Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw / Confessions of a Guide Dog – Two Book Reviews

Confessions of a Guide Dog: The Blonde Leading the Blind
by Mark Carlson and Musket

Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw:
How One Woman Finds Faith and Hope Through the Healing Love of Animals
by Peggy Frezon

Both of these books are about dogs (of course!) and you know me…I love dogs! Heart to Heart is not strictly about a dog, or dogs, but has enough in it to qualify in my book.

They stirred me for different reasons. Here are the reviews I posted on Amazon and then see for yourself how they affect you.

CONFESSIONS OF A GUIDE DOG
Cute and Humorous, April 28, 2012

I met Mark, Musket, and Jane on a trip to their home. They are wonderful people. Musket is a wonderful dog.

 

Mark has taken the spirit of Musket and infused the book with sass and humor from his side-by-side companion. Musket’s “voice” throughout the book has a little dog symbol in front of it to help you differentiate between when Musket is talking and when Mark is talking, but I think you’ll catch on fairly quickly. Musket has quite a lot to say.

 

Chapter 3, The Three Musketeers, has a really cute beginning and I’m intrigued by the air museum work and meeting of astronauts throughout the book.

 

Mark and Musket, you surely get around. Kudos for writing an entertaining and informative book.

 

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HEART TO HEART, HAND TO PAW
A Story of Hope, April 29, 2012

Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw is the author’s mother’s story of hardships, courage, and most of all hope. Luann had many animals in her life, stray dogs, chickens, goats, and even a lamb. She’s loved them all, and they’ve loved her back.

 

As Peggy states in her wonderful Author’s Note: Her experiences remind me to be grateful for the roof over my head, the pets under my roof, and for healing bonds between humans and animals.

 

I wholeheartedly agree!

 

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Both books are available on Amazon.com by clicking here:
Confessions of a Guide Dog http://amzn.to/JKByMP
Heart to Heart, Hand in Paw http://amzn.to/Ig6GA2

Dieting with your dog? from Charlie Bear

 

 

Hey, you guys — there’s a new book out there called: Dieting With My Dog: One Busy Life, Two Full Figures…and Unconditional Love, by Peggy Frezon. It’s another one of those “can you believe it?” questions I have for humans. Why in the world would I, a dog, want to go on a diet?

 

Oh, that’s right, we’re affected by too many treats, too many licks of the remnants of pie on the plate, too many tidbits handed over under the table by well-intentioned family members, as much as you are by plates of cookies in the office, hot toddies around the roaring fires at night, and chocolates and fudge and donuts and cake.

 

Okay, so we all need to watch it a bit.  Peggy and Kelly seem to have a handle on it, and tell a compelling story in this engaging book. Filled with beautiful photographs, this book will help you and your dog to move forward on a weight-loss journey together. And isn’t everything we do just a bit more fun when we do it with someone (or in this case, some furry someone) we love?

 

Like just yesterday, Mom walked me to the dog park. I got to run around and make a whole bunch of new friends and she got to talk to other humans about things like doggie day care and grooming and rescue and adoption. And the good thing is–Mom and I both got some exercise. 

 

If you want to read this fabulous book, you can find it here on Amazon: http://amzn.to/GRUgz4

 

Or check out Peggy’s website for more information: www.peggyfrezon.com.

 

Woofs & wiggles,

Charlie Bear

 

Chicken Soup on Sale!

Chicken Soup for the Soul Special E-Book Promotion 

For a limited time, you can get 12 of their e-books for half price, at $4.99 each, on all the major e-book platforms: Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, Apple iTunes Store for iPad and other “i” devices, Kobo, Sony, etc.

This is your chance to try an e-book, complete with the beautiful graphics and cartoons that are preserved in the e-book format.

Did you know most of the e-book retailers also give you a button to click on to give e-books as gifts? What a great way to send a Chicken Soup for the Soul book to a relative or a friend. 

The promotional price is for these twelve e-books:

Chicken Soup for the Soul: A Book of Miracles
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Campus Chronicles
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Country Music
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Inspiration for the Young at Heart
Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Cat’s Life
Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Dog’s Life
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Runners
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Shaping the New You
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive
Chicken Soup for the Soul: True Love

I’m sort of biased on three of them because I have stories in: 

A special note about the Shaping the New You book: “We are very happy with how it turned out, and I personally have found it to be very inspirational – I lost two dress sizes as a result of the book, so it is one of my personal favorites!” Your Publisher – Amy Newmark

To see the list on Barnes & Noble’s website, please click on: http://bit.ly/CSSEbooksBN

To see the list at Amazon.com, please click on: http://amzn.to/CSSEbooks

Enjoy this special discount, brought to you by Chicken Soup.
Hugs,
B.J.

