Washington's Monument and the Fascinating History of the Obelisk by John Steele Gordon; The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes Edited by Lucy H Spelman, DVM and Ted Y. Mashima, DVM; A Cotswold Mystery by Rebecca Tope

Here is piano music by Jeroen van Veen.

I've been reading a lot of books and frankly, I don't have time for indepth reviews for the moment, so here's the skinny on the last three books I've read:


Washington's Monument: And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk by John Steele Gordon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book is a lively and fascinating account of how an obelisk was chosen and built to commemorate our first president. It also provides an interesting history of the obelisk itself and how European countries and later America came to possess some of these ancient relics of the past.

It sounds like it would be mundane, but some of the best parts was learning about the men who carried out the transporting of these giant stone structures and how they did it. No mean feat before modern technology.



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The Rhino with Glue-On Shoes: And Other Surprising True Stories of Zoo Vets and their Patients by Lucy H. Spelman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This was a lucky impulse buy. I couldn't resist the title and the book did not disappoint.

Spelman, a veterinarian, has compiled a large collection of essays by her fellow veterinarians who have exotic animals for patients.

We not only meet a rhino whose sore, blistering feet from the cement in the zoo, gets temporary shoes until a viable habitat is made, we also meet a moray eel who refuses to eat, an ill octopus, a polar bear with a stomach ulcer, a giraffe who needs a leg brace, a hippo who gets a root canal, even a pet goldfish with cancer.

All of the essays are written with charm and by vets who dearly love their patients. Any animal lover would enjoy this book.



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A Cotswold Mystery by Rebecca Tope

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Thea is back and this time she's not only house-sitting, she's granny-sitting as well.

The couple she is sitting for have an elderly mother living next door and, while she's not supposed to really interact with her, or let her into the house. She is somehow supposed to stay on top of her and know when she leaves her home (there's a buzzer connected to the front door).

The old lady, Gladys, is a mysterious character. She acts flighty and senile half the time, but the other half, she's quite lucid and shrewd.

Her daughter, Jessica, has come to stay with her. She has just had a traumatic experience as a rookie cop. She needs a mother's reassurance. However, Thea has her own angst and there is a tug of war as mother and daughter struggle through their relationship with each other.

On top of all that, Thea finds a dead body next door. The dead man, an elderly friend of Gladys, has been stabbed and then dragged into the kitchen. Why? What is the motive? Who had the means and opportunity?

That is the outline, in the meantime we see Thea as she relates with her daughter and how she regards her budding relationship with the police inspector Phil, whom she met in the first of this series.

The characters in this Cotswold village give this American another slice of what small English village life is like, which I enjoy.





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