Stray

John Ridley, Stray Dogs (Ballantine, 1997)

Stray Dogs is the epitome of the needless book. There is nothing to be learned from it, no deep meaning involved, no moral to the story. A guy on his way to pay off some loansharks he's into has a breakdown on the outskirts of a very strange little town in Nevada. While waiting for his car to be repaired, he finds himself in a unique situation (for him, anyway): he meets a beautiful young woman, then meets her husband. Each wants to hire him to kill the other. Nothing much to it, really.

So why is Stray Dogs, then, such a fine piece of work? It is mostly because John Ridley knows how to keep the pages turning without ever dropping into genre fiction; there's no real genre this book would fit into anyway. It has elements of hardboiled detective fiction, a dash of the action thriller here and there, and it's loaded with the weirdness one expects from many "postmodern" European authors, but it never settles down. It just keeps moving along as fast as it can. As well, Ridley knows when to quit. Stray Dogs is a very short novel, and its brevity adds to the punch it packs. The ending may be a little too pat for some readers, but it does have a poetic justice-style twist to it that will allow the majority to at least get a cynical smile out of it. Good stuff. *** ½

Stray Dogs is a quick read with interesting characters and crisp, funny dialogue. Can't wait to see the movie

What a great book! It is a very funny, twisted, scary book to find yourself in it. Like the crazy people in the town said, "you should be more careful". This is the book that the characters will never be forgotton. I love the movie based on this book "U-Turn" which Oliver Stone made. All of Oliver Stone's films are about "American Society". In "Stray Dogs", American Society is living in one hot hell hole. A MUST READ!!!

Late one morning, Charlie Gamble, still in his prime, discovers a beautiful young woman asleep in her red Farrari at the marina where he lives in his boat. Curious as to her situation and smitten, he offers her the coffee and spare stateroom treatment and it pays off. That is, until the attempts on his life, and her dissappearance. Gamble begins playing detective and after she is seen with a homicidal maniac - aptly named Crazo - during a shooting, the chase heats up and leads to a sinister ex-lover - he had the black Farrari. The story leads gently into a mess as evil as one of Sanford's. Matheson creates an underworld-like world for Charlie Gamble who has met it on its own terms and is out to steer clear of it. The woman had told him he was wearing blinders - but that didn't really hurt racehorses, he thought.

Don Matheson's "Stray Cat", I discovered recently, is a fun and suspenseful book. The protagonist, Charlie Gamble, is a well-rounded and realistic character -- he is indeed quite the flawed hero in this story of love, murder, action, and mystery. I had this book sitting on a shelf in my house for years, and finally, out of boredom, I decided to read it one day. It took me a couple hours of reading to get into it, but once I was in, I was IN! You won't want to put it down. I'm currently reading the sequel, "Ninth Life", and I plan to write a review for that one as well just as soon as I'm finished. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes stories about ordinary people with extradinory adventures!

Don't let the cover throw you off, this book is great! The plot is fabulous because it is something we can all relate with. Like Katrina's problems at her old school, her struggle to fit in at her new school and what happens when she meets Amy. The decisions she has to make throughout the book, and the effects of these decisions are so real, you feel asthough you are Katrina, thinking about what to do. And all through the book she is trying to befriend a shy homeless kitten who needs her love more than anything. That is what really ties the book together. So, if you're looking for a good book, you just found it!

To anyone who ever loved a cat, especially a stray cat, this book will conjure up tears as the story of a little stray kitten with a lot of lessons to learn unfolds. Fortunately, someone cares and when all hope seems lost to the frightened, hungry, homeless creature, help arrives. This tender story would be perfect shared with a child with a newly adopted kitten or any cat-lover. The illustrations are not too frightening even for a young child while the words beg to be read aloud.

By TT reviewer Nicole La Folle

Sheridan Phillips is an aspiring author, who is working a dead end job as the administrative assistant of an engineering firm until her writing career takes off. After a terrible day at the office, a rainy commute home and a rejection letter for her latest submission, she hears a scratching at her fire escape window. She opens the window to find a huge black tomcat who casually invites himself inside. Sheridan shares her dinner with the cat and decides to let him stay the night. She names the cat Nick. The next morning she is disappointed when he asks to be let out after breakfast.

Nick is back that evening. Sheridan notices strange coincidences starting to occur. She needs food for Nick and finds a can of salmon she doesn't remember purchasing. She would like to have a fire, but doesn't have any firewood. The next evening, a neighbor shows up to give her the firewood he can't use. After a particularly long day at work where the boss has made her work until after 6, Sheridan ends up having to walk 9 blocks home in a snowstorm because of a traffic accident near her apartment. She winds up with a terrible cold. That night, she wishes that her boss would be in a car accident and off work for 6 months or so. After three days of recuperating, Sheridan returns to work to find out that her boss has been in a car accident, one caused by a large black cat.

