Time to pretend I’m a grumpy old man shaking my fist at kids who would so much as look at my perfect lawn … but, darn, those conscientious dog owners! How dare they take their dogs out each day, giving them long strolls through the neighborhood? Who are these kind-hearted people who care about their pets? Have they been watching the Dog Whisperer or the Doggie Dominatrix? And why are there so many of them?…
This may come as a shock to Harry Potter fans everywhere (including me!), but I haven’t read the entire Harry Potter series. (The horror!) The first book came out when my children were wee. My oldest was 5 or 6 at the time, a prime age for me to settle in and read to the kiddos. Because the books were released over a series of years, I kept up with reading them through Book 4.…
One of the used books I bought at the Twin Cities Book Festival was Ernest Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” It is a 1952 softcover copy that has a slight whiff of incense to it. I have not read a lot of Hemingway during my lifetime, maybe one other book in college. I’ve never been drawn to his books, though I couldn’t say why. Until I read this. Seriously, this is the saddest…