Book picks similar to
Tails of the Unexpected: Digressions, a Dog and Project X by John Donoghue
memoir
we-love-memoirs
humour
reviewed-books
From Sequins to Sunshine - Year One (Lorna's Life in Spain Book 1)
Lorna Penfold - 2013
They moved to start a new life breeding alpacas. Lorna started an online blog to keep track of her day to day life. Nearly six years down the line and Lorna has decided to make the first year of their new life available for everyone to read. Lorna's new life is full of ups and heartbreaking downs, but through it all she is determined not to let this new life get the better of her.
Don't Eat the Puffin: Tales From a Travel Writer's Life
Jules Brown - 2018
Get paid to travel and write about it.Only no one told Jules that it would mean eating oily seabirds, repeatedly falling off a husky sled, getting stranded on a Mediterranean island, and crash-landing in Iran.The exotic destinations come thick and fast – Hong Kong, Hawaii, Huddersfield – as Jules navigates what it means to be a travel writer in a world with endless surprises up its sleeve.Add in a cast of larger-than-life characters – Elvis, Captain Cook, his own travel-mad Dad – and an eye for the ridiculous, and this journey with Jules is one you won’t want to miss.
The Wrong Shade of Yellow
Margaret Eleanor Leigh - 2014
I couldn’t jack it in and go home, because I didn’t have a home to go to anymore. The bicycle and the tent were now home. Wherever I found myself on any given night was now home. And that meant, for tonight, Genoa Piazza Principe Railway Station was home.I was cycling across Europe in search of Utopia, a place I believed was located somewhere in Greece. When I found it, I would start a new life there. It was my big, fat, Greek midlife crisis. But now I was having a crisis within a crisis. What the hell had I been thinking?
All My Dogs Go to Heaven
Kay Bratt - 2021
Kay Bratt explores these ideas in All (my) Dogs Go to Heaven. Touching on relevant Biblical scriptures, she chronicles her tumultuous past— including a traveling childhood and a near decade of domestic abuse— revealing how her beloved pets helped her cope, and instilled hope for better days ahead. Interspersed within this memoir are short essays from real people who have experienced signs from their departed pets as proof that they are still around in spirit. Included in the back of the book is a Grief Guide to help get us through those first devastating days after our loss.Insightful and fascinating, Kay Bratt has ultimately given us a message of hope with All (my) Dogs Go to Heaven. -Judy Morgan, Founder of Yorkie Rescue of the Carolinas
Living the Dream: in the Algarve, Portugal
Alyson Sheldrake - 2020
Follow them as they battle with the Portuguese language, set up their own businesses, adopt a rescue dog and navigate the 'expat' world.Part guidebook, mostly memoir; this book is for anyone who has ever wondered what moving abroad is really like; and is essential reading for anyone considering moving to Portugal.
All That Followed: A story of cancer, kids and the fear of leaving too soon
Emma Campbell - 2018
This is a deeply felt memoir about motherhood, survival and learning to live for whatever life throws at you." CLOVER STROUD, author of The Wild OtherAn extraordinary story of facing life s multiple (!) trials with love, resilience and courage, told in Emma s warm, funny and unflinchingly honest style. AMY McCULLOCH, author of Jinxed and The Potion DiariesWith four children (three of them triplets!) and a relationship break-up to contend with, some things get a little lost in the mix. Like symptoms. Emma Campbell bravely and honestly offers heartfelt thoughts on what happens when cancer becomes an unwelcome guest at an already crowded party. She shares her own terror and pain, mixed with the heartwarming and unexpected. The extraordinary kindness of people and the gritty detail of battling a life-threatening illness, all while being a single mum to four children. She opens up about her angels and demons, losing and then finding love again, a constant fear of death mixed with the joy and relief of living, the anxiety of cancer returning - then facing it when it does. This book has grown from Emma's blog Me And My Four. Eager to share with her followers in more detail, the secrets, the fears, the triumphs and the terrors that she faces each day, in a life as unpredictable as your own...www.meandmyfour.com
Along Came Dylan
Stephen Foster - 2008
In this riotously funny book, Stephen Foster picks up where Walking Ollie left off. Instead of one difficult dog, he's got two. Where Ollie sees a threat, Dylan sees a challenge—and Foster finds himself forever somewhere in the middle, trying to work out why they can't just all be friends.
A Play On Words
Deric Longden - 1999
The theme is the experience of Longden watching LOST FOR WORDS become a TV drama along with a collection of observations of life at home and abroad.
Shadow
Aris Austin - 2016
even the most devout canine advocates may come away touched to the core." -Adrea Gibbs, Life With Dogs Meet Shadow. He's a little older and slower than he used to be, but he has a heart of gold, and he's a good dog. People always tell him so. He'll never hesitate to give your face a good licking, and there's no one he loves more than his human, Brian. Brian got a new puppy for Christmas though, leading him to abandon Shadow at the shelter he came from eleven years earlier. Shadow is devastated. Worse, the clock is winding down, even as a caring shelter worker helps him heal from the betrayal. Each day brings him closer to being euthanized in order to make more room at the shelter, and his fate rests in the hands of the very species that betrayed him—humans. Shadow’s story is the story of countless real-life dogs that end up in shelters every year. In an effort to help save them, 20% of royalties will go to Love & Second Chances all-breed dog rescue.
