Book Review: Driving Home Naked (and other misadventures of a country veterinarian)

Driving Home Naked (and other misadventures of a country veterinarian) by Melinda McCall* (She Writes Press, 2023, $17.95, 304 pages PB) Review by Skye Anderson 

Now that I have your attention. . . . !

If the cover illustration (with the requisite border collie as co-pilot) doesn't reel you in, the title will: Driving Home Naked. 

If you like to carry a book around with you as you go through your day and open it when you have a few empty minutes (rather than using your i-phone), this is the book for you, with short anecdotes of sometimes humorous situations and other times unbelievable situations. However, you might want to cover the cover, especially due to the title!

Divided into three sections, "Dressing the Part" (with 18 short chapters covering the years 1990-2007), "Peeling Off the Layers" (12 stories, 2008-2011) and "Wearing Many Hats" (25 situations, 2012-2021), Driving Home Naked covers the early years, mid-career and experienced experiences to date of a teacher of others in a female large-animal veterinary practice in Virginia. 

Who hasn't wanted to be a veterinarian? Not I! I still want to be one. And I can be - sort of - by reading books like Naked.

I hesitate to say this, but I especially liked the two stories about euthanasia, one being rather humorous. But I can't tell you my favorite story - McCall simply included too many. However, she will sell and sign her books at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival at the Howard County Fairgrounds on 4 and 5 May: I can't wait to chat with her!

The Author

McCall is truly living her dream and was driven to be a veterinarian from an early age, having been brought up on a dairy farm. You, too, can live your dream of being a veterinarian in Driving Home Naked without having to drive home naked yourself!

*Also author of Million Dollar Goat

Book Review: Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door (raising sheep, cooking lamb), Part 2: The Rest of the Story

Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door, by John & Sukey Jamison (Word Association Publishers, 2018, 187 pp, $35), Part 2: The Rest of the Story (reviewed by Emily Steele, cook, and Skye Anderson, non-cook)

A Memoir Spiced with Lamb Recipes

Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door has both word and pictures, plus recipes thrown in for good measure. Yesterday we focused on the words and today, on the recipes (and pictures) thanks to co-reviewer Emily Steele.

Lamb is not the most popular meat, perhaps because of its expense or the slightly gamey taste but it can be cooked with very few ingredients, allowing the flavor to star. And the Jamisons of western Pennsylvania have perfected raising sheep, pasture-fed, over the past 50 years. They were also the first to offer mail-order lamb and to sell to the best chefs: they even befriended Julia Child!

The recipes included in Coyotes are easily created by the average cook, given quality meat, like Lamb Leg Mini Roast, p 176.

We especially loved the idea of lamb spaghetti and lamb risotto and lamb stroganoff, along with lamb burgers and rack of lamb. And, of course, also included are three notes from Julia Child and a photo of her kitchen.

What We Might Suggest

Short chapters told perhaps chronologically, with 2-3 photos and a delicious recipe make Coyotes a fun book to keep - and to use!. A good idea, but perhaps difficult to carry out, would be to coordinate the chapters with the recipes and, of course, to caption the photos (but later, we found a list of the photos in the back of the book and even without that, it was fairly easy to discern who was in each photo from the accompanying story). The recipe photos were taken professionally while the family and farm photos vary in quality - but that is part of the charm of this book written so well by two English majors.

The Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

If you would like to meet John and Sukey Jamison, we invite you to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival where they will be selling and signing their book and giving a lecture/workshop. The Festival is always on the first full weekend in May, at the Howard County, MD, fairgrounds.

We can't wait to meet the Jamisons at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on May 4th and 5th this year. Won't you join us?

Book Review: Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door (raising sheep, cooking lamb), Part 1

Coyotes in the Pasture & Wolves at the Door, by John & Sukey Jamison (Word Association Publishers, 2018, 187 pp, $35), Part 1: The Words (reviewed by Skye Anderson)

I have been trying to figure out why I enjoyed this book so much since it contains 22 lamb recipes (with one fruit, one potato, and one cake recipe) and I do not cook. Is it because the authors, the Jamisons, live in the next state over and are about my age, having lived through the Hippie Generation? Is it because there are 22 short chapters (with an intro and epilogue)? Is it because the cover photo is so intriguing? Is it because the Jamisons, farmers in western Pennsylvania, are name-droppers with the likes of Julia Child (former spy), Anthony Bourdain, Jody Foster 

and several nationally known chefs?

Two Mortgages, Three Kids and No Job, But 200 Acres and 3,000 Sheep!

A wealthy cook and her husband start out to buy land and sheep to raise in the 1970s and end up selling to the great chefs of the world. The Jamisons manage to persevere amid the ups and downs of learning farming and became the nearly first mail-order lamb supplier to major restaurants in the country.

Sustainable Food, Humanely Raised Pasture-fed Sheep

Scrumptious photographs of the end-products of the recipes I will never make but will continue to drool over. I suppose I could attempt a couple since they seem easy, simple and I would start on recipes with the fewest number of ingredients like Loin Chops a la Grille on p. 112.

Writing Style, Book Organization and Suggestions

Authors John Jamison and his wife Sukey were English majors which may account for the readability of the short chapters, interspersed with humor and, even though the chapters are rather formulaic, they are still immensely enjoyable. Photos of the recipes are professional and the book is also dotted with family photos (and letters from Julia!), not captioned but easy to discern. The 'wolves at the door' expression refers to living on a shoestring in the early days but if you can explain the coyotes in the pasture, please let this reviewer know!

Stay tuned to more information about the recipes: my usual food reviewer lives across the country but I have found a local expert!

Oh, and two of the 'blog-chapters' also feature dogs, of course, like "Kate, the Wonder Dog"!

Book Review: Million Dollar Goat (children's book)

The Million Dollar Goat, by Melinda McCall* (Argyle Fox Publishing, 2023, $16.99 HB/$9.99 PB, 32 pp, ages 3-9)**

A Story of Two "Kids"

Can goats be adorable? In a word, "Yes!" And Ernie, a Nigerian dwarf goat, proves it with the help of illustrator Laraib Sukhera and writer-veterinarian Melinda McCall. But do goats eat money as depicted on the cute cover or do goats find money or do goats steal money or are goats worth a million dollars or what? Your own little kid will have some wild ideas before reading this book about another little kid (baby goat).

Based on a "true story," The Million Dollar Goat will soon become your child's favorite. Kids all over will be calling their dogs, "Million Dollar Dogs," when they go to the vet clinic to get spayed or neutered or maybe even when they get too close to a skunk and get 'skunked.' Or run into a door or play too rough or eat too much and have to go see their doctor, an animal doctor, a veterinarian.

Ernie starts out as a baby goat, a kid, who goes to the vet at three weeks old and meets Dr. Melinda for the first time - but not the last! Does that give you an idea for the million dollars? Do you wish you were Ernie's person, Sophie Jo - or not?

What's Next?

Perhaps a stuffie*** that looks like Ernie! A coloring book? 

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*The author will sign books (for Ernie, and tell his story) at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival on May 4 and 5, 2024.

**Reviewed by Skye Anderson

***stuffed aninal

Book Review: Nel and the Fling! (children's book)(OT)

Nel and the Fling! A Story about Responsibility, by Julie le Cornu (Brok Pty Ltd, 2019, $19.95 Australian, 30 pp HB) First in a series

Flings are adorable. Doesn't everyone want one? So, when Nel manages to catch one, she is elated until she finds out how much work it is to care for another being. Nel also finds out that not all animals or flings like living in captivity. Some shrink.

Quandry

Nel dearly loves her fling but, ah, the work involved and no matter what she does to help give her fling a happy, comfortable life, Nel just doesn't succeed. What to do is a lesson in responsibility. When Nel frees her fling, she also frees herself!

Reminiscent of This is The House that Jack Built, Nel & the Fling! will be a fun book for your child to learn as it repeats each paragraph.

Other books in the series include The Groobs and The Lady of Rara-Jou.

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Review by Skye Anderson

Book Review: The Groobs (children's book)(OT)

The Groobs: A Story about Many Things, by Julie le Cornu (Brok Pty Ltd, 2019, $19.95 Australian, 30 pp HB) 4th in a series

Groobs* are simply lovely creatures who come in shades of yellow and orange and tan and red until we see blue and brown and green and purple groobs - and more. But groobs obey their leader, the multi-colored groob, until he starts giving orders that destroy. The groobs sill obey - that is, until a brave little groob asks a question and changes their lives for the better.

"A story about many things" will challenge the reader to look carefully at each page to see whimsical items the author has stashed there, from a baby groob in mother's pouch like a kangaroo to standing on people's hands as they are shaking hands (both hands at the same time).

Other books in the series include The Lady of Rara-Jou and Nel and the Fling!

Review by Skye Anderson

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*Groobs look like colored snowmen but furry. You want to just hug them, antennas and all.

Book Review: The Lady of Rara-Jou (children's book)(OT)

The Lady of Rara-Jou: A Story about Giving, by Julie le Cornu (Brok Pty Ltd, 2019, $19.95 Australian, 30 pp HB) 6th in a series* 

A rhyming book with the final word of each line in color, The Lady of Rara-Jou** is an experience your child will have fun with, learning some Australian words and spellings to boot!

The lady of Rara-Jou has a hole in her heart that she tries to fill with things that belong to other people, things that the reader will love to point out and name, even the Teddy Bear with one leg.

How the lady learns that taking things from others will not make her happy in the long run is a story to remember.

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*Other books include The Groobs and Nel & the Fling!

**Rara-Jou is a solar system and the lady is blue in more ways than one

PS - giving is the opposite of taking

Review by Skye Anderson