Books & Blog: September 28, 2015

by | Sep 28, 2015 | 2015

Books of the Week:

  • A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark, Harry Connelly
  • Indexing: Reflections, Seanan McGuire

I have read Harry Connelly and thought he was marvelous. I was a huge fan of his Twenty Palaces books, which never sold as well as they deserved. He’s also written graphic novels and a science fiction series I have not read yet, and I hold those treats in store. A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark is very different from any of these. Marley Jacobs (yes, isn’t the name familiar?) has declared Seattle a safe zone for the preternatural; for example, vampires can’t kill human beings, and human beings can’t kill vampires. The murder of her unpleasant  nephew, though, opens doors to a lot more unpleasantness.

Fortunately, Marley has another nephew, who is absolutely willing to help her in the hunt for the killer, and in the effort to keep the peace in Seattle.

I’m also a fan of Seanan McGuire’s, and I bought Indexing: Reflections for my e-reader. She’s adding chapters to it. Every now and then I see more is downloaded, and I can read some new pages. Fun!

Blog: GOOD DOGS

We’ve had Rocky for at least fifteen years now. My middle son needed a new dog when his other one had to be put down for biting (and other extreme anti-social behavior). We wanted a gentle dog, but that’s really hard to guarantee.

We hit the jackpot with Rocky. He counts as a rescue, since the woman who advertised that she had free puppies brought them over to meet us in her car trunk. Right. To be fair, she also had a carload of kids. Maybe it was the only way she could cope. Rocky had several siblings, and they were the result of the family cocker spaniel getting out and visiting with the family boxer. We had no idea what he’d look like when he grew up, but he was fuzzy and golden and interested in our son.

He stayed that way. Rocky has been the mildest, softest, sweetest dog we’ve ever had. He’s still golden, but the years have not been kind to Rocky. He’s gaunt, and has arthritis in his rear legs, and he has kidney issues. He has a tumor on his eyelid, and another between his toes on a front paw, and we can’t have them removed because of his advanced age and his kidneys.

We have three dogs, Rocky, Scrunch, and Colt. (Oscar passed last year.) Colt is very lovable, but he’s the low man on the dog totem pole. Scrunch has a terrier personality, and has always been Rocky’s boon companion. Sadly, Scrunch seems to smell the illness in Rocky, and she has begun to growl at him when he draws close. But she still doesn’t want to go outside without his company.

Rocky will not be around much longer, and that grieves us. But at risk of sounding maudlin, I wanted to give tribute to A Good Dog while he is still around. Rocky has had a long life and a lot of adventures. He’s been hit by a car, and he’s been bitten by a snake. He’s gotten out of the fence, and he’s roamed free. We hope we have given him good care and a lot of love.

God bless Rocky.

Charlaine Harris

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