Category: Books

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

Theo of Golden book
~ Sassy ~ 2 Comments


I am a dog. I write impressions of the books Momma reads to me each night.

Hugs, hi everyone! *Sassy wavy paws

Welcome to Meet Me At The Bookshelf. Today I am reviewing Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.

Theo is an 86-year-old, mysterious Portuguese stranger who arrives in Golden, Georgia. He loves the people there, so he decides to stay. A local attorney and his staff arranged for Theo to live above the office in a stunning, renovated, well-appointed apartment with a balcony.

Theo frequents a quaint coffee shop where he is enthralled by the insightful, well-priced, exquisite pencil portraits hanging throughout the cafe. He asks the owner and is told that a local artist, Asher Glissen, created the 92 portraits.

Theo wonders aloud why the subjects of the portraits don’t purchase the art themselves. The reader wonders that as well. The power of the pencil drawings moves Theo. It reminds him of something deep in his past.

Theo decides to purchase several portraits from the cafe each time. Afterwards, Theo arranges to meet the subject, hear their life story, and then convey what he felt the portrait showed him when he viewed the art. Theo calls these meetings a bestowal.

His first bestowal is to Minnette Prentiss. She feels surprised to receive this gift, but being seen and heard makes the strongest impression when she first meets Theo.

Theo calls it the “sadness in the seeing.”

Tony Wilcox, bookstore owner and a real scamp, was a favorite bestowal of mine. He gives a festive business and economic update every time he sees Theo. You can tell a genuine friendship has formed.

Each meeting’s elegant prose will remain with the reader.

The book is over 400 pages long. It might have been tighter, but I believe the author aimed for a broad link between Golden and Theo. This led to a stunning conclusion about who Theo is and why the town matters. Clever, I woof to Momma.

The most impactful portrait subject bestowals to me were the homeless woman, custodian, bookstore owner, accountant, musician, and the portrait artist himself, Asher. Theo shares little about himself in these exchanges, yet you can tell they matter to his life story. He starts to connect the dots to his own life.

Theo enjoys mystery and explains why this town and its people are central as the book’s bestowals continue. His elegant manners, eye for art, and generous wealth give clues to his true identity. Theo answers the call when any of his new friends needs him. He becomes a bit of a town legend.

I give this book five paws up. It was Momma’ s favorite book this year.

I loved the benefactor, Theo. He met every portrait subject with the art he purchased sitting right next to them, as they evaluated what he saw in them. Theo would sit, engage, and truly listen to them. The value of that exchange cannot be overstated.

Theo has a gorgeous life story to tell, but chooses to elevate the subject of each of the 92 portraits instead.

The hurry of today makes people lose this individual exchange. I loved it. I tried to imagine buying finely drawn portraits to give to perfect strangers and then chatting about what we see in the work. What a luxury to give the art, as Theo says, “to the rightful owners” and carefully hear the stories of their lives. Heartfelt random acts of kindness lead to the town’s emotional growth legacy.

What a wonderful book!

Thanks for joining me. Wuvu.

See you next time at Meet Me at the Bookshelf. *Sassy wavy paws

Book Review: An Immense World

~ Mr. Breeze ~ 3 Comments

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong

An Immense World
An Immense World

I read An Immense World because I am interested in how my animal friends see the world around them.

The author, Ed Yong, defines Umwelt as an animal’s lived sensory world, the parts of its surroundings it can detect and that matter to it. The book provides many examples of how animals senses differ from humans’. And it also provides examples of senses humans don’t have.

My world takes place during the daylight, not at night. But using a night vision scope I have seen my cat walking easily in total darkness. Due to their tapetum lucidum, the reflective layer behind a cat’s retina, cats see better in the dark than humans do. Actually seeing her in action made it real.

I had trouble visualizing a duck’s field of vision, because they can see over their own heads as they fly, but that’s still vision.

Ditto spiders. Their eyes go all around the turret of their head and each has a different function, and that is how they visualize their world.

Bats use echolocation to navigate and to hunt. This is still plain old hearing, though at a higher frequency. Blind humans can learn to echolocate with taps, clicks or by snapping their fingers.

But the ability to “feel” magnetic north is unimaginable to unenhanced humans. I have a pretty good sense of direction, but knowing would be cool.

Having organs in my face that detect bioelectricity sounds cool too. Can you imagine detecting dinner by its electrical aura?

Yong’s style is casual yet engaging. I would like to read his other books, especially Life Beyond Measure: Nature’s Hidden Wonders at Every Scale.

I highly recommend An Immense World to anyone who is curious about the parallel worlds the animals around us live in.

Whistler by Ann Patchett

Whistler book
~ Sassy ~ 2 Comments

I am a dog. I contribute to the fabulous Anipal Times.

I write my impressions of the books my Momma reads to me each night. I hope you like my book review.