Stray Thoughts is a wonderful story that combines the paranormal with a mystery or two. The romance is not as big a part of this book as the other elements, but it is definitely there as well. Ms. Stewart gives a realistic depiction of the life of an aspiring author. Her characters are realistic and lifelike and Sheridan's struggles will keep you emotionally involved from beginning to end. The story will catch you up and not let you go until you finish it. This book was the first I had read by Ms. Stewart, but it won't be the last.

As a teen living with women who love words, I get a lot of great gifts in the form of books. And I like Charles de Lint. EXCEPT when he is writing for or about us young 'uns. His teenage characters are bland, often stupid in their inexperience, and they talk like no real teenager I've ever met. Even the two Newford stories included in this volume, ostensibly written for adults, are just - boring, and unrealistic, and preachy.

It's apparrent - and de Lint says as much in his intro - that what we have here is a publisher (or perhaps an editor, Ms. Windling?) bent on wringing every last cent out of de Lint's fame, so they cobbled this thing together for the "youth market," knowing people like my loved ones would trustingly scoop it up to gift young fans. They got gulled. Don't let it happen to you!

An excellent collection with lots of varied stories. Too often, you buy a short story collection, and all of them seem to be the same story, just re-worked. Not this one! I especially loved "A Wish Called Arnold" -- a sweet twist on the classic "three wishes" tale. Personally, I don't like vampire stories, but even if you skip those, there are still enough interesting stories to get your money's worth. This is the second DeLint book I've read, and I can't wait to read more.

As a fan of Charles De Lint's other novels and short story collections (the ones meant for adults), I was very excited to get a hold of this one. As usual, his stories are wonderfully written and the book was several hours worth of bliss.

I have just one complaint. Two of the stories were Newford stories. Not a problem, I love Newford. But both of these stories are in other Newford story collections (ie, which I already owned.) This bugged me. I have no problem with the stories themselves, but I did feel a bit gypped, especially as these are two of the longer stories, and brought the book from 300ish pages to 400ish pages. The repetition is what earned it 4 stars, not 5.

Still a good read, but you should know what you're buying. I suppose if I'd bothered to look at the table of contents, I would have known, but some days I'm smarter than others.

It,s the first novel I read in english. Fortunately, it,s not so difficult. This is a story about a street cat which is called "Pufftail". Pufftail talked to his grandson about his adventure. It began from the moment when he was born. Pufftail stayed in several different kind of human families including a church, but he chose to live on the streets. Finally he found his true love and have his own kittens. Reading this book can make people think of the way they treat animals. Animals are the same with human beings, they also have emotion and thoughts. If we don't want to be treated badly, how could we do that to other animals. If you like cats, you will love them more after reading this book. If you don't like cats, I believe you will love them after reading this, just the same with me. :)

I first read this book in my early teens and loved it.
This book reminds me of Watership Down, in that it tells the story from cat's point of view, writing of his thoughts and adventures from a innocent kitten to a streetwise stray. Also as in Watership Down (and in real life), the humans are not all milk & yarn balls - be warned that some sections may be upsetting to younger children.
The style of writing is realistic and detailed - adults will likely enjoy this book just as much as teens!

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I read the sample pages. On page 6 of the book (sample page 7) the author writes: "The things you don't get from your spouse, whatever they may be, you have to find elsewhere. And this is not, and should not seem threatening."

The advice is to be realistic and not feel threatened; 'you don't own the other person', she states.

But if your partner decides to follow up on flirtations, she says on the same page, it means that something is 'missing' which is a 'problem' that should be 'adressed'.

While 'missing'something in the relationship wasn't at problem but something we should be realistic etc. about, it is all of a sudden a problem .
Dear writer, what about: "The things you don't get from your spouse, whatever they may be, you have to find elsewhere..?"

You're advising the reader to fix something while at the same saying 'relax, nothing is broken'.

I read Why Men Stray, Why Men stay without any preconceived ideas and got what I was looking for - good advice. Based on the author's extensive surveys and interviews, it is practical without a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo. If you are interested in attracting or keeping a mate, a must read.

This book is so helpful and concrete in the author's approach to the subject. She backs up her narrative with real life stories and research that she has done. The book is really a cut above the usual vague self-help relationship babble. I am impressed and recommend it without reservation.

Dr. Then's book is clearly that of a woman with a mission - to bash men at every opportunity and counsel women to treat every man with suspicion at all times. Throughout the book she goes to great lengths to detail how men's infidelity is psychologically devastating even to successful, well-adjusted women, while always addressing men's psychological issues in terms like "they are adults," with the not terribly hidden subtext "so deal with it, men." Her review of the recent scientific literature documenting the strong biological drive to non-fidelity evident in both genders is at best cursory and dismissive. Her dismissal of open marriages as "destructive" without a single citation, while incessantly belaboring the psychological damage done by the need to lie and conceal affairs is intellectually suspect at best. While decrying men's treatment of women as property, she vigorously advocates the reverse - that every spare moment of a man, not to mention every spare penny, *should* be spent with/on his wife, or something is wrong. What an incredible burden to impose on two human beings!

