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A review by jenbsbooks
Rescue Road: One Man, Thirty Thousand Dogs and a Million Miles on the Last Hope Highway by Peter Zheutlin
3.75
I picked up a paperback at a library sale, saw that it had high ratings and (with my non-fiction November goal in mind) figured I'd read it before adding it to my Little Free Library (original reason for the purchase). While I had the physical copy to flip through, I also grabbed it from my local library in audio and ebook (all formats have their advantages). I went primarily with audio, but there are some pictures in the text copies.
This was an inspiring and informative book, but also sad and a graphic in parts. 10 chapters, with an introduction and an epilogue. The presentation was a little odd ... all 1st person, but the tense would shift between present and past. The author would introduce a situation (past tense) and then suddenly shift to present tense, as he 'relives' and tells us/the reader. He refers to the book itself