First, I want to explain my rating system for the books I review.

Five paws: A must-read. So good that all my paws are waving. So good that I borrowed a paw from Momma, who types for me, plus added all four of mine.
Four paws: A great read. Enjoy it in the tub.
Three paws: Eh. To read or not to read, if you have extra time, then read it.
Two paws: Likely skip it. Drags on, characters are silly, or just not a good read.
One paw: Seriously, skip it.

Today we have a novel by Ann Patchett called Whistler.

The book starts with a private school teacher, Daphne Fuller, and her hubby being slyly followed by an older man at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Daphne, in her 50s, is married to Jonathan, in his 70s, and jokes that older men just like to follow her.

The stalker is Eddie Triplett, a Random House editor and one of Daphne’s many childhood stepfathers. Daphne has lunch with Eddie. They rekindled a friendship. Life is in the details, and this book beautifully proves it.Daphne agrees to attend a 50th wedding anniversary dinner with Eddie later. He introduces her to the entire party as his daughter, despite only knowing and being married to her mom for just over a year.

Eddie was indeed responsible for a car accident where he broke his ankle and nine-year-old Daphne dangled from the roof for a bit, but was blessedly not seriously injured.

They reminisce. Daphne says if she put six stepfathers in a lineup, she could have picked him out.

I wiggled at that line.

They also crash a wedding and consider dancing in a water fountain.Eddie is stuck. His life never moved far from a college roommate named Skip and his wife, Polly. He explains his choices to Daphne, who kindly listens. Daphne knew him only as a child, yet tried to help him as an adult. They became fast friends.

Daphne asks if Eddie remembers the horse story he told her in the car after the accident.

Eddie does. He invites her to visit him one day at his editing job.

Daphne goes and sees a framed picture of a horse on his desk. Eddie asks if Daphne remembers the entire horse tale he told her oddly, as she dangled bloodied from the roof in their car accident.

She says yes, yet she thought he invented the story. Eddie tells her no; it was a book proposal his agent found in the newspaper about a Wyoming woman and her horse.

Eddie says he tried to buy the book idea from her for years, but the woman would not sell it. It was about a horse named Whistler. At the time of the car accident, the dire story almost scared her.

It is, like Eddie’s life, stuck in the neutral gear of a car, my momma says.

Eddie gifts Daphne the framed photograph of the horse instead. For years, Eddie has kept it on his office desk. Eddie never turned the proposal into a book, but he has kept the horse’s picture framed and on his office desk for decades.

Yep, you heard me.Daphne states Whistler would have made a splendid book with a little effort. Eddie again tells her the tale of Whistler. A horsewoman on a ranch could call her horse with a whistle, and he would run to her.

One day during a storm, she trots out to find her other horse, Nutmeg, but she loses her way and the horse bucks her off. For days, she lies in a heap talking to long-dead relatives, friends, and her darling OTRB dog, Marty, who told her to just whistle for the horse named Whistler. She finally does, and he comes and finds her. She gets on him, saving herself.I tell Momma, nice story to tell a nine-year-old kid dangling from her seatbelt in a car accident. Woof. Daphne understands now why he told her the story.

Eddie found Daphne in her 50s to save himself.

Daphne is a great pal to Eddie. He teaches her a lot.

Momma wonders why Eddie gets stuck so much, but Daphne has her life enriched by knowing Eddie.

Details make the story.Ann Patchett is a PEN /Faulkner award-winning author of Tom Lake.

We love her. She brings to life the tiny moments of your past that stick, as demonstrated by this quote by Daphne’s husband, who glibly states, “Every teacup comes with a short documentary film.”

Momma guffawed over that one.

Daphne spends her time icing the cake on this one tiny part of her past.This book gets five paws up.

First, it has a horse, but second, it has gorgeous sentences and a meaningful conclusion.

Whistler is an examination of how seemingly insignificant past relationships can come back at you with either a dose of delight, or someone else’s human regrets.

Whistler is worth reading.

Thanks for joining me. Enjoy the fall season, eat some twigs, and roll in the grass until we meet again at Meet Me At The Bookshelf.

*Sassy wavy paws

This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page

This Book Made Me Think of You photo
~ Sassy ~ 1 Comment

Hugs everyone! *Sassy wavy paws.

I am a dog. I contribute to the fabulous Anipal Times.

I write my impressions of the books my Momma reads to me each night. I hope you like my book review.

First, I want to explain my ranking system for the books I review.

Five paws: A must-read. So good that all my paws are waving.
So good that I borrowed a paw from Momma, who types for me, plus added all four of mine.
Four paws: A great read. Enjoy it in the tub.
Three paws: Eh. To read or not to read, if you have extra time, then read it.
Two paws: Likely skip it. Drags on, characters are silly, or just not a good read.
One paw: Seriously, skip it.

