A Perfect Excuse Not to Cook and Clean

I stopped at the library yesterday to pick up a book I had reserved. The librarian put the dreaded red bookmarker in it. The red bookmark means it's a 10 day book. Other people are wanting to read it so I have only 10 days to read it before I will have to pay a fine. I was feeling whiney so I complained, "Oh, man, I hate the 10 days books!" She replied, "It's the perfect excuse not to cook and clean." I took her advice. I have not cooked or cleaned today. Instead I read Temple Grandin's book, "Animals Make us Human" Here is the review of that book plus a couple other books I have finished recently. Before I start, I have to admit that I am a Temple Grandin fan. I've read all the books by her that I have heard about. Temple is a woman who is known around the world for her work in animal husbandry. She audits slaughterhouses and farms for fast food restaurants. Her experiences as a person with Aspergers is less well known but an important part of her success. In this book, Temple talks about the basic rights of animals; freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury, or disease, freedom to express normal behavior, and freedom from fear and distress. After the initial chapter, she writes others about dogs, cats, horses, cows, pigs, poultry, wildlife, and zoos. Her theories are very interesting. She theorizes that dogs bites are more frequent as a result of the leash laws. Before leash laws, dogs roamed and socialized. Before leash laws, dogs learned when and how to be submissive. In her chapter about cats, she suggests black cats make better pets because they are more submissive by nature than orange cats. Temple says all animals have a need to seek (search, investigate, make sense of the environment). Without opportunities to seek, other emotions like fear and rage expand to fill the void. Temple writes a fascinating book and I finished it in one day - having done no cooking or cleaning.

"The Sweet Inbetween" is another good book I read in a very short time. In this novel, Sheri Reynolds writes about Kenny, a girls who looks like a boy. The story reveals why Kenny dresses and acts as she does. I always enjoy the "coming of age" stories and books set in the southern states so this was a win-win for me. This story made me wonder, why do women select their clothing? How many of us dress to protect ourselves?

The third book was written by Sue Miller and is called, "The Senator's Wife." Deliah is the name of the senator's wife and she is the ever gracious, accommodating, and generous woman - almost too good to be true. Sue Miller is a sensual and earthy writer and I enjoyed the book even though sometimes I was tempted to hit Deliah upside the head and say, "Wake up and smell the coffee. He's a dog and you deserve more."