Unless you delight in the culture of female victimization and male demonization, long on unsupported opinion and short on balance, leave this book on the shelf.

Author Debbie Then admits that her "unscientific" research for this book consisted primarily of soliciting anecdotes from betrayed or cheating spouses. It seems safe to conclude that the vast majority of the responses she received were from women who had been betrayed by continually philandering and unrepentant husbands. The first part of this book relates how these women discovered their spouse's affairs, and how this discovery impacted their lives. There are a few stories from betrayed and philandering husbands or the "other woman" thrown in for supposed balance, but they appear simplified and edited so that they fit her premise. They hover around the edges of the narrative, and are never woven into her analysis in any significant way.

The womens' stories are searing and dramatic. They clearly demonstrate that the emotional devastation a husband's affair visits on his wife is far greater than most men can imagine, and that the wife's sense of anger and betrayal is profound and life altering. While many men would think that a long term, stable affair based on companionship and "safe sex" would be better tolerated by their wives than more tawdry "one night stands", it seems that exactly the opposite is true - the wives feel more threatened, damaged and demeaned by "love affairs" than by "sex affairs". So far, so good.

The problem is that Ms. Then seems to have identified so closely with these betrayed wives that she lost all sense of objectivity, and failed to even consider all sides of this very complex subject. Perhaps she knew this, but nonetheless consciously aimed for the sensationalistic and potentially best-selling jugular vein. In any event, her analysis is simple: All wives are depicted as blameless, sensitive, supportive and worthy spouses who had no responsibility for any problems in their marriage, be they emotional, sexual or otherwise. With very few exceptions, all men are portrayed as insensitive and unperceptive husbands, who have repeatedly betrayed, and stubbornly continue to betray their nearly perfect spouse for no valid reason. There is no effort made to analyze how genuine problems in the marriage may have contributed to the decision of the husband or wife to have an affair. There is never any valid reason for any husband to "stray" under any circumstances, period. In such a context, it is no wonder that Ms. Then offers a single and invariable solution: "Your husband will continue to cheat on you forever; he cannot change and doesn't really want to, so dump him now and save yourself the grief of pointless efforts to salvage your marriage. You did everything right, and he did everything wrong, so get rid of him." While this may indeed be true in some cases, I suspect things are rarely that black and white.

Ms. Then admits only tangentially that there are different kinds of affairs, ranging from one-night stands to those lasting for decades, and never really acknowledges that a marriage in which one spouse has in the past had one affair based partly on heartfelt frustrations with the other spouse may in fact be well worth saving. Tellingly, women who "stray" are usually depicted as victims of an insentive and abusive husband, who reasonably seek solace, comfort and respect from a lover. But their marriages are similarly doomed for a different reason: the emotional failings or abuse of their husbands.

Perhaps it was not possible to give more complete and fairer coverage of this topic without the book become unwieldy or too academic. However, I suspect the sad truth is that this book precisely hit the marketing target at which it was aimed, and has driven many women with basically good spouses and valuable marriages to throw them both away in a fit of hopeless and perhaps unjustified pessimism. Take care lest this happen to you; there are other books out there that may help you, and maybe your marriage isn't really worth saving. But this book could do you unnecessary and irreparable harm. If you read it, do so with caution and a healthy dose of skepticism.

I did expect more from this book: their was good insight on why men cheat, why their wives stay and what possesses single women to allow themselves to get involved in these liaisons--but it was nothing that I had not already read somewhere else. What the author does is to encourage the wives to really take a good look at why they stay, and that unless your spouse works really hard with you to change the behavior, staying with the strayer is inevitably self-destructive. The one truth I found is that while infidelity need not be the end of your marriage and you may forgive, one does not forget and it does change your relationship forever.

I bought this stinker solely because Rebecca Staab stars in it; but even this unheralded actress's presence isn't enough to raise it to mediocrity. The problems are numerous: It's supposed to take place in Maine (I think, maybe it's Canada, who knows?) but most of the characters speak with Irish accents, there are Norman castles, an Aer Lingus puddle jumper, and the police are wearing foreign looking uniforms. Sure enough, it was filmed entirely in Ireland. Fred Dryer is given lead billing yet is on screen for all of 2-3 minutes. The character played by Robert Carradine is supposed to be a lawyer, yet acts like someone who'd have trouble making it to a soup line. Not that Carradine's a bad actor, it's just that his part was written so stupidly. Staab plays a convincing femme fatale who seduces Carradine into being her patsy. Or is she the one being set up? We must suffer through to the end, and the obligatory Corman grand massacre, to learn the answer to that one. Surprisingly, the film was quite credibly acted, but good acting can not compensate for poor writing...and a bewildering plot. One could go on a long time faulting this film but time is money; and except for finally seeing Staab in a starring role, I wish I could get back the 86 minutes I wasted on Stray Bullet.