives of the people involved in getting Doctor Zhivago published.  Russia didn't want it published but the US took steps to ensure that not only did it get published, that it was widely distributed within Russia.

Personally I've never read the book or seen the movie (Doctor Zhivago that is) but reading this book definitely made me want to read the book AND see the movie!

The story was well told and well written.  The only problem I had with it was it was not clear to me initially that the story was being told from the perspective of different people.  The prologue was titled "Typists".  Chapter one was titled "The Mistress".  Chapter two was "The Applicant".  Those were three different perspectives but I didn't realize those were the character identifiers until around page 80 because each chapter was told in first person perspective and there was no change in writing style to easily identify the character.  For example, in The Help (a book I LOVED, by the way) each chapter was labeled with the character name but the writing style changed to encompass the character's personality so even without the character name to identify who was "talking", it was easy to tell whose perspective was being presented and that wasn't the case in The Secrets We Kept.  At least in my opinion.  I think the author thought it would be cute to have "covert" names for the characters but it just confused me - at least initially.  I remember around page 200 I went back to the table of contents to confirm what happened to which character.  This was partly my fault because I jumped into reading the book without having any idea what it was about but I do also fault the author for not making clear character distinctions with her writing.  It was still a good book though.

Bottom line, it was a good story, and a good book worth reading.  I would highly recommend it.

For more reviews go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

Book Review Club - September 2019

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@Barrie Summy

It's time for book reviews!

This month I will be reviewing My Friend Anna The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams.

This is one of those things where I had heard on the news something about a fake heiress but I didn't pay all that much attention to it.  I'm not sure what, if anything, I could have said about it.  Then the author of this book went on Good Morning America to promote her book.  I rarely watch interviews with people I've never heard of but for some reason I watched this one.  She said she'd gone on a trip with Anna Delvey and that when she got home she got a text saying she owed $70,000 for the trip.  THAT piqued my interest in the story and I ordered this book online.

The book starts off in Morocco where Anna and Rachel were vacationing at a $7,500 a night resort.  Anna had offered to pay all trip expenses but management at the resort were having difficulty having payment go through on Anna's card so they seemed to take position in the room until the issue was resolved.  They eventually asked Rachel if she had a credit card the charges could be put on.  She agreed to let them take her credit card but only as a temporary hold until Anna could sort out her finances to pay for the trip.

They left the resort to go on a tour that Rachel had understood to be pre-charged to the resort room but when the tour was over, they were asked for payment.  This was when Rachel realized that the resort had not returned her personal credit card.  Someone from where they had taken the tour came back to them to the resort and Rachel swapped out her personal credit card (which they refused to release without payment) for her corporate AMEX (which she was adamant that they NOT use for anything!) and she went back with the tour guy and paid for the tour on her personal credit card.

Anna was still "resolving" her financial issues when Rachel left Morocco.  When Rachel got home she realized that more than $36,000 had been applied to her personal credit card and more than $16,000 had been applied to her corporate AMEX.  She had told them not to use her corporate AMEX but they had apparently recorded the information in their files and applied the balance to it when Anna checked out of the resort.

At this point in the book Rachel tells the story of how she met Anna and how their relationship progressed.  They met through mutual friends / acquaintances and became fast friends.  They went out a lot and the stories she told reminded me a lot of Sex and the City.  (When I went to pull the picture for the review I saw that the book was like Sex and the City meets Catch Me if You Can and that truly fits this story!)

On most outings Anna would pay but on occasion she would say she didn't have her wallet or credit card and ask Rachel to pay.  For the most part Rachel didn't mind because Anna was paying for a lot of things.  But she talks about how things started with her being asked to pay for things she could afford to pay for and then suddenly the expenses became overwhelming.

It was a very interesting story to read about.  I didn't want to put the book down, even though I knew how things worked out for Anna, the fake heiress.  Rachel was instrumental in bringing down Anna and even testified against her in court.  The book talks about things that happened in mid-May of this year and the book was released on July 23rd so this was as hot off the press as you can get without living it!