Knit with Love – Book Review/Comments

Isn’t this a great time of year to hunker in and knit? Brew a cup of tea, put a log on the fire, light some candles, and listen to the clack, clack of your needles knitting.

I must admit, I don’t knit. Tried it once. Maybe even twice. Grandma B wanted me to learn so badly. She was patient, calm, enthusiastic about the craft. I was frustrated. Seems I’ve been born with two left thumbs.

But just because I don’t knit, doesn’t mean I don’t love that others do. In fact, I adore it. I’ve received scarves over the years from the best of friends and I treasure every one not only for the beauty and the warmth, but what it means to me that they produced something so special with their own two hands (and not two left thumbs like me).

Did you know Lisa Bogart’s book, Knit with Love: Stories to Warm a Knitter’s Heart contains stories of beginnings, friendship, history, charities, outreach, and community? And for those of you who are animal lovers like me…guess what can be knitted? Mats for the animals. Soft, hand-made, knitted mats to comfort our furry friends while in a shelter or rescue situation. Now that truly warms this two-left-thumbs non-knitter’s heart.

Lisa, kudos to you for bringing together a book that helps us all to see how knitting can bring people, and their community, together.

You can find Lisa’s book here on Amazon: http://amzn.to/wzlyUk

Love Heels – Book Review/Comments

Look at that awesome dog on the front of this full color book. There are many more photographs in this 10 x 10 tome of 224 pages. I devoured every heart-tugging story and feasted my eyes on the beauty of these magnificent animals.

Love Heels: Tales from Canine Companions for Independence contains a foreword by Dean Koontz and stories about Puppy Raisers, Facility Teams, Skilled Companion Teams, Service Teams, Hearing Teams, and Volunteers. 

This beautifully designed and illustrated book celebrates people and dogs. Canine Companions For Independence (CCI) is a not-for-profit organization that — with the help of so many volunteers– breeds, raises, trains, and then places it’s exceptional canine graduates with disabled children and adults who are in need of their assistance.

The stories and photos in LOVE HEELS bring the Canine Companions for Independence experience to life. From the joyful hours when litters are born, through the playful months of puppyhood, these team members cherish their canine charges until the day they tearfully, yet proudly, pass them on to those who need them most. 

As a gift, or for yourself, this is a gorgeous reminder of how dogs love us, and we love them.

Tails From Beyond – Book Review/Comments

Wow. From the oversized package of these “tails” totaling 175 pages in an 8 1/2 x 11 size, to the powerful stories shared by real people who love their pets, this book delivers.

Tails from Beyond: True Stories of Our Immortal Pets hooked me right from the start. Most of you know that I lost my beloved Golden Lab Rex on June 1st this year. The heartache of driving him to the vet, the anguish of missing him every day, the grief that consumed me for weeks into months, was and is normal I know. But to read that others also went through the same feelings is a comfort.

I had my own visits from beyond from both Rex and the two adorable cats we loved who each lived to be 15 1/2 years old. Diamond and Red were inseparable best buddies. They passed away the year before Rex. I’m saving the story of that “visit” for the book I’m writing, but suffice it to say that Tails from Beyond mirrors the feelings of comfort and reassurance they are well and happy.

A very good friend let me borrow her copy of this book and I loved it so much I wanted to buy my own. When I found out the price I almost balked. It’s a bit more than I’d usually pay for a book, but this isn’t an ordinary book. As mentioned above, it’s a large, paper-covered, full-color cover with beautiful color photographs of the authors’ pets inside. You’ll find yourself, as I did, engrossed in each story, fully appreciating the devotion and care for their furry friends. 

The back of the book poses these two questions: Do our pets exist in the afterlife? Can they contact us after they die? My answer: an unequivocable yes to both.

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. Let me know if you read it. And if you’ve lost a pet recently, many hugs of comfort to you.

B.J.

Here’s a link to the Amazon page: http://amzn.to/nnbfUC

A Dog’s Purpose — Book Review/Comments

 

Have you read this one? I absolutely loved it. I loved the dog’s voice, his easy style of relating his world, his specific detail which took me through the paper pages I held in my hands and into the depths of his dog-filled devotion and purpose.