Welcome back to another Meet Me at the Bookshelf Book Review. Today we have a romantic offering called This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page.

The story involves Matilda Nightingale, a young woman who lost her husband, Joe, six months ago to an illness. They notified “Tilly” that before Joe died, he carefully chose one book a month for his beloved wife to collect at the local bookstore to help her overcome her grief.

Tilly heads over to the store.

Alfie, the store owner, takes a lot of abuse from Tilly, who wants the entire twelve books to be delivered in one swoop.

Alfie refuses.

Tilly trudges home with only that one book.

Even the bookstore cat, Georgette, thought Tilly made a scene.

Tilly carefully reads the note from Joe, included in her first book. It makes her heart sing. Joe chose a children’s book, which inspires Tilly to read again and engage in life, despite her crushing grief.

Rather than return to the scene of her humiliating fit and see Alfie again the next month, Tilly visits the public library and chooses several of her favorite children’s books. She stuffs herself into a reading tent intended for the local under-six kids set and reads her entire haul of books. Tilly doesn’t let any actual kids in to spoil or share her reading space.

One child reports a troll has taken over the castle.

When Tilly finally decamps from the tent, Alfie is hilariously there, just outside her tent, delivering overstock books to the library. Hangdog, Tilly follows him back to the bookstore to collect her second book.

The gorgeous bookstore cat, named Georgette, greets Tilly, sprawled across the office paperwork on the counter. She is the luxurious fourth member of the Book Lane team, and she revels in the attention from Tilly.Alfie and Tilly banter about, comparing cats and book lovers, stating they are similar by being fond of snacks, sun puddles and quiet time.

Georgette, named for the mystery author Georgette Heyer, purrs on while the pair list the books that feature cats like Alice in Wonderland, The Traveling Cat Chronicles, The Cat in the Hat, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Carbonel and The Cat Who Saved Books.

Georgette senses a bond forming.

I alert Momma that it is time for my snack about this point in the adventure. Too much cat talk, I report.

The book-a-month choices by Joe give Tilly the confidence to travel, sing karaoke, read, and open her heart to life.

This book would make a splendid gift for birthdays and holidays. It has various book suggestions and updated titles packed amongst its pages.I give this book four paws up!The characters are quickly familiar, and the book is romantic.

Bonus: The bookstore cat would definitely be my buddy. I might chase Georgette once or twice, but she would forgive me.

I feel love will win the day, and I may get more purrs from my cat pals.

Try this book!

Thanks for joining me. Wuvu. See you next time at Meet Me at the Bookshelf.

*Sassy wavy paws

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

Mad Mabel Sally Hepworth
~ Sassy ~ 1 Comment

Hi everyone. Welcome back to Meet Me at the Bookshelf! *Sassy wavy paws!

Today I am reviewing a book called Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth.This book is a stunning mystery doused with a deeply twisted family tragedy. Brutal twists and turns galore keep the pages turning, which include a tiny, twice -rescued Chihuahua named Nugget.

The story centers on a woman, now called Elsie Fitzpatrick, living a quiet, nondescript life in a community neighborhood in Australia. Like most communities, this one has nosy neighbors, fantastic dogs, single moms, and kids that pester older adults.

The story’s star, 81-year-old Mabel, currently lives discreetly under a different name. She and her pal, Daphne, prefer quiet days and instead are being annoyed daily by both Nugget, a yappy Chihuahua owned by Ishaan, Mabel’s 93-year-old next-door neighbor and nemesis, and the seven-year-old kid across the street, Persephone.

Persephone, notebook ready, crossed the street one afternoon. She stated she needed to interview an elderly person for her school project. She approaches Elsie and announces that she feels Elsie is 167 years old so she has chosen Elsie for the interview. Daphne, Elsie’s friend, is thrilled that someone else will be interviewed.

As they try to conduct the interview, the dog next door, Nugget, is seriously carrying on and loudly yapping, and her owner, Ishaan, lo-and-behold does not come out to quiet her.

Persephone, still trying to finish her assignment, casually states she thinks Ishaan is dead. Elsie asks when anyone last saw him.

When no one can answer, the 81-year-old Elsie hops the wall, and after scraping her legs on the wall and hobbling into the house, she sadly finds him deceased in the home.

Nugget stops barking.

Mabel Waller, the youngest person ever convicted of murder in Australia, may have killed Ishaan, according to a neighbor, though the police refused to take Nugget.

The tale is off and running.

The book goes back and forth between the life of Mabel the child, who lost her baby sister to polio and whose mother walked off a balcony to her death, and Elsie the adult, who is lonely and misunderstood.

It is beautifully told.Her mother’s sister, Cess, took Mabel in and raised her in her mother’s mansion while her absent, wayward father gallivanted around. Mabel is not popular at school and is teased and bullied constantly.