I feel like we've all known someone who lives a life we wish we had - not that there's ever anything wrong with the lives we lead but this other person seems more glamorous or something to us and we're drawn to it.  I think that's what Anna was to Rachel and why she believed all the lies she was told.  It's also why Rachel was an easy target to exploit.  It gives such an insight to human relationships why we might fall victim to this type of thing.  I found it a fascinating read - something I was not expecting.  I had used points to pay for all but ~$5.00 of the book and I fully expected to think I'd grossly overpaid and that wasn't the case.  In short, it tells the story of the fake princess from the side of a victim.

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

Book Review Club - June 2019

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@Barrie Summy

I started this year with a goal to read one book per week.  It started well but I haven't been as successful lately.  As such, instead of writing a review of a book I loved and highly recommend, I'm going to discuss a book that I didn't really like and will go into detail as to why I did not like it.

With that disclaimer out of the way, I will be reviewing Sally Field's In Pieces this month.

I'll start by saying I used to be a fan of Ms. Field. The perception was that she was a kind and caring person.  And as such, I was someone who rooted for her in her professional projects.  I remember when she got the role of Sybil and all the gossip about how people didn't think she had the acting chops to pull it off, but she did.  Things like that.

But I guess it was 10 or 15 years ago that my opinion of her changed and to be honest, I couldn't even say why because I'm not sure.  Regardless, now if I watch something she's in it's despite her being in it, rather than because she's in it.

So when her book came out, I had no desire to read it.  But since I was on the book-a-week plan, I borrowed it from the library.  Actually, I had borrowed it several times to get through it but I think it's one I finished this year.

Anyway, it wasn't an easy read. The writing wasn't good.  It wasn't so much of a storytelling experience of her life as a data dump of information.  The first 50 pages or so were background on her family - grandmother, great grandmother, etc.  I would probably get the people and exact details wrong but one of her relatives was illegitimate and left an orphanage as a teenager and the family was scandalized.

When she gets into her story it all comes from the perspective of her being a victim her whole life.  Things happened to her and she was forced or guilted into doing things or projects she did not want to do.  For example, she did not want to be in the Flying Nun, after she had declined the role someone contacted her stepfather and he came to visit her and basically told her how ungrateful she was for the opportunity and shamed her into taking it.  She was miserable for the entire run.

And speaking of her stepfather, she had a sexual relationship with him.  Back when Joan Rivers was still filling in for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show, I watched an interview with Ms. Field and she asked at what age Joan had lost her virginity and they decided to tell at the same time.  Joan said 21 and Sally said 14.  In the book Sally talks about an encounter with her stepfather when she was 14 where both are naked and fondling each other but then says she doesn't have any memory of what happened next but that she didn't talk to him for a long time.  Incorporating what I remember from the interview years before and this story, my guess is she lost her virginity with her stepfather but didn't want to admit that in her book.

Beyond that she talks about jobs she took and what she did to get them.  She considered sleeping with a director or a producer to get or keep a part as part of the business she was in - even if the man was married - whatever it took to get the job.

She also talks about Burt Reynolds.  I have to say here that I have never been a fan of Burt Reynolds - I always felt he was too full of himself.  But reading this book, I like him even less than before.  Sally was so excited about Sybil and the fact that she was up for an EMMY for her performance but Burt didn't want her to go to the awards show because television awards weren't worthy of his presence and he didn't think she should go without him.  So she stayed home with him and watched the show on TV to see she had won.

Then, when she got Norma Rae he got angry that she was even considering taking it because, according to Ms. Field "no woman of his was going to play a whore".  Things like that.  But she took it.  Her mother was watching her kids almost exclusively at times and Burt would give her ultimatums when something would happen to her mother or one of the kids and would tell her to choose - him or them.  She often chose him.

