Dobes Zone

      I'm dusting the cobwebs off my blog, realizing that I had a couple unfinished book reviews waiting for me, I still have a couple on the backburner and yet here I am working on a new review. I'd previously reread A Clockwork Orange and also read Phantom of the Opera as well as The Island of Doctor Moreau for the first time. For the book club I'm running myself, we just wrapped up Watership Down by Richard Adams. This was a reread for me and also was a childhood favorite. It's the kind of book that a kid with a certain type of brain gets sucked into. Admittedly Watership Down was an obsession for me for a while. I read this wonderful illustrated edition of Watership Down which includes paintings by Aldo Galli in glossy inserts. Good stuff.       Revisiting as an adult, I can really appreciate why this particular book has had such staying power. Along with being just a fantastic and epic tale, Watership Down is also impeccably researched both for the behaviors and na

     I recently got my library card- something I'd been meaning to do and then a pandemic happened and I forgot that I wanted to get a library card until now. I decided to pick up two books on a whim, one a been-meaning to, and the other just something that caught my eye. Kira Jane Buxton's Feral Creatures seemed like a natural choice for me as I always have a soft spot for talking animal stories, especially if they're satirical and aimed at adults. The book cover design is quite pretty too. I've often felt contemporary publishing trends are lackluster so it's always a bonus to see a lovely cover. That old adage about not judging books by their covers can kiss my ass, I love seeing a beautiful illustration or at least some slick stylish design-work to pull me in.         The book tells the story of the last human being on earth and the animals taking care of her. A strange plague has swept the world, mutating all human beings into monstrous and lethal abominations

 It's been a moment since I updated and also a moment since I finished reading a book- having been side-tracked with projects and other life matters. But as promised, I'm writing up a little review of Michael Peak's Catamount- a loose sequel to his first novel Cat House which I wrote about previously .                       My copy of Catamount, with another lovely cover illustrated by Dan Craig       Catamount picks up with Sarena, the mountain lion from Cat House who allied herself with the housecat protagonists of the first novel, and with reporter Laura Kay. The book follows Sarena and Laura as they both follow independent but interconnected paths. Sarena is looking for more mountain lions and befriends an equally lonely bald eagle. Laura is following both a story on a proposed mountain lion hunt put forth by the game commission and a story about some vicious guard dogs that escaped. It is also clear that the author did a lot of research about mountain lions and enviro