"Rose In A Storm" by Jon Katz is a WOWIE!-Updated 3/2/11

We Loved This Book!

UPDATED 3/2/11: Karen's Review:
I agree with Gerard, Rose in the Storm by Jon Katz is really good! It’s a touching fiction story about the life of a farm working dog, Rose. I really liked learning about farm life through this book and seeing how the animals connected and interacted with each other. When Sam, the only human on his farm gets injured during a 5-day blizzard with temperatures -30 degrees and is air-lifted to a hospital, his border collie, Rose, takes care of the farm without him. I especially identified with Rose’s memory of her special connection with Sam’s wife Katie, who died. I’m sure anyone who lives on a farm or likes animals would love this book! I am a city girl and enjoyed it very much. I kept thinking about our blogging buddy, Mountain Woman at Red Pine Mountain, who blogs about her farm in Vermont as I read this book.  We both highly recommend this book!


The author has also written a non-fiction book, The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm, about his farm in upstate New York. Gerard liked that book too and now I’m going to read it too! The author’s website is www.bedlamfarm.com.

Gerard's Review:

WOW!  What a book!  Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz is about Rose, a working dog on a farm and her owner, Sam.  Rose has a lot of work to do as there are a lot of animals on the farm to look after.  Rose tells the story which is very cool.  One day a huge storm comes and Rose is put into a situation she has never been in before.

I felt a lot of emotion while reading this book which to me says that is a really good book! Rose is a wonderful dog that the reader can't help but love. I think anyone would enjoy this book, especially dog lovers. The best part is that it has a good ending--the dog lives! I cried when I read Dewey, The Library Cat and cried at the end of this book too--yes, it's that good! Karen is going to read it as well.

We saw Faye's write up about Rose In A Storm by Jon Katz over at Summit Musings and ordered it from the library.  I'm so glad I did! 

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?  You can help Canine Lifeline (a dog rescue organization that saved our dog, Abby) by leaving a comment on any of our blogs in March.  We will donate 50 cents per comment at the end of the month.

Comment For Charity

We are very happy to report that we received 224 comments on our all our blogs during February so will donate $112 to The National Children's Cancer Society (50 cents per comment).

The day we first met Abby! (6/20/09)

For March we will again donate 50 cents per comment on all of our blogs but to Canine Lifeline--the organization that rescues dogs from shelters that are scheduled to be put down. They use foster homes to take in the dogs to give them longer to find them good homes. They have saved over 300 dogs throughout Ohio and Kentucky since it started in 2009. This is how we got Abby! She was scheduled to be put down because she was in an overcrowded shelter. She is a wonderful dog and it would have been so sad had Barb, one of the founders of Canine Lifeline, had not rescued her to give her extra time for us to find her.

Visit their website at www.caninelifeline.org to donate, see what other dogs are available or provide a foster home. We hope you will comment on all our blogs to help out this charity that is so wonderful!

Tuesday Teaser: "Dilemma" and "Girl In The Gatehouse"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought I would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser. 

Gerard's:

But I also very much felt called to be a married man, even a family man. I was a priest in love and contemplating marriage; I no longer believed the two things to be incompatible as I had been taught.

From pg. 144 of Dilemma: A Priest's Struggle With Faith and Love by Father Albert Cutie

Karen's:

Had she not promised herself she was finished with men and their untrustworthy ways? Even as she thought this, she knew the promise was a poor shield against the truth. For she felt certain no honorable man would ever love her now.

From pg. 77 of The Girl In the Gatehouse by Julie Klassen

"Whatever Tomorrow Brings" by Lori Wick

I liked Whatever Tomorrow Brings by Lori Wick.  It’s a Christian romance about family and hospitality.  Three siblings whose mother died after moving to California from Hawaii and whose father went back to mission work in Hawaii but left kids in the states with the intent to join them later have to make it on their own with the help of Christian friends.  Katie, the oldest, gets a teaching job and takes care of her teen brother Sean and little sister, Marcail.
(Karen's 5/23/09)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it?

What Wizard Of oz Character Are You?

Do you like The Wizard Of Oz?  The Wizard of Oz is an all-time classic movie that I always enjoyed.  When I was little, the wicked witch scared me so much that I had nightmares about her chasing me!  When I got a bit older, we used to actually act it out in our backyard!  I liked being a flying monkey so when I saw this quiz I just had to try this quiz.  As a teen, when I saw the movie "Pilgrim's Progress" all I could think was that it's like "The Wizard Of Oz!"   Gerard and I both got the same result:

We Are the Tin Man

You feel like you're not compassionate enough, but you've got more heart than almost anyone else in this world.  (I do have compassion, but it just feels like I should be doing more.) You care deeply for others, and you are extremely sensitive. You are easily moved. (I sometimes cry when reading a touching story or when seeing a sad movie like "Marley & Me" or "The Notebook."  Gerard is very emotional. You find it easy to put yourself in someone else's shoes. You're very empathetic. (I think this is true, especially when I've gone through a similar situation that someone is going through.) If only you were as easy on yourself as you are on others. You don't give yourself enough credit! (Yeah, this is true of both of us.  We really don't.  I get mad at myself quite easily when I forget things--I am becoming more forgetful and Gerard yells at himself when he goofs up something.)

What Wizard of Oz Character Are You?
Take the quiz and let us know your results in the comments!
I wonder how many different characters we can get.