So yeah, I wasn't a fan of hers before I read this book and I'm less so after having read it.  But, also as I said before, the writing was bad and she takes no responsibility for her own actions and decisions because, to her mind (at least the way it comes across), she's the victim here.

I don't particularly recommend this book but it is one that I've wanted to discuss since I read it, if for no other reason to see if anyone else had read the book and came away with the same or similar take on it.

For more reviews (probably with more favorable opinions of the book reviewed), click on the icon at the top of this post or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com .

Update

I have been meaning to update the weight loss progress but well, I've been kind of busy.

Shortly after my last post I started watching my neighbor's dog for them.  It actually was helping the cause because I was walking him daily and he initially was so high maintenance (thankfully we've fallen into a nice routine now!) I didn't have time to eat.  I lost ten pounds pretty quickly.

Things seemed to level out after that and I lost another pound or two.

Then, a couple of weeks ago I got bitten by some bug that resulted in a pretty significant allergic reaction and I've been on steroids since.  So for the last week or so I've been eating like I was trying to qualify to be a sumo wrestler and I had to pack on 200 pounds by June 1st.

As of yesterday the scale still reflected a weight loss of 11 pounds but I expect the weight will change at some point and I will have lost less than that but once these anti-allergy drugs flush out of my system, I'll be hitting it hard again, with a vengeance!

Set Back

Well, last week was a rough week for dieting.  I knew I was cheating but I kept going.  Call it a binge, you wouldn't be wrong

So, when I got on the scale on Monday, all progress I had made in the first week had been washed away.  And I wasn't surprised.

As I was binging, I thought about 2006 when I went on Weight Watchers and lost 45-50 pounds during that year.  What is different now than what was going on then?  How was I able to stick to a diet plan than allowed me to eat whatever I wanted, so long as I stayed within certain guidelines?

Several things came to mind.  First of all, I was working.  There was food available to me at work but not as readily available with things I personally picked out / up from the store.  It's very easy to go into the kitchen and grab something to eat, whether I need it or nor and whether or not I'm actually hungry.

I thought about accountability because I was being weighed every week but had assumed blogging about it provided that here.  

But the big one, I think, was the fact that I was shelling out a lot of money to go to Weight Watcher meetings at work.  It was easier for me to stay focused on losing weight because otherwise the money I was spending was being wasted.  Once I reached my goal weight I didn't have to pay anymore - I just had to weigh in once a month.  When I started gaining weight, I stopped going to meetings, planning to lose the weight and go again.  That never happened.

One other thing occurred to me though, I allowed for snacks and had them ready and available to me. I almost always had bananas, yogurt and hard boiled eggs on hand for snacks.  I also had the Weight Watchers ice cream almost every single evening, which helped me feel like I was able to indulge while on the diet.

To that end, I have stocked my house with low calorie snacks in the hopes that it will help eliminate binges like I had last week.

So, it's back to square one on the goal to lose weight but I think (hope) identifying the obstacles will help going forward.

Pounds desired to lose: 50

Pounds to go: 50

Net loss:  0   :(

Book Review Club - April 2019

I didn't think I would be reviewing a book this month and then I came across this one on amazon. 

Here's the thing, Kim Gruenenfelder is one of my favorite authors and I've reviewed several of her books already and had even waited three years for her last book to come out.  So I was surprised to find she had another book out that I didn't know about.  Happily surprised.  :)

This month I will be reviewing Hangovers & Hot Flashes by Kim Gruenenfelder.

As with several other of her books, this story is told from the viewpoint of three main characters (and best friends) who tell their story from their own point of view in alternating chapters.  All of the women are in their mid-to-late forties.  They are:

Alexis (Alex):  Alex is in television (show creator), lives on the beach and has more money than she knows what to do with. Her "boyfriend" of twelve years shows up when it's convenient and then seems to go into hiding for weeks on end.  But the sex is great so she's reluctant to kick him to the curb.

