Marley And Me
Life and Love With The World's Worst Dog
by John Grogan
289 pages, Hard Cover
Copyright 2005
Harper Collins Publishers
ISBN-13: 978-O-O6-O817O8-4
Most highly recommended, especially for dog lovers.
Marley was incredibly loving, loyal, and gentle around the young children in John and Jenny's developing family. Marley stuck to John like glue. On the other hand, he was unusually destructive, terrified of thunder, literally going crazy when he heard the noise.
Marley shredded mattresses, gouged dry walls, and swallowed valuables. He was expelled from obedience school, and got a bit part in a movie. He had a low I.Q. (maybe minus 23), was certainly neurotic and possibly psychotic, but funny and lovable.
You will laugh out loud many times, but have tears in your eyes - especially at the end. It is amazing that any family could put up with the thousands of dollars it cost to repair his damages to the environment.
The ending comes across as a miracle, and I have tears in my eyes right now as I think about it. This book is a must - especially if you have children. They will come to love Marley too.
John Grogan is an experienced writer. He was the Pennsylvania columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and former editor in chief of Rodale's Organic Gardening.
6th Target
by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Doubleday Large Print
Copyright 2007
529 paqes, 136 Chapters
ISBN: 978-0-7394-8066-3
Facing a miserable day in a dental office, I started The 6th Target the day before, and felt as though I was being hit by a machine gun about as fast as it could go. Instead of bullets there were pellets of information. I suspect that Maxine - or possibly both Maxine and James - are too impressed by super action movies and tried to throw pictures of changing scenes about as fast as she/they could.
It may have been just me, however I remembered the depth and richness of Guy de Maupassant's writing, and phoned in an order for Bel Aim based on an A+++ review from This Week publication. I longed for richness rather than speed and a flat presentation. Even when Lindsay Boxer mentioned a boyfriend, I wasn't sure for those 1st 50 pages whether the narrator was male or female. (I didn't read the jacket cover writeup that indicates which, until later.)
The plot involves the murder of Boxer's friend, a handsome new partner who strains her relationship with her boyfriend, and a series of kidnappings involving children and their nannies, only the latter being murdered. As a movie camera glides fast over the contents of a room, showing a child in a red cap, red shoes and a blue outfit running out of the room, past an unusual object, out onto a crowded street with two sinister types leaning against a wall, etc., etc., etc., so the reader is asked to "follow the bouncing ball."
I do not recommend this book.