Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Dec 10

9

Oogy by Larry Levin

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on December 9, 2010
Posted in Animal Rights • Animals • Books Read in 2010  | 17 Comments

Everyone who has visited So Many Precious Books, know what a sucker I am for all living being, cutie and furry, so how was I to resist this book. I took one look at the cover and fell in love with yet another dog, Oogy.

This memoir is about Oogy and the family who adopted him. He wasn’t the first adoptee in his family. Larry Levin and his wife, Jennifer weren’t able to have biological children so they adopted. They quite surprised when they got the call saying that the mother had given birth to twins. They named the boys Dan and Noah.
It was when Dan and Noah were 12 years old that Oogy came into their life. Larry and the boys had gone to the veterinarian with their ill cat and was greeted by Oogy. He inquired about him and found out that Oogy had been near death when he was brought in by the police after a drug raid. It turned out that he had been a “bait” dog. Used to train other dogs how to fight. Half his face was bitten of along with one of his ears. The fight dogs were suppose to kill him but they didn’t quite succeed. Oogy was just a puppy then, only about three months old.
You would have thought that that experience would have affected him for life, become a mean dog himself but he loved people, and it was love at first site for both Oogy and the Levin’s. He slept with the boys every night and watched over them. When the boys graduated high school he was there to see them go off to college.
I was worried when I started reading this book. So many books about pets end the same way but this one didn’t. It was a heart warming tribute to Oogy and the family who still love him. It wasn’t as sentimental as some stories I have read and for that I am thankful. The descriptions of Oogy’s experience as a bait dog were painful to read but necessary. Larry Levin treated his entire family, including Oogy with respect.
If you have any suspicions of animal cruelty where you live, please learn from Oogy and call animal welfare immediately. Also, as Bob Barker says, “have you pets spayed or neutered.”
4/5
Thanks to Anna Balasi of Hachette Book Group for sending me the hardcover edition of this book.
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Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Dec 10

1

The World of the Polar Bear by Norbert Rosing

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on December 1, 2010
Posted in Animals • Books Read in 2010  | 8 Comments

Product Description

The World of the Polar Bear is an unsurpassed photographic tribute to one of nature’s most compelling and beautiful animals and to the world in which it lives. Here, in an unforgiving ecosystem, animals and birds come together in a delicate balance of life. Each year, thousands of people from around the world travel to Churchill, Manitoba, to see polar bears, northern lights, whales and the annual bird migrations.
But the king of the region is the polar bear, or Nanook, as it is known by the indigenous people. Superbly adapted for life in one of the most severe landscapes on Earth, the polar bear holds the record as the world’s largest terrestrial carnivore: the female weighs up to 770 pounds, while the male can tip the scales at 1,500 pounds and stand 10 feet tall on its hind legs. 
Norbert Rosing is uniquely qualified to write about polar bears. His fascination with them began in 1983 on his first visit to Canada. After a 1,000-mile train trip from Winnipeg to Churchill, he arrived to find that a sudden arctic storm had transformed the town into an icy desert. Not only did his film freeze and break, but his camera stopped functioning permanently. 
However, Rosing did see his first polar bear. Fascinated by this magnificent white mammal, he now returns to the Arctic up to three times a year to study and photograph polar bears, and he has come to regard Churchill as his home away from home. 

This book is an amazing photographic tribute to polar bears.  It is not only a feast for the eyes but the writing is informative and a joy to read.  I learned a lot about polar bears and the landscape in which they live.  Did you know that a female weight up to 770 pound and a male up to 1500 pounds?  Norbert Rosing does an incredible job capturing these majestic beings on film.  This book would make a wonderful gift for nature lovers.

5/5

I won this book as part of the Canadian Book Challenge 4 from John of The Book Mine Set.  Thanks again for this special treat John, you, your challenge, and you blog all rock! 

Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Oct 10

12

Ape House by Sara Gruen

Posted by Teddyrose@1 on October 12, 2010
Posted in 23rd Writers Festival • Animals • Books Read in 2010  | 6 Comments

Back in 2008 I wrote a five star review for Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants. I could hardly wait until she wrote her next novel. The wait is now over, Ape House was released in September. 

Sara Gruen will be appearing as a special event of the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, at 7:30 PM on November 4th.  Look for my post, covering the event, in November.

Ape House is really has three main intersecting story lines:
Isabel Duncan is a scientist at the Great Ape Language Lab. Her “family” are the bonobos that she works with. She also has some major boyfriend trouble. There’s the story of John Thigpen, a married reporter who interviews Isabel and the apes. His career is threatened and his marriage is in jeopardy. Then of course, there are the bonobos themselves, Sam, Bonzi, Lola, Mbongo, Jelani, and Malkena. They are the center of the story and communicate with Isabel with American Sign Language.
An explosion happens at the lab and the bonobous escape, while Isabel is wounded and rushed to the hospital. All of a sudden a reality television show comes on the air featuring the bonobous. Isabel is determined to recover from her injuries and be united with her “family”.
I found Ape House to be a fun and engaging read. It seems a bit more like “main stream” fiction than Water for Elephants but still has literary merit. I usually like quirky characters however, Nathan and Cecelia were a bit over the top for me and I really wanted interested in John’s marital issues and Isabel’s boyfriend issues.
The best part of the book was about the bonobous themselves. Gruen’s research seems to be bang on and she captured my heart for the wonderful creatures that have so much in common with us, humans. I think the story would have been better if Guren would have focused more on the bonobous and less on the John and Isabel’s personal issues.
3.5
Thanks so much to Julie Forrest of Random House Canada for this book.
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To find out about real life bonobous visit the Bonobo Conservation Initiative.
Copyright 2007-2010: All the posts within this blog were originally posted by Teddy Rose and should not be reproduced without express written permission.

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