Michelle: Michelle is a high end real estate agent who has been married to Steve for 20+ years.  She feels so unappreciated at home that she literally parks her car a couple of blocks from her house to brace herself for she'll have to face inside.  She feels she gets no help from Steve at home so she's questioning why they're still together.

Zoe:  Zoe has been married to Carlos for 20+ years.  She loves him with all her heart but she misses the "zing" you feel when a romance is new.  The electric feeling you get when you have your first kiss.  She wants to feel that again so she suggests trying an open marriage to her husband, Carlos.

One of the things I love about Gruenenfelder's books is that she really taps into the human emotions we all feel and she doesn't hold back.  But she does it in such a way that it is funny.  SO funny!  I laughed so hard while reading this book.  I also couldn't put it down - I read it the same day it came in the mail!

I also saw myself and my friends in these characters.  Some of the things told were things I'd actually experienced!  To the point I might have wondered "how did she know?"  ;)

One experience that mimicked one I'd had myself was when Alex took the dog her boyfriend had left with her to the vet.  She asked the vet what kind of dog it was and the vet told her he was a mutt.  So she asked what mix of dogs did the vet think he was.  The vet responded "cute and adorable".  It made me laugh because the first time I took my dog, Harley, to the vet I asked what kind of dog he was.  My vet looked at him and gave it consideration before he answered "brown".

In any event, I thoroughly enjoyed Hangovers & Hot Flashes and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys books about love, friendship and who need a good laugh.

For more reviews click on the link below or go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.

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@Barrie Summy

One Week In

First off, dieting is hard.  HARD.

I find myself sitting on the couch watching TV and I'm unable to concentrate on the show I'm watching because I'm thinking about the food in my kitchen.  This isn't new to me dieting but it does make the dieting harder.

In fact, I haven't been that good on the "diet" this past week.  To be totally honest, I've gone way over my allowable calorie intake more days than not.  I did walk five out of the seven days, so that is a good thing.

But, when I got on the scale this morning (the official one, not the many unproductive ones I did during the week!), I had lost 2.5 pounds!

I've already eaten about two days worth of food today and it's not even dinner time yet!  (I'll probably skip dinner, for what it's worth.) But I've just got to keep plugging along until I reach my goal!

Pounds desired to lose: 50
Pounds to go: 47.5
Net pounds lost: 2.5

Day Four

Well, so far so good, as they say.

One of the things I had decided when I started this "journey" was that I was only going to weigh myself once a week - on Mondays.  I've done that in the past and it has worked well for me because when you weigh daily, or even multiple times a week, you can get a misperception of how you're doing.

For example, one day you may weigh yourself and you have a number to go by.  Let's say you weigh the next day and it shows you've lost 2 pounds.  You feel great and you might feel it's okay to take a little splurge, which defeats your purpose.

Or you may feel like you're starving yourself to death and get on the scale and have gained a pound or two.  You might question why you're torturing yourself like this and decide to binge eat, again, defeating your purpose.

So, for me, it works best if I only weigh once a week.

Only that's not what I've done this week so far.  In fact, I've weighed myself three times already and as of this morning it reflects that I've lost 3.5 pounds.  Maybe I have really lost that weight but maybe it's more water weight than anything else.  I can't lose my focus on the goal here.  So it's kind of encouraging but I don't want to jump ahead of myself here and lose focus.

Speaking of focus, I've done pretty well on eating and exercising.  Today is the first day I haven't gone out and walked the neighborhood yet (although the later it gets the less likely it will happen, just saying).

However, I had said I wanted to create a diet that was sustainable after I lost the weight.  After I wrote that I realized that how I'm approaching this is more of a juicing diet.  I'm eating solid foods too but mainly my diet has consisted of juiced fruits.  We're talking I was up at 3:00 a.m. this morning juicing fruits so that that could be my breakfast.  And it was delicious!

But as a long time sustainable thing, I need to be able to incorporate foods that bring a balance.  I've learned over the last few years that protein is important.  I don't eat meat (or dairy) so it can be challenging to get in the protein my body needs at times.

