but like stories about farm animals
928305
If you don't know Dick King-Smith's books yet, but like stories about farm animals, then you owe it to yourself to check him out.  He understands farm animals, and is thoroughly original.  A joy.
1660839
Charming stories from a country vet treating large and small animals the people he encounters.
3215809
Maybe it's just me but I felt skeevy trying to read this to my son.  It's a story about the horrors of factory farming.

I'd rather teach & share what is good and works than focus on how horrible things are.  Otherwise it was a good book, but I couldn't bring myself to read it to my son.  He can learn about Monocrops, chicken houses, flies, and poo when he's ready.  There's plenty of that around to see.
991539
My children noticed the repetition in the stories of the bull and the ox and another character as well who had animals jump on his back. Other than that - we love Reg Down's work.
2430553
Butcher creates good short stories with surprising endings. In this tale, Roy sees a field with goats and a faithful dog standing sentinel over them. He passes the field from time to time and notices that the number of goats diminishes until there are no more, only the dog standing sentinel over the field. He feels sorry for the dog and tries to feed it, but the dog refuses to leave its sentry post. He decides to enter the field with food and .... These are some of the details in this well-written tale. I leave the other and the startling ending for the reader's enjoyment.
909461
Michael Perry's new farm was not much like the one he grew up on. It didn't have sheep or cows --- in fact, it had no animals at all. It lacked the noise of a big family; there was just Perry and his wife, Anneliese, and young daughter Amy. But this small family had dreams of free-range chickens, a bountiful garden and fat pigs, and set out to make their newly acquired patch of Wisconsin land home. Perry chronicles their first year on the farm in his latest book, COOP.

In the course of the year, as they settled in to farm life, something Perry and his wife are both familiar with, the family finds small joys in watching chickens and enormous joys in the birth of their baby daughter. They suffer the loss of family members and dear friends, and work hard in homeschooling Amy, raising two pigs and maintaining the land. All the while Perry still works as a freelance writer, a job that takes him away from home more often than he'd like.

As much as Perry is writing about trying to build a home for his growing family and create a certain level of sustainability and self-sufficiency, he is also writing about his childhood and the Wisconsin farm that he himself lived on growing up. Raised by caring and open-hearted parents who were members of a little known, religiously conservative Protestant group, Perry was surrounded by siblings and family friends, and was expected to work hard on the farm. He and his wife hope to instill much of his parents' wisdom in their daughters, but they also have their own strong ideas about family and farming.

In attempting to find a balance between the two worldviews, Perry shares his thoughts, his successes (raising two healthy pigs for slaughter) and failures (a 50% chicken mortality rate), his moments of pride and his storms of frustration. While his life is not a typical middle-class existence, his hopes, fears, exasperations and jokes will resonate with readers from all different backgrounds.

Perry's memories of his parents, brothers, sisters and the foster children who lived with them are written with honesty and kindness. These are the same qualities that characterize his writing overall. From livestock auctions to home births, from coop building to funerals, Perry shines when documenting the everyday and has a talent for making the everyday extraordinary. His style is humorous but sometimes melancholy, bold and self-deprecating.

Though sometimes a bit repetitive and prone to too much skipping about in time, COOP is a fun and compelling read. Perry is a likable host and guide to mid-western sensibility and the intricacies and rhythms of rural life. In the first pages, he writes, "[W]e are going rural in the hope that we might become more self-sufficient in terms of firewood, an expanded garden, and perhaps a pair of pigs." But quickly after reading this, it becomes obvious that Perry and his family are embarking on a grander journey. They are exploring the concept of roots, literally and figuratively: examining the meaning of home, family and community with their hands in the soil tending to other kinds of growing things.

  --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
4755917
It is a unique experience to see how vets did things in a rural area in the 50's. The story lines were good and unique in themselves. It is a good learning series for people interested in animals.
1778558
I liked Sudden Fiction Continued because it kept my interest. The stories come in many varities, from death to helping others. There's a lesson to be learned from all of the stories. One of my favorites was Videotape by Don  Delillo, about a commercial on tv that shows a man driving down the road  and is all of a sudden shot in the head by the Texas Highway Killer, which  the author found to be alarming. I thought the author did a good job on  keeping me glued to reading on and finishing the story.  This book kind  of reminds me of Chicken Soup for the Soul, but the stories are a lot  shorter. Overall, it was touching, making you think twice about your  actions.
1880405
I downloaded this because I have poultry, turkeys, ducks and geese on my hobby farm. So I could relate to this story. I think it was well written and very funny...

 When you have animals they seem to take over your life in so many ways. The author described it oh so well with each addition to his farm....
1372647
The book Animal Farm by George Orwell was about communism and how it worked.  The author is definitely against communism because the book mocks it.  Animal Farm is a fictional book that describes the real world just by using animals.
 This book made me just think about all the countries that are for communism and I just feel bad for all the people who have to live like that.  I do not think communism is right and that people should be free and not have to be told what to do by a leader.  I also did enjoy the book but when the leader would start using fear to get the people to work it made me a little upset because I know that this stuff is happening in the real world.
 In Animal Farm, an old boar on the farm gathered all the animals in one room, while the farmer was sleeping, and told them that there was going to be a rebellion and the animals were going to take over the farm.  The animals motto was all animals are equal and shall never be or do anything like a human.  The old boar died and a couple days later the rebellion happened, the animals were fighting back against the farmer and ran him off the farm.  After this, they sang their song that the old boar taught them.  A few days later the farmer returned to try taking his farm back, but the animals were too strong and drove him off the farm again.
 One of the leaders wanted to build a windmill for electricity in the winter, but the other did not.  They could not agree on what they wanted and the one who did not want to build the windmill had a pack of dogs run the other leader of the farm.  Later the other leader ended up wanting to build the windmill and admitted that the other leader stole the plan from him.  They built the windmill and the farmer came and blew it up with a bunch of men.
 After two more years they finally had the windmill up and running but all the pigs, who were the leaders, had used the dogs to scare the animals into working or they would be killed.  And they had began walking like humans, sleeping in their beds, and sitting in chairs like humans too.  And lastly the leader wrote on the barn in big white painting All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.
 The character that I hated the most was Napoleon the leader of all the animals.  He would use fear to enslave the ones below him.  He didn't give all the animals a chance to be free.  My favorite character was Boxer because he was a hard worker and didn't care that Napoleon wasn't treating him right.  He would always just work hard anyway and would set a good example for all the other animals.
Animal Farm is written in a very friendly style.  The author was super suspicious of intellectuals.  In the book the pigs would be really shady.  He was particularly skeptical of sophisticated arguments and fancy writing, which he figured people could use to disguise really unsavory actions.
Orwell tells the story through a third person point of view.  The narrator is never involved in the action of the story, but seems to appear somewhere outside or above everything that is going on.  This point of view allows Orwell to see into the minds of the characters and understand their motivations.
I think overall the book is  worth the read.  The book is engaging and shows the failures of communism and humanism in general.  It showed how communism worked because the leader would use fear and hope to enslave the ones below him.
1299010
Contains many varied stories about dogs and their owners. I thought some stories were good and I care for some others. There were few touching ones. I read the other amazon reviews... particularly the ones from readers who didn't like the book. They think some of the stories were contrived and written to intentionally make you feel sad or cry. I can see how they would think this way. But if you're a big sap and you love your dog and enjoy dog stories, I think would you still like this book. I gave this a 3 stars but it's more like 3 and half, for me.
257398
If you are into animals, especially dogs, you will probably enjoy this book. It is a collection of stories about dogs and their owners. A few of the stories are interesting, inspiring, and worth reading. The rest are a little blah. I guess it depends on just how crazy you are about dogs.
4143496
Anyone who loves horses, or to hunt, or to fish should love these stories.
Told with humor and at times heart wrenching, they are a fun read.
1719249
It's like the stories of the Brothers Grimm but different. Could be fun told around the campfire in a dark woods.
2286697
(3.5 stars) This memoir details the major changes in Kristin Kimball's life from a writer in New York City to falling in love with a farmer and starting a farm in upstate New York after a brief dating/courtship. Her farmer deeply believes in the land and loves to cook. Kristin is charmed by his passion and begins to believe in his vision of a farm.  The two work the farm with a horse team, striving for a sustainable, organic farm. Their concept is to take CSA to a higher level by offering protein sources (meat, eggs, dairy) as well as fruits and vegetables. Anyone who has visions of farm life being easy will be dissuaded by the candid descriptions of the challenges of working with little funds, old equipment, and for Kristin, lack of experience. Kristin describes the harsh conditions they initially encounter, but also the kindness of friends and neighbors that help them get through some very tough times. The book includes some pictures and describes their wedding, and also includes some recipes.
1910705
This is an interesting book about animals and what they think, but it is full of stories about man's cruelty to these animals.  If you don't like reading sad books, I would avoid this one.
1910580
Great stories of the life of a vet and the animals and people he meets on a daily basis.  Funny, sad, intense, what life with farm animals and family pets is all about as seen through the eyes of a man who truly gets it.