Animalish
Susan Orlean - 2011
The life and times of a girl who has always loved animals, or how I went from dreaming about Rin Tin Tin to having dogs, cats, chickens, fish, cattle, turkeys, and guinea fowl, with guest appearances by horses, lions, and canaries.
Restless: Memoir of an Incurable Traveller
Heather Hackett - 2020
They filled them with a deep longing to see the world and little else.It began in 1983, a time before the Internet, Instagram or Skyscanner. It was a journey of connections with people and situations that stretched the limits of their patience and perseverance. It was often hard and sometimes dangerous. But it was a journey of self-discovery, to places where simple choices led to profound transformation, where anything was possible if you just believed in yourself and the power in your hands and heart.Grab your copy today and follow the path of this young woman who set out to find herself in the world and find answers to the eternal questions who am I and why am I here?
Midwife: A Calling
Peggy Vincent - 2015
When Peggy Vincent first found herself holding a naked baby in her bare hands as a student nurse in 1962, she never dreamed the path her life would take as a result of that accidental catch. Countless births followed. Hippies, lawyers, teenagers, welfare moms, marijuana growers, smugglers, spiritualists, Orthodox Jews, neurologists, Christian Scientists, Muslims, the rich and the poor...this list scratches only the surface of her diverse clientele. Told with warmth, humor, and sincerity, these tales will resonate with all those who remain as enchanted as Peggy by the unique art of giving birth.
Love, Clancy: A Dog's Letters Home
Richard Glover - 2020
Human beings often write about their dogs, but the dogs don't usually get a right of reply. In Love, Clancy, Richard Glover has collated the letters sent by Clancy to his parents in the bush. They are full of a young dog's musings about the oddities of human behaviour, life in the big city, and his own attempts to fit in. You'll meet Clancy as a puppy, making his first attempt to train his humans, then see him grow into a mature activist, demanding more attention be paid to a dog's view of the world. Along the way, there are adventures aplenty, involving robotic vacuum cleaners, songs about cheese, trips to the country and stolen legs of ham - all told with a dog's deep wisdom when it comes to what's important in life.Delightfully illustrated by cartoonist Cathy Wilcox.PRAISE FOR RICHARD GLOVER
Love, Clancy
'Unnervingly accurate, always funny, Richard Glover effortlessly inhabits the fine mind of a dog' - Julia Baird
The Land Before Avocado
'This is vintage Glover - warm, wise and very, very funny. Brimming with excruciating insights into life in the late sixties and early seventies, The Land Before Avocado explains why this was the cultural revolution we had to have' Hugh Mackay'Hilarious and horrifying, this is the ultimate intergenerational conversation starter' Annabel Crabb'Richard Glover's just-published The Land Before Avocado is a wonderful and witty journey back in time to life in the early 1970s' Richard Wakelin, Australian Financial Review
Flesh Wounds
'A funny, moving, very entertaining memoir' Bill Bryson, New York Times'The best Australian memoir I've read is Richard Glover's Flesh Wounds' Greg Sheridan, The Australian
Ella in Europe: An American Dog's International Adventures
Michael Konik - 2005
An homage to the friend who has “licked away my tears when I’m sad, hopped on her hind legs when I’m happy, and snuggled me when I’m lonely,” here is the story of a bond unlike any other–and an extraordinary dog who stole her way into one man’s heart. Los Angeles writer Michael Konik had always shared his life with dogs. But Ella, a gentle Lab mix, was something special. From the moment Konik laid eyes on Ella, he knew: This dog was meant to be his. An enchantress who charmed all who met her, Ella Guinevere Konik had a truly unique gift–and soon Konik found a way for Ella to share that gift, signing her up for a program that brings dogs into hospitals, nursing homes, and children’s shelters. When Ella turned ten, Konik wanted to thank the “best friend” whose unconditional love had transformed his life–and given comfort and joy to others in need. So a trip to Europe was planned–and for Konik and Ella a once-in-a-lifetime adventure began, one that would strengthen the already-powerful bond between them. As they explore Europe’s most beautiful–and surprisingly dog-friendly–cities, Konik is amazed at the experiences he and Ella can share . . . Arriving in Vienna on July Fourth with Ella wrapped in her American flag scarf . . . Dining at four-star restaurants in Paris . . . Ella swimming in the Danube . . . Taking a gondola ride in Venice . . . Sunbathing in St. Tropez . . . Searching for a canine toilet in Monte Carlo. But soon this journey of friendship, love, and discovery must come to a close. And as Konik heads home, accompanied by the canine friend who “helped teach me what love means,” one thing is certain: Both dog and owner have been changed forever. At once a testament to the power of unconditional love and a celebration of devotion, Ella in Europe is a book for anyone who has ever felt a special connection to a dog they’ve loved.
My Irish Dog
Douglas C. Solvie - 2020
Then again, he never imagined that a chance meeting with a lost and dying dog named Shandy would change his life forever. Step into the small Irish village of Galbally, where the unwitting Spencer stumbles headfirst into a parallel world that will test his will, sanity, and even physical well-being. Time and promise are running out. Will unnatural forces and events scare Spencer away before he can connect again with the mysterious dog? Will he find his way forward before Shandy meets her inevitable fate? Or will suspicious locals and a nefarious Dublin innkeeper force Spencer from the village before he completes his life-altering mission? Follow Spencer as he races to save a little Irish dog named Shandy. If he only realized that it is Shandy who is trying to save him...