Does the Dog Die? Mini-Reviews of Four Books
I’m going to have a busy week away from the computer, so I thought I’d go to a small journal I kept and see if there were any books I could review in bumper sticker format. I found four.
First up is The Last Season, by Eric Blehm. This is the true story of Randy Morgenson, a seasonal ranger with the U.S. Park Service, who disappeared one winter in Kings Canyon National Park. This is an excellent book, one of my favorites, and I highly recommend it. However, quite a few rescue dogs were used in the search for Morgenson, and one of them was injured pretty badly. This dog did survive, and the dogs are heroic in general. With that in mind, I’m going to declare this book Mostly Safe for animal lovers.
Next is Murder Unleashed, by Elaine Viets. This is from Viets’ Dead End Job series of mysteries, which are like brain candy — not very demanding, and fun. However, we learn about some of the bad things that can happen in the pet care industry, and one of those things really bothered me. So I am going to declare this book Probably Unsafe for most animal lovers.
Philosophy Made Simple, by Robert Hellenga, was quite frustrating. It started off great, then collapsed in the last third. I had a pretty strong love/hate thing going on with this book. One of the hate issues had to do with animals. This book is also Probably Unsafe for animal lovers.
Finally, Water for Elephants by Sarah Gruen is a good book that is Completely Unsafe for animal lovers. I loved so much about this book, but my book group felt horrible for the animal characters in this book. If you can approach this kind of book as a forewarned reader, go for it. Otherwise, it might upset you.
