Whilst I feel the same way about animals as these two people do (love them in equal measure as human beiAs a “How-not-to-do” book, this gets 3 stars.
Whilst I feel the same way about animals as these two people do (love them in equal measure as human beings, if not more), I found myself angered by every single decision they made, and every decision was a poor one.
Jennifer McGaha and her husband David were living a comfortable life in a nice home, when it came to light that David, an accountant, had failed to pay their taxes for five years. Apparently David sucked as an accountant........ He prepared other people’s taxes for a living!
Of course, they stopped paying their mortgage because it was clear that they would the house. So they stayed there until they were foreclosed upon. All their stuff was piled into the garage which they then broke into (by breaking a window) and taking what they wanted.
They moved into a delapidated cabin in the woods of North Carolina, infested with snakes, spiders, and wasps and they promptly order some chicks that would grow up to be several types of fancy hens for eggs. Now this is just a guess, but, wouldn’t fancy hens cost more than the not so fancy type? Do fancy hens lay better eggs? Wouldn’t your first move to be to secure your home from dangerous creatures that may cause death to you and your beloved dogs? Cheap plywood to block up holes and some bug spray ... some traps.... I don’t think that would cost that much. Then buy yourself some ordinary hens. Speaking of the chicks, some got sick and they spent money on antibiotics and other things to try and save them (which I get, I really do. I know myself, so I wouldn’t put myself in that situation if I couldn’t afford the proper care.)
Meanwhile, the dogs were left to roam the area free to run hither and dither and put themselves in all sorts of mortal danger. Snakes, coyotes, cars, poisonous plants....you name it. There was one story in the book where the dogs took off, over the goddamn mountain, she went a looking but didn’t find them. They later came home covered in burrs and a sticky brown stuff.
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!! You profess to love these pets but you can’t put them on a lead when they are out, or build a fenced in area like you did for all your goats?
Speaking of goats, the entire reason they decided to do the goat thing is to get milk from them, NOT to eat them (again, I get it). To get milk from a goat, said goat has to have babies, then said goat has to cooperate with the milking part. When and if the goat decides she ain’t gonna put up with your BS anymore.... no more milk, but now you have four goats to feed and vet. Sell a goat or two you say? Oh hell no, that would be too hard on the mama goat and the goat family (I get it...I do. But I’d sell a goat or two, cry a bit and move on.). So, the goat numbers end up at eleven or so by the end of this book. Sigh. But, Jennifer finally got to make her goat milk soap with lavender and organic oatmeal, so it was all worth it.
This book made me want to slam my head against the wall, but I did learn what not to do in a financial crisis....more
“Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.”
Truth.
I’m struggling with my words here, so I’m just going to simplify them. Alex “Sometimes people do you a favour when they drop out of your life.”
Truth.
I’m struggling with my words here, so I’m just going to simplify them. Alex Cumming (Alan’s dad) was a raging, abusive asshole. Astonishingly, Alan Cumming is not. He really ought to be, growing up in Hell, instead he seems to have come through to the other side as a pretty fantastic fella. I’d love to tell him that in person and give him a hug.
Growing up in a situation with a man who could (and would) blow his top at the slightest provocation, Alan had to learn to act. He learned well. It was an awful way to learn his craft, but Alan attributes this skill to having to act his way around his dad……to learn how not to set him off.
Alan is not only a great actor, he’s a pretty darn good writer as well. He has done a good job here moving back and forth through time and pulling the two together in a way that makes sense. It’s a compelling, emotional, open and honest memoir and I highly recommend it.
Yes it’s dark, but it also has some funny in it too.
“For yes, being a woman, even one with a penis and for the purposes of drama, really made me feel that women have been coerced into a way of presenting themselves that is basically a form of bondage. Their shoes, their skirts, even their nails seem designed to stop them from being able to escape whilst at the same time drawing attention to their sexual and secondary sexual characteristics.
And I think that has happened so that men feel they can ogle them and protect them in equal measure.”
What pushed this book over the top for me and made it a five star was that I listened to the audio version read by the author. Being that he can act and that this is his story, he did it very well and added the perfect amount of emotion at all the right moments.
In fact, I could listen to him read Heaven is for Real, front to back, and not gag once…..or the phone book, the bible, the menu from Cracker Barrel…..he’s just that good. ...more
Imagine one day you are fine, going to work and doing what you always done, then out of the blue you start acting strange. You become paranoid, eventuImagine one day you are fine, going to work and doing what you always done, then out of the blue you start acting strange. You become paranoid, eventually you start hearing voices and attempt jumping out of moving vehicles.
You must caught a bit of the crazy right?
Maybe not. This is what happened to Susannah Cahalen, a reporter for the New York Post. One morning she saw a couple of bug bites on her arm and was convinced she had a bed bug infestation. She brought exterminators into her home, even though she couldn't find any evidence of the critters. The exterminator couldn't find them, said they didn't exist, but she insisted they treat the apartment for them anyway.
This was only the beginning. Susannah kept deteriorating, doctors mis-diagnosed her many times, one even blamed it on excessive drinking with a 'wink'. You know, a young girl in New York obviously was partying too hard.....I think I would have punched that jerk in the dangly bits and blamed it on a seizure(of which she had many)"oops! Sorry doc but I couldn't help it!"
One day after about a million dollars worth of tests came up with zilch, Dr. Souhel Najjar came aboard Susannah's case, and it's a darn lucky thing that he did, because he had recently discovered a rare auto immune disease called Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. This basically will make you seem like a crazy person, and make you do odd enough things and movements that will cause people to call in an exorcist. Since this disease has been in existence as long as humans have, it's a pretty safe bet that many of those poor people who were thought to be possessed and subsequently exorcised had in fact Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis and not the devil inside them.
