I just finished reading Anita Diamant’s The Last Days of Dogtown.  From reading the dust jacket, I found that Ms. Diamant, as a tourist on Cape Ann, picked up a pamphlet on an old extinct village named Dogtown.  The pamphlet briefly described some of the characters and Ms. Diamant embellished and created a fascinating read.  If you’ve read another of her novels, The Red Tent, you’ll know that she’s an expert at giving a speculative voice to the unvoiced characters in history.  And I am fascinated by this type of story-telling.  Thank you, Anita Diamant. 

In Dogtown, there were stories of the successes, failures, debaucheries, and inner dreams of terribly poor scrapers in the early part of the 1800’s.  I was interested in the sense of family that strangers made of each other, and the idea that people have always helped each other out.  I was jubilant when people made good of themselves and exemplified success, and I actually wept.  Yeah, I wept in public, too.

By Mary Lu Kelley.  She lives in Hawaii with her tribe of Alaskan Malamutes.  

“Enjoy this series of delightful stories, mostly set in Hawaii, about seven Malamute dogs.  Get to know them from puppyhood through old age.  Learn about the joys, trials, and tribulations of raising these powerful, intelligent dogs in a tropical environment.  Learn about the natural beauty of the Hawaiian Islands.  Walk with them in the mountains.  Stay dry while the dogs take a dip in a cool mountain ditch.  Smell the moist, fragrant air….”

Mary Lu also has a website, www.animalshawaii.com, that shares all sorts of information for animal lovers in the islands.

Blue House Booksellers is pleased to host For the Love of Lilly: Living with Malamutes in Hawaii.  

By Alexandr Solzhenitsyn.  Man, I hope I spelled that right.  When this book crossed my desk, I realized I’d never read it and always wanted to.  It was quite possibly the easiest Russian literature I’ve ever read.  What an incredible testament to people. I was impressed with the types of characters under the unique stresses of labor camp.  It was interesting to me how Shukov didn’t spend every waking moment thinking of home, but thinking of surviving better.  In the prologue I learned about how much of the book was originally censored by the Soviets.  Go ahead and read it.