Possession was really hard to get into at first (this was my second time attempting to read it). However, somewhere about halfway through the story really grabbed me and made it hard to put down. I must admit that I didn't read a lot of the poetry throughout the book, but I really enjoyed the gradual unfolding the the authors' lives. And Christabel's short fairy tale about the three sisters was written so beautifully! It reminded me of how much I love fairy tales and I forsee borrowing some fairy tale-ish lore from the library soon.
Then I read this:
I picked up Mossflower to see if it would be a good series to send a book hungry niece. It's officially the second in the series, but its also described as the prequel to Redwall so I read it first. It was great! And there's a whole ton of this series so I'll have plenty to send to her. We both read A Series of Unfortunate Events - which was excellent although now sadly finito. I still need to pick up book 13 though cause somehow I didn't get to read that one before we sent it out to her. This series is darling! Full of lots of action and adventure with all the characters being mice, weasels, moles, squirrels, otters and other woodland folk. Even though it was shelved in the children's section, I think it is still fun and challenging enough for a thirteen year old who loves fantasy-ish books (especially with figuring out the mole-speak).
She's hooked on Harry Potter too and The Edge Chronicles. We sent out His Dark Materials, but at the moment she couldn't really get into it. I hope she'll pick it up again one day cause that's my absolute favorite children's series. If you have any other suggestions, please send them my way.
I also got to watch a documentary last night that I thought was guaranteed to make me sob - Shelter Dogs. I did get terribly choked up a few times but managed to hold back the tears.
It was a very honest look at the work of a dog shelter in New York. They dealt with the issues of adoption and euthanasia. I volunteered at a local shelter for about a year a while back. The experience has firmly committed me to believing that so-called no-kill shelters are just passing along problems to the county shelters. They are only able to call themselves no-kill because they refuse to take in the sick, the old, and the aggressive dogs. By taking only the most adoptable dogs, they waive their responsibilities to much of the animal population. And then they feel free to point fingers and talk badly about the city-funded shelters.
The shelter I volunteered at was considered low-kill. They worked hard with lots of animals that could be made adoptable but they didn't cage dogs forever just to keep them alive when there was almost no possibility of adoption. Quality of life was always a consideration. I'd love to work with a shelter again, but have been a little burnt by my last experience. The work and the dogs were great; quite a few of the people who volunteered there seemed to have a lot of emotional issues that didn't make working with them the most pleasant thing in the world. I've wondered if that sort of volunteer opportunity attracts people who prefer dealing with animals rather than people. Maybe I was just unlucky in the first shelter volunteer experience.
Anyway I try to do my part by encouraging friends and coworkers to consider adoption before buying a dog from a pet shop, local breeder, or neighbor who never gets around to spaying their dog. It drives me a bit nuts to hear people claim that they need a papered dog - when the mutts can snuggle on your couch and love you just as well as a dog with papers. Ack - I should probably stop ranting. Anyway Shelter Dogs was very good and highly recommended.
Here's a pic of my own pound puppy (who I'm completely smitten with):
1 comment:
look at that face hair! what a proud doggy!
and i don't know why that amy winehouse thing posted 23490389 times. i fixed it. retarded.
and i love dogs. we're getting a dog one day. his name will be bob barker.
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