"Magic is only science we haven't discovered yet." Someone said...?? Christopher Moore??
And that is the truly scary part in a very scary tale, that millions of people over countless years have been mis-diagnosed, put in institutions and left to die, or treated as evil and possibly put to a horrible death.
Good times!!
I enjoyed this book and found it fascinating. I just wish Sussanah din't have to go through this for us to get this book, but since she did I appreciate it even more....more
I'm not sure if this type of book could really have spoilers, but I am going to say a great deal about what's in this book. If you don't want to see iI'm not sure if this type of book could really have spoilers, but I am going to say a great deal about what's in this book. If you don't want to see it...then read the book and come back and read my review.
Barbara Ehrenreich was born and raised atheist in a fairly dysfunctional household. Her parents were intelligent, but also alcoholic and they moved regularly which caused problems with Barbara's education and socialization.
Barbara didn't see other people as intelligent and in possession of a mind, she felt completely apart from her species. She would have the fantasy that one morning she would wake up and find that all the people had just up and disappeared (what self respecting introvert hasn't had that one?). She would work out survival scenarios and all the possible situations that would kill her, and she would work out solutions. Some of them were pretty ingenious. But in the end she decided living alone on the planet would be impossible so thought it best the other people exist, but she didn't have to like it.
One day Barbara started having dissociative episodes, where her mind basically detached from reality....same deal that you'd get from LSD, I suppose. The experiences were both incredible and terrifying, which left her changed, as well as pretty saddened that the episode had ended.
One day, heading home from a ski trip with her brother and her friend, they took a detour. The friend wanted to drive through the desert on the way home, and as it got late they decided to sleep in the car by the side of the road. Barbara woke up earlier than the rest and for some reason wandered away from the car...in the desert. She had the most profound and long lasting dissociative episode which lasted the entire day (there about). Not to worry, she did make it back to the others.
When people have this type of episode they change in a big, and (from what I've read) for the better, way. Eckhart Tolle had one on the night he decided to kill himself....he was deep in despair, then something clicked and he had one of these episodes and he came out the other end of it a completely different person. Even my aunt, who was a wild child, partied all the time...rode motorcycles, had one in the shower (of all places) and immediately became her mother.
Both Eckhart and my aunt attributed their experiences as the work of god. Eckhart in a more general, spiritual sense and my aunt in a completely Catholic sense. I'm sure the majority of people who have gone through this call it god, basically for lack of a better explanation. But Barbara, being atheist, did not immediately label it god. She thought she was going coo-coo-banana-cakes....which she kind of did for a while since the experience was almost too much for her brain to process. Instead, she did a lot of research into what might have caused this to happen on a scientific level, and basically kept her mouth shut about it until now, worried that people would label her as crazy and not take her work seriously.
How did this episode change Barbara? She started seeing other people as people, as having their own minds and feelings. She started to become a part of her species for the first time in her life. She became an activist, a feminist...writing such books as Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.
I thought this book was fascinating and I really enjoyed her perspective....more
I read this book a few years back, before I attempted writing reviews (ones beyond a few lines anyway). It has been on my favorite’s shelf ever since I read this book a few years back, before I attempted writing reviews (ones beyond a few lines anyway). It has been on my favorite’s shelf ever since then and Merle has drifted into my thoughts now and again, so I thought I would try to add a few more words.
One day Merle, a young yellow lab mix, shows up at a camp where Ted and friends were camping, Ted and Merle hit it off. Ted decides to bring Merle back home with him but soon finds out that Merle would not be content to be locked indoors all day while his new best friend was working. Things did not go well. Merle was used to being his own dog, going where ever he pleased and “going” on whatever he pleased. One day Merle decides to eat a whole bag of dog food, which isn’t cute at all since eating that much food could cause a big dog to bloat (stomach twists and prevents the food from moving along) which will kill a dog pretty darn fast. But up came the dog food and all was well, this time.
Ted realizes he has to do something, so he puts a dog door in for Merle to come and go at will, hence the name of the book. Fortunately for the both of them they live in a time and place that is just right for this arrangement, the town is remote and all the other dogs roam free. No leash law in place. This sets up the perfect situation to watch dogs be more themselves then is possible in this day and age. In other words, Merle had it good, and so did Ted.
This book is full of the cute stories you get from dog books. My favorite was how Merle, a dog who likes to eat, would have a routine of going to certain houses in a particular order everyday to obtain treats (my dog would do this in a heartbeat given the chance). Ted noticed one day how chunky his dog was getting and new that it was unhealthy for him, so he put a note on Merle’s collar that read “please don’t feed my dog.” It worked for everyone except one lady who could not resist, “but he is so cute” she told Ted. She would not stop, so Ted had to scare the crap out of poor Merle every time he got near the treat ladies house to keep him away.
Sad parts are defiantly in this book, as you find in most dog books, but what sets this book apart, and makes it great, is how the author mixes in science and helpful information into the book. In it there is a section, a checklist to go over when you need to make the decision to euthanize, or not to euthanize. Yes grim. But a fact of life if you are to have pets in your life, and it is very good. I worked in an animal hospital at the time I read this book and I made copies of the checklist to give to clients during this time. It is helpful because no one can think clearly at the moment you are faced with this decision, so having a guide is very helpful.
Stephanie *Eff your feelings*
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