So I guess in addition to losing the weight, my goal would be to create a balanced diet that gives me everything I need (and even want) while maintaining a healthy weight (once I get there!).

But as I started the post, from the standpoint of how I'm doing - so far so good.  :)

Day One - Take Two

Before you do any scrolling to see what Day One - Take One or just Day One looks like, let me just tell you, that entry doesn't exist.  I'd planned to do a Day One entry but considering I didn't do too well on the first Day One, I feel it's better for all concerned that there be no written documentation that there was such a thing.

But that brings me to the point of this "series" I hope to be documenting. 

Over the last few years I've steadily been putting on weight.  A lot of weight.  I've always known I was a stress eater but I'm finding I eat for other reasons - that don't involve the need for nourishment - as well. 

I had lunch with a friend of mine a month or so ago and I hadn't seen her since I started gaining so much weight (30 pounds in the last two years!!!) and I brought it up.  She asked me why I thought I was eating so much and I mentioned that I was a stress eater but the fact was, there hadn't really been anything I could attach to a recent stress related eating binge and I kind of danced around the answer after that.

A few days later I was sitting in my living room watching TV and I got up to get something to eat.  It wasn't a meal or snack time and I wasn't even hungry, I just felt like eating.  That's when I realized I also eat when I'm bored.  Funny that I'd never considered that but there it was - I eat when I'm bored.

And it's not like I eat healthy stuff during these times either.  I don't buy a lot of junk food because I know I'll eat the bulk of it in one or two days but that doesn't mean all my "healthy snacks" are healthy either.

So, I've been looking at all of that and decided that I need to change things.  I don't want to do a fad diet or any diet that wouldn't be sustainable after I reached my goal weight (which will take some time to get there *sigh*).  I want to incorporate a healthy diet with exercise.  Sounds good, right?

Well, yesterday I got up and had avocado toast, followed by a thirty minute walk around the neighborhood.  I have a treadmill but it's too easy to stop after only a few minutes but if you're walking the neighborhood, you still gotta get back home!  So I decided walking the neighborhood might be the best approach while it's still comfortable enough to walk outside.

Anyway, I won't go into detail but it started falling apart around lunch time.  I have a recipe I make with daikon and brussel sprouts that I love.  It's very light, very few calories.  I had that just before lunch time.  I wasn't hungry after that but it was so early so I had a banana.  I mean, I don't want them to go bad.  I bought them to be snacks, etc.  So where was the harm?

I'll tell you the harm, it's that "I'm bored, I'll eat" habit that I need to break.  As I suggested, it went downhill after that.

So today is officially a second take on Day One.  I had avocado toast again and did my 30 minute walk around the neighborhood.  I just had a sensible lunch (stuffed peppers, yum!) and I just need to stay on course from here on out.

Here's hoping Day Two is next and there's not a "Take Three" to Day One!  :)

Pounds desired to lose:  50
Pounds to go:  50

Just not up to dealing with you today

I recently went on a trip and came home and promptly got sick.  This has happened before and I don't know if it's the difference in the climate, allergens or both or something else altogether.  I do know that when I've ignored it in the past, it evolves into something way worse so I've gotten to where if I see it coming, I go to the doctor to head it off at the pass.  Which is why I went to the doctor the other day.

Here's the thing though, I wanted to beat the crap out of the nurse and if I'd had the energy to do so, I might've done it.  So here's how the interaction with the nurse went:

It started with the nurse asking me to step up on the scale.  I don't do this anymore.  It would be one thing if it was necessary to get a right dosage of a medication that might kill me if the wrong dosage was prescribed.  But given that no diagnosis had been made at this point, I knew this wasn't the case, so I declined.

That resulted in the first smirk I got from the nurse as she said, sarcastically, "Really?!?"

To which I replied, "Really, I'm not going to weigh today."

She looked at me in disbelief as she told me she had to weigh me, it was just what they did!

I repeated, "I'm not going to weigh today."

Then she suggested that I look at her and she wouldn't tell me what the scale said, as if I didn't already know what it would say and that my reluctance to get on the scale was because I didn't want to know what I weighed.

That's when I smirked at her and just repeated that I wouldn't be weighing today, as if maybe she hadn't heard me before.

We went back and forth a couple of more times before she gave up and told me to sit in a chair so she could take my other vitals.

The blood pressure machine was on my right side but due to a medical procedure I had done several years ago it's better if all tests that can be done in the arm are done on my left arm, which is why I started exposing my left arm (I had on a sweater).  Her smirk and sarcasm reappeared as she wondered out loud why I would want it taken from my left arm.  When I told her why, she was less sarcastic and inappropriate.

That is until she asked me if I had any allergies.  I said yes and listed them, including my allergy to tetanus shots.

She said, "Really?  You're allergic to tetanus?"

I said, "Yes."

"Oh?  And you have a reaction?"

"Yes, I do."

"I looked at your chart."

I just looked at her confused because I didn't have any idea what her looking at my chart had anything to do with me being allergic to tetanus shots.  Then she told me I'd had several tetanus shots at this clinic before and I was even more confused because I've never had a tetanus shot at this particular clinic, and I told her so.

That's when she really showed her ignorance and said, "Almost every visit you've ever had here is listed as TB!"

That's when my smirk and sarcasm came back.  "You do realize that TB stands for tuberculosis don't you?  Tetanus and tuberculosis are two very different things.  So yes, I've had TB tests here before but I've NEVER had a tetanus shot here before."

She looked sufficiently embarrassed and had me go wait back in the waiting room for an exam room to be available and I didn't see her again. But I think it's a sad state of affairs when the quality of the medical personnel don't know the difference between a TB test and a tetanus shot!

Book Review Club - February 2019

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@Barrie Summy

This month I will be reviewing Michelle Obama's Becoming. 

The thing about autobiographies is that sometimes you learn things the author didn't intend you to learn about them.  It may be in what they say, what they didn't say, or how they said something.

What I learned from reading Becoming is that Michelle Obama is the warm, welcoming and inclusive person she seemed to be when she was First Lady.

Becoming tells her story from a young age through her years in the White House.  It's not the story of a black woman - it could be anyone's story.  She does note observations she made growing up about where certain family members seemed to complain about being passed over for promotions in work because of the color of their skin but it wasn't something she dwelled on and never seemed to consider it a hindrance to achieving her own goals in life.

She went to Princeton and Harvard.  She was making her way as an attorney at a successful law firm and was on the path to partnership.  But she felt unfulfilled, wanting to be involved in things that produced meaningful change in the world.

And then she met Barrack. 

Barrack was (is?) a lot more laid back than Michelle but their vision for things was similar.  She left the law firm and went to help put together programs that helped kids and families get a better education and medical assistance where it was desperately needed.  Barrack went into politics.

They were both having positive impacts on communities and loving their work.  But when Barrack said he wanted to run for president, it wasn't something she was excited about.  She didn't want to hold him back though and agreed to campaign with and for him, all the while believing he wouldn't get elected.

While in the White House she implemented programs slowly so that it wouldn't appear she was trying to affect policy - something Hillary Clinton had cautioned her about (from her own experience as First Lady).  She talks about things she was able to accomplish and the impact she believes she had on the people she was trying to help while her husband ran the country and the two of them were trying to raise two well adjusted daughters.

In my mind, before reading this book, I felt that Michelle Obama was someone who carried herself with grace and dignity and her story is told with grace and dignity.  I liked her before I read this book and I like her more since reading it.  There were stories that made me laugh and stories that made me cry.  And it wasn't always pretty.  It made me appreciate the privileges that I have and left me wanting to help others that don't share those same privileges.  It was an inspiring and interesting book about an inspiring and interesting woman.

I highly recommend it. 

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

Book Review Club - December 2018

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@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

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@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

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@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

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@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.