 

W. Bruce Cameron is wonderful at crafting imagery and I marvel, long after I’ve closed the pages of the book, at the thoughts running through my own dog’s head. Did Charlie Bear have a life before this one? Is he fulfilling his purpose? Will the big dog Rex come back in the form of another dog and would I recognize him? I believe I would.

 

The praise for A Dog’s Purpose is filled with accolades like moving, inspirational, touching, exquisite, magical, mesmerizing, and enchanting. The banner on the back cover reads:
“Heartwarming, insightful, and often laugh-out-loud funny, A Dog’s Purpose is not only the emotional story of a dog’s many lives, but also a dog’s-eye commentary on human relationships and the unbreakable bonds between man and man’s best friend.”

 

Pick this one up or download it to your Kindle or Nook. It’s a keeper.

 

A Dog’s Purpose: A Novel for Humans on Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/pE09ZY

 

Dog Tales – Book Review/Comments

 

Susy Flory did an excellent job with the incredible stories in Dog Tales: Inspirational Stories of Humor, Adventure, and Devotion.

 

I particularly enjoyed “Don’t Mess with the Brute” about a big golden retriever who takes a hit for his family. And not the kind you might think. But the story I love the most is “Papa Loves You, Kaiser,” about a dog and his owner. Left on the doorstep of a vet’s office, this dog appeared to be near death. But with TLC from the hospital and the vet, Kaiser rallied. With tears in my eyes, I read the ending. You’ll love it too.

 

Touching and heartfelt, this book about dogs and what they mean to us will be enjoyed by dog lovers everywhere.

 

Here’s the link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/qPIGNR 

 

Not Left Behind – Book Review/Comments

Emotional tears, joyful smiles, awe-inspired sighs. Those were the feelings I had while reading this awesome book, NOT LEFT BEHIND: Rescuing the Pets of New Orleans. Filled with photographs that will inspire you, the Best Friends Animal Society did a wonderful job in relating to us the rescue of over 4,000 pets after the catastrophe of Hurricane Katrina.

One of the many tragedies associated with Katrina was that most evacuees had to leave their pets behind, a wrenching experience that was more heartbreaking for many than losing their homes. Best Friends was the first animal rescue organization to hit the flooded streets. The many photos capture the expressions of the animals and of the people who rescued them–fear, desperation and despair, but also hope and resilience.

Many of the animals were ultimately reunited with their families; almost all of the rest found new homes. There were many, many happy endings. As quoted from the book, “As a national community, we made mistakes in responding to Katrina. But we also did things right. In our ignorance, we insisted that people leave without their pets. But in our compassion we went back, and we made sure that as many as possible were, in the end, not left behind.”

This book is available through numerous outlets. Here is the link to the Barnes and Noble site: http://bit.ly/k4QNki

QUESTION 4 YOU: Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?

An Eagle Named Freedom – Book Review

An Eagle Named Freedom A True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

From the moment Jeff Guidry saw the emaciated baby eagle with broken wings, his life was changed. For weeks he and the staff at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center tended to the grievously injured bird. Miraculously, she recovered, and Jeff, a center volunteer, became her devoted caretaker. Though Freedom would never fly, she had Jeff as her wings. And after Jeff was diagnosed with stage 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000, Freedom returned his gift. Between sessions of debilitating chemotherapy, Jeff went back to Sarvey and began taking Freedom for walks that soothed his spirit and gave him the strength to fight. When he learned he was cancer free, Jeff’s first stop was Sarvey to walk with Freedom. Somehow this special bird seemed to understand the significance of the day. For the very first time she wrapped both her wings around Jeff, enveloping him in an avian hug. In March 2008, Jeff shared his extraordinary experience with his friend Gayle in an e-mail of eight hundred words: When Freedom came in she could not stand. Both wings were broken, her left wing in 4 places. . . . We here at the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center made the decision to give her a chance at life. . . . That e-mail would unexpectedly circle the globe and inspire countless fans eager to know more. In An Eagle Named Freedom, Jeff tells the full story of his bond with Freedom and introduces the other wildlife and volunteers who have been saved by Sarvey. A tender tale of hope, love, trust, and life, this moving true story is an affirmation of the spiritual connection that humans and animals share.

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I was blessed to help Jeff Guidry submit his story to the magazine Angels on Earth. It ran in the March/April 2011 issue and is a beautiful tribute to both Jeff and Freedom. Thank you, Jeff, for the wonderful conversations.

You can find Jeff’s book on Amazon here: http://amzn.to/hvdSae

or on Borders here: http://bit.ly/fmKluk