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The Soul of All Living Creatures by Vint Varga, DVM

August 5, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Dr Vint Varga knows animals. He has practiced veterinary medicine for decades, first as an emergency room vet, then a specialist in veterinary behavior medicine.

Early on in his career, he realized that a strong connection could be made between humans and animals, enough to cause healing on both sides. The Soul of All Living Creatures is a quick read filled with real stories and real patients Dr Varga has seen during his career. Each chapter is titled with the name of a human emotional trait, and he goes on to explain how animals embody these traits as well. If we can learn to understand our pets better, we will learn something about ourselves in the process.

The introduction to the book has tear-jerking potential. Varga tells us about a dog that is hit by a car, and how the dog failed to thrive despite his excellent medical care. I’m not giving anything away here…but you will nod your head when you how things turn out.

Bloodhounds, mice, clouded leopards….all non-human creatures are the same to the good doctor, as he illustrates the chapter’s subject (sensitivity, integrity, forgiveness, etc.) with short tales about patients that he has seen and tried to fix/cure, with thorough analysis of the animal’s behavior and listening to those who know the creatures best.

Varga believes that “in the presence of animals, we find true acceptance” and so we can be ourselves in front of our dog or cat. He says that he remembers each case not only for what illness the patient had but recalls the bond that was shared between the pet and the owner.

Interspersed throughout the book are short fables and folk tales that also illustrate Varga’s point, as well as little snippets of his own wisdom, such as “When one behavior is not expressed, another behavior will take its place” and “When we limit our experience to what we perceive, we let our senses define our existence”.  Despite all this home-grown sentiment, the book is not overly touchy-feely. What is obvious is Varga’s love and compassion for those who cannot tell their own story, and how he does his best to help every single one he can, even to the point of rescuing a tiny field mouse that was helpless on a busy road during a torrential rainstorm.

My only complaint with the book was that we never got to hear how most of the patients did after the treatment. It was as if they dropped off the face of the earth with no follow up. I was curious to see if his instinct and healing methods worked. That being said, this book would make a terrific addition to an animal lover’s library.

If you would like to enjoy this book as I did, click here to get a copy of your own!

Interested in what the New York Times said about this book? Click here.

Thanks to the publisher, Broadway Books for providing me with this review copy. I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this honest review.

Guilt By Association by Marcia Clark

August 5, 2014 / / 0 Comments

 

 

Guilt by Association

Thanks to NetGalley  for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book is number one in a series about fictitious Los Angeles DA Rachel Knight, who bends the law just a bit to help solve crimes. The cast of regulars wasn’t too hard to keep up with, and their personalities were different enough that I didn’t get them confused. That is a win. Second, the plot held my interest (her colleague is found violently dead under dubious circumstances) and it was mostly plausible. Her cop friends take her along to question suspects, and she uses HER contacts in the Justice Building to find short cuts and get inside information.

Her residence is in a high priced hotel, and there are a lot of scenes where she and her cronies are getting room service, boozing up at the hotel bar, and living luxuriously. This woman does NOT cook at home. In fact, I was annoyed at a plot point that had her car vandalized and her subsequent bemoaning the lack of funds to repair it. I actually said out loud to my Nook “Maybe if you didn’t go to fancy restaurants so much you could save some cash! Nuke a frozen dinner for god’s sake!”

Sumptuous dining aside, this debut novel had minimal courtroom drama, lots of sleazy and colorful characters, and was written smoothly, with wisecracks and pathos alike. Author Marcia Clark was the lead prosecutor in the OJ Simpson trial and knows the inside scoop. Think John Grisham, but less down-homey and more fast action. I’m curious to see which characters reappear in book #2. As of this writing there are four Rachel Knight books, and editions marked 1.5, 1.6, and 2.5. Number 4 was published this year, and I hope to get to it in a timely fashion. I’m really excited to find another series with a lead character I want to follow, a la John Sandford and Lee Child. No smarmy girl protagonist here; Knight is a strong woman.  This one is a “gimme” for sure.

Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine’s Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen

July 29, 2014 / / 3 Comments

vaccine

Spanning over 400 pages and telling the story from 1721 to the present day, Vaccine is a work of great scope. It starts out with the smallpox epidemic in Boston, Cotton Mather, and newfangled “variolation”, then proceeds to the 1940’s and 50’s issues with polio and measles, and rounds out the tale with the controversial DTP vaccine, a discussion of the alleged link between vaccines and autism, and an entire chapter devoted to anti vaccinators, those who would see their children suffer and die a horrible death from whooping cough and other childhood sicknesses. 

Blending science, mystery, drama, and politics, this book has something for everyone. Fun fact: the beloved Raggedy Ann & Andy dolls were created by a well known illustrator, Johnny Gruelle, after his daughter Marcella was supposedly sickened by a vaccine given at school without his permission. The book tells that “The doll, with its limp limbs, became a symbol of vaccine-damaged children, and Marcella was the heroine of the Raggedy Ann stories that Gruelle went on to illustrate.”

Another fun fact: During the frantic search for the flu vaccine in 2004, there was also a pertussis (Whooping Cough) epidemic quietly making the rounds, with more than 19,000 cases that year. There were only 11,647 in 2003. 

Anti vaccinators would storm the Internet looking for like minded souls and then get together to protest the government’s forced vaccination requirements for school children. In a ludicrous-sounding passage, a mother tells the author that it is good when her children get ill, because then everyone can take the time to slow down and spend time together. The book then goes on to tell how one child spent 6 months coughing, for most of the day and night, with spells of alternating vomiting and coughing from his illness. Another child broke a rib coughing; and a woman had to be hospitalized because she was in danger of losing her unborn child (her cervix was being nearly ruptured from the hacking.

The descriptions of the illnesses are detailed but not gory, and as you read you will find yourself thinking a lot more about the simple “shots” we all got as a kid. 

At times a bit long winded, and necessarily full of politics, Vaccine was interesting but not enthralling.  I didn’t feel it was a waste of my time, because I learned a great deal, and in the end I was glad my parents took me to the doctor and protected me. Whether you are for or against vaccines, you should read this book.

 

Women Of The Silk by Gail Tsukiyama

July 22, 2014 / / 0 Comments

A few months ago I had read one of Tsukiyama’s books, and thought it was pretty good. I then immediately put the rest of her works on my Goodreads list. The other day the library informed me that this was available for me to pick up. 

I made it to page 103 before deciding to throw it back. 

Don’t get me wrong, it’s written well and I’m sure it’s a lovely book. However, it just didn’t move fast enough for me. To me, it was like Muzak, soothing, pleasant, but nothing ever really happens. 

The story is about young girls as silk workers in China in 1926, and according to the blurb, they eventually strike due to poor working conditions. The book, at least up to page 103, describes the girls and their former life, interspersed with their life at the factory. I grew weary of the constant pages of nothing happening, except eating, and wishing they were back home, and jumping back and forth between characters. It also seemed to me that their names were all alike and I could not remember who was who, and so I began to not care about which character was talking. 

That was the beginning of the end. I have too many other books in the bullpen to waste any more time. There are more Tsukiyama books planned; I just hope the subject matter is more exciting. 

 

 

The Reading Lessons by Carole Lanham

July 15, 2014 / / 1 Comment

I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Carole!

The first few pages were rather disjointed and I almost put the book away unread. I was THISCLOSE to doing it…but something made me keep going.

Boy, am I glad I did! The writing is sly, at times heartfelt, sometimes maudlin, and there are many hidden gems along the way. The plot is fairly simple: boy meets girl, boy becomes gently obsessed with girl, girl is evil and strings him along. At times I wanted to shake Hadley and say “Forget her! She’s a jerk!” but of course, he didn’t listen to anyone else, so my advice would be falling on deaf ears. 

Follow Hadley along as he grows older and tries to forget his obsession, with results you won’t see coming. When I think of how I almost missed this little golden story it made me think to give more books another chance. 
I would definitely read more by this author. These characters will stay with me a long time.

the reading lessons

Ruth’s Journey: The Authorized Novel of Mammy From Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind” by Donald McCaig

July 12, 2014 / / 0 Comments

10 stars!! This was one of the better reads I’ve encountered in a long time. Written by the same man who wrote “Rhett”, (the prequel to Gone With The Wind about Rhett Butler), this is another prequel starring Mammy, Scarlett O’Hara’s beloved companion. We learn about her family, her early years, and the book ends just as the Civil War begins. Thrilling backstory with many of the familiar GWTW characters. Interesting, excellently written, and a complete joy. Run, do not walk, to buy this book when it is published later on this year. 

Many thanks to the publishers, Atria Books, for giving me this in exchange for an honest review. It was a pleasure.

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