Jane Lampton (The Mother of Samuel Clemens) sounds much like my Mom Sally Casey

        In my last post I wrote about receiving a copy of The Autobiography of Mark Twain for Christmas. I have read a couple of chapters each night before going to bed, and Chapter 7 of the book has Clemens recalling his relationship with his own Mother.  When my Mom died, I was told I gave a touching eulogy, but I have never found quite the words to describe my Mom, and how she related to the world around her. I found the very words I was searching for on page 33 of the Autobiography.

   "She had a slender, small body but a large heart ---a heart so large that everybody's grief and everybody's joys found welcome in it and hospitable accomodation."

    Further on Clemens writes:

     Her interest in people and other animals was warm, personal, friendly. She always found something to excuse, and as a rule to love, in the toughest of them --even if she had to put it there herself."

       Those words make me think of all the hard cases like me that Sally Casey took in as a Foster Parent and turned something good out of.  Sally Casey would have turned 94 last Wednesday, and it has been 10 years since her death in 2000.

        It took ten years, but Samuel Clemens, in describing his own Mother, Jane Lampton of Kentucky, is just as easily describing my Mom, Sally Casey, 100 years after HIS death. Thanks Mark Twain, for reaching across the century and doing it for me.

       I highly recommend The Autobiography of Mark Twain as edited by Charles Neider to all my friends out there. It is a wonderful, glimpse into an America before, during, and after the Civil War, and into the early 20th century. Clemens recounting of his childhood and an 19th century American society built on everyone knowing their proper place in social stature is a must read.

Sunday morning Book review: The Dust of 100 Dogs by A.S. King

I love dogs, everybody who knows me knows that. Dogs are Central characters in just about everything I have ever written, and I am naturally drawn to books about dogs.

My first thought on hearing the title was that it was about 100 dogs. Well that was just some pretty unoriginal thinking on my part.
The story, according to the back cover, is this:

In the late seventeenth century, famed teenage pirate Emer Morissey was on the cusp of escaping Pirate life with her one true love and unfathomable riches when she was slain and cursed with the dust of one hundred dogs, dooming her to one hundred lives as a dog before returning to a human body - with her memories intact.

Now she is a contemporary American teenager and all she needs is a shovel and a ride to Jamaica

I read this book yesterday afternoon, all 330 pages. Once I started, I couldn't put it down.

If you have ever read the Outlander books series by Diana Gabaldon, and you liked that, then you will enjoy this. As a guy of Irish descent, I particularly enjoyed the flashbacks of the main character to Oliver Cromwell's brutal genocidal war against the Irish in the 17th century. Because the main character has kept her memories over 350 years through two human lives and that of 100 dogs, relating the cruel events of her first life makes it easier to understand her cynicism of humanity in her second human incarnation. Throw in her casual observations from numerous dog life's at historical moments of note, ( i.e. one master was killed at Gettysburg) and you have a seasoned world wise mind in the body of a teenager, giving you an unexpected, and yes, enjoyable take on how humanity has evolved in 350 years. Or Not.

As I read this, I couldn't help thinking how civilization, for all the technological advances, keeps making the same mistakes over and over again, especially at the personal level. We still kill each other over the stupidest issues, and the authors occasional observations from a dogs point of view had me thinking that maybe dogs are smarter than us after all. A short interlude concerning two dogs named Spanky and Rico and a dogs view of homosexuality will give you something to think about.

I don't give away plot points or spoilers, but this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend for young adults on up. Hell, I am 47 and I am going to get another copy. I am going to ask the author to autograph so I can give it to my soon to be seventeen year old niece for her birthday. She has been on trips to the Island of St. Thomas, and sailed in the Caribbean with her Uncle, so I am sure she will appreciate it.

The author, Amy King, or A.S. King, was born and raised in nearby Berks County, and after living a decade in Ireland returned here a few years back and lives there now with her husband and children. They install kitchens and she does electrical work. Not all writers are millionaires, most of us have real jobs!

I always say we should support our local authors, and I give this book a big thumbs up.

The Dust of 100 Dogs is available on Amazon and through Barnes and Noble bookstores. The cost is $9.95 U.S. $11.95 Canadian. Enjoy!