A turn of phrase alerts her at school that it is in fact her dad that tells vicious stories to the neighbors about Mabel, calling her Mad Mabel, ruining her reputation, and making sure she has no playmates. Mabel feels devastated.I understood Nugget was sent to Mabel for a reason after Momma read me the sad parts of her past. I was pretty sure Mabel was a kind and honest person.

Mabel houses Nugget, given that shelters lack space and the dog trusts only her. The police interviewed Mabel twice and seemed afraid of her.

They took one of her shoes for DNA evidence. I informed Momma that they could take both. When I eat a shoe, Momma tosses out two shoes instead of giving me the second one. Nerve that!

The police imply Mabel killed Ishaan. The word is out and several picketers arrived in the neighborhood to hassle Mabel.The neighborhood is now bustling with activists, news vans, and criminals. Persephone’s apparent father suddenly attempts to mingle with them multiple times before he tries to get into his kid’s home.

Mabel, with Nugget supporting her, approaches the man for a conversation. She called the police to no avail.

Mabel tries to get the picketers to leave her alone and leave her community. No one will help. A pair of YouTubers contact Mabel and ask to do a documentary, finally giving her side of the story. With no other choice but to clear her neighborhood of the activists, she agreed.

Mabel then watches the child at her home while Persephone’s mother works at night.

The story moves back and forth between the past and the present. Gorgeous, lyrical, and moving.

Momma had leaky eyes, and I found a Crocs chew to munch while she read to me.

I give this book five paws up!

It will make you think about judging others, innocent victims, and crime. Read it for a great time.

We wuvu u and we will see you next time for Meet Me at the Bookshelf.

*Sassy wavy paws!

Alfie Book Review: The Land of Neverendings

Alfie book review
~ Alfie Ted ~ Leave a comment

I’m Alfie and here’s the latest From The Toybox..

Fitz (@Fitzfindsjoy) has been reading a lot of teddy bear-related books. He has recently finished one that he wants you to know about.

It’s called ‘The Land of Neverendings’ and it is by the late Kate Saunders.

The Land of Neverendings is a fantasy novel about a girl named Emily who grieves the death of her sister, Holly, by connecting with her sister’s favorite teddy bear, Bluey, through a magical world of talking toys.

The book explores themes of loss, grief, and imagination as Emily discovers the magical world she created for her sister might be real, but the barrier between worlds is becoming dangerous. Magic infiltrates humanity, manifesting sadness, violence, plus criminal acts within the Land of Neverendings.

It really is a wonderful story, but it deals with some heavy subjects like death, loss, and grief.

The story became even more poignant after reading the author’s explanation of what inspired the story.

Until next time…

Quote: Tom Nichols on Cats

~ Mr. Breeze ~ Leave a comment

Superstitions are especially prone to confirmation bias, and they survive because common sense and confirmation bias sometimes reinforce each other. Are black cats unlucky? Cats, black or otherwise, by their nature tend to get underfoot, but we might only remember the black ones who trip us up. I actually live with a lovely black cat named Carla, and I can confirm that she is, on occasion, a menace to my navigation of the stairs. A superstitious person might nod here knowingly,; the fact that Carla is also the only cat in the house, of course, or whether other cat owners have tumbled over their tabbies will mean nothing.
— Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise

Teddy Bear Book Reviews

~ Alfie Ted ~ Leave a comment

Here’s a review of a couple of teddy bear books:

Hi friends! Alfie here. Here in #TheHugHouse, we love teddy bear stories. I thought we might tell you about some.

Fitz is the official bibliobear in our Hug, so I’ll turn it over to him:

Book 1:

During my latest library trip, I learned of the book “The Lost Ears”. Unfortunately, the library didn’t have a copy. But I really wanted to read it, so we gathered up our pennies and ordered a used copy.

It’s the story of a tiny teddy bear (even tinier than me!) who lives in the pocket of his human’s pajamas. But one day something happened that changed him. But I am trying to avoid spoilers.

Book 2:

“Where Do Teddy Bears Come From” tells of a wolf cub struggling to fall asleep. He has read stories that include teddy bears, and he decided a teddy bear is what he needs. But he doesn’t know where they come from. He asked his mom, and she didn’t know, so he went out into his community to ask around. His neighbors are familiar faces from traditional children’s stories. 

Eventually, he finds someone who can help him. It’s someone famous and special. But I won’t give it away. 

Book 3:

Finally, the book “Loved to Bits” is reminiscent of ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’. It’s about a boy and his beloved bear who is always by his side… But eventually, all the cuddles and adventures change him. I expected sorrow, and it delivered, to some extent. But it has a sweet ending, and it really reflects the experiences of many stuffed animals. 

What books do you like? Obviously, we are partial to teddy bear books. Whatever you like, just pick up a book and read! It’s so important.Â