Customer Reviews

Adventures of an Animal Control Lady

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I agree with M. M. Magliaro that this self-published book has tons of distracting misspellings, punctuation errors, grammar mistakes, malapropisms, and editing problems. When I came across a word that didn't make sense within the context of the sentence, I made it a game to try and figure out which word the author actually had intended to use!

However, looking past the errors, I found Bowerman's book to be really charming and funny. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and an extremely positive outlook on life. Bowerman is clearly a "salt-of-the-earth" kind of person, with a good and loving heart. The stories she has to share with the reader are informative, entertaining, and act as small windows into animal and human nature. Her "adventures", struggles, and joys experienced on the job also illustrate her growth as a person and as a city employee.

What is especially interesting to me is the fact that Bowerman created an animal control department from scratch, despite a heck of a lot of opposition and interference from others. It's amazing that she never gives up! Bowerman uses common sense in her work and an instinctive understanding of animal (and human!) behavior. She acknowledges when she makes errors in judgement, and she clearly learns from them, becoming a better animal control officer as the years go by.

The author's simple black & white drawings that accompany the text are charming, as well.

I would recommend this book, but only if one is willing to excuse and overlook the book's need for a proofreader and editor!

This is a wonderful book. Down to earth and heart warming.
A must read for any one who loves animals.

This book was the best book I have read in years. I could not put it down

At first, it appears that this little book would be a nice collection of personal accounts of an "animal control lady" as the title implies. And it tries to be just that.

However, be aware that this book is self-published. The grammar and spelling mistakes are so bad that they actually make the book a chore to read. I am making no exaggeration here. It is almost impossible to find 3 sentences in a row anywhere in the book without a serious misspelling or completely garbled assemblage of words.

We are not talking petty grammar "fine points" here. I am talking about bunches of words that are almost unconnected.

This makes it very hard to even understand what the writer is trying to say.

In fact, the writing is so bad that it is, frankly, comical.

As for the stories themselves, they are bland, rambling streams of thought with little to hold the reader's interest. A typical story kind of bumps along and then spontaneously ends with no point, no conclusion, and honestly, nothing to remember.

The way the book reads, it looks like these stories were originally quick notes jotted in a personal journal in a rush while handling animal control cases. That may well be. It was a really nice idea.

But honestly, the whole book needs a complete rewrite to turn it into actual prose, and to pare down the 562 pages to about 100 that actually contain interesting material.

This is a heart waming book.
A must read for all animal lovers.
A true to life story.