Thank you and Happy Memorial Day

Please be sure to take a moment and remember those who fought for our country and those that continue to serve today.

 © Jenny Girl - 2012 "All Rights Reserved"

Suddenly Sunday (May 27)

Suddenly Sunday is a weekly event hosted by Svea@ The Muse in the Fog Book Review. 

More like Suddenly Sunday Afternoon!  Hello my chick-a-dees!  How are ya?!  Hope this finds you well and enjoying the weekend.  I can't this month has flown by!  I finished teaching one class, and another one started up right after.  It can be a lot reading and work, but I enjoy it greatly.  Plus I always learn something either from my preparation or from my students.  Teaching is an outlet for me when compared with my day job.  Which is working a nerve right now.  Lets just say there are some major butt holes out there, and that Bitches get Stitches.  You read correctly and that's all I'm saying.

I also celebrated my birthday this month.  It was a low key affair because it was during the week and next year is a big one.  So quiet and understated was the theme this year, although my sweetie did send me flowers at work.  He is just the best.

As for reading I've been plugging along and have some reviews to write.  There was one excellent book, The Tudor Secret by C.W. Gortner, that I just loved, but I have to write that review without revealing anything.  That can be tough.   Gortner better be writing a sequel is all I'm saying :)  Also trying to finish up some reads in anticipation of The Standalong.  I almost started it the other day, but I held off.  I read school work instead.

There's also Armchair BEA coming up on June 3rd.  I thought I had missed it, but when I went to catch up and saw I was early, I was super excited.  I met some really interesting bloggers last year, and enjoyed all the posts and things that go along with Armchair BEA.  So it's not too late!  Visit the site and join in on the fun.

Otherwise, not much else is going on.  I do want to do a Friday Fitness post, and chat about my 2nd nutritionist visit.  Let you know how things are going, but that damn day job keeps getting in the way.  Oh also getting work done on the house.  That also puts a damper on things.  However I couldn't let another Sunday go by without stopping to say hello.  So I'll be by your way eventually this week.  In the mean time have a wonderful day, holiday and fabulous week!

© Jenny Girl - 2012 "All Rights Reserved"

Book Review: Lost and Found by Jacqueline Sheehan

Publisher: Avon Books
Genre: fiction, loss, dogs
Paperback, 278 pages 
Book Source: from my shelves, but originally from a friend
My Rating: 85/100

From Goodreads: 

Rocky's husband Bob was just forty-two when she discovered him lying cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor . . . and Rocky's world changed forever. Quitting her job, chopping off all her hair, she leaves Massachusetts--reinventing her past and taking a job as Animal Control Warden on Peak's Island, a tiny speck off the coast of Maine and a million miles away from everything she's lost. She leaves her career as a psychologist behind, only to find friendship with a woman whose brain misfires in the most wonderful way and a young girl who is trying to disappear. Rocky, a quirky and fallible character, discovers the healing process to be agonizingly slow.

But then she meets Lloyd.

A large black Labrador retriever, Lloyd enters Rocky's world with a primitive arrow sticking out of his shoulder. And so begins a remarkable friendship between a wounded woman and a wounded, lovable beast. As the unraveling mystery of Lloyd's accident and missing owner leads Rocky to an archery instructor who draws her in even as she finds every reason to mistrust him, she discovers the life-altering revelation that grief can be transformed . . . and joy "does" exist in unexpected places.

 1.)Reasons you chose this book 

A friend had given this book to me quite some time ago and it's been sitting on my shelves.  I'm reviewing the follow-up to this novel, Picture This, in June, so I thought I better read this one first.  Plus the story features a dog.

2.)Reasons you liked or disliked this book 

I have mixed feelings about this book.  First the good feelings.  Rocky is a great main character who drives the whole book.  What she goes through with her husband's death is so raw, revealing, and unimaginable.  Rocky eventually comes out of her depression and finds purpose again, although it's not an easy road.  But once Lloyd came into her life, it becomes easier.  

The title of the book Lost and Found, applies to everyone in this story.  I see all of them as lost until Lloyd comes into the picture is and is able to help them find themselves, hence found.  Dogs have a sense and presence that helps us humans deal with the tough things in life.  They are unwavering friends, there to stand by us through thick and thin.  Dogs can read our behavior, and act accordingly.  Lloyd has this healing effect on everyone he meets.  Being a dog lover, I totally get that and believe in it.


Another enjoyable aspect of the story was the small island town.  The friendliness, the smell of the sea, the quiet, I want to be in that kind of place, so the setting really sucked me in as well. 


Now for the bad feelings.  While I liked Rocky and could never imagine going through the things she went through, it was the secondary characters that were a bit meh for me.  Several characters are dealing with an issue, and Lloyd the dog helps them to overcome said issue.  But these stories just felt like they wrapped up too clean or I flipped a page, and poof the problem was gone.  I guess the one that bothered me the most was the young girl Melissa.  Her issue is quite weighty, and I had difficulty that it could resolve that quickly.  On the other hand, this book is a quick and relatively light read, so to expect in-depth characterization or resolution is probably foolish on my part.  Some parts just felt too neat and clean.  

3.)Reasons for recommending 


I would recommend this book if you are in the mood for light quick reading.  It would make a great beach read, or curling up in a chair when it's raining outside.  If you are not a dog person, don't worry, you don't have to be.  It's the relationship that animals have with their people that is explored here.  

For more information about the author, please visit her website: 

http://www.jacquelinesheehan.com/index.htm

 © Jenny Girl - 2012 "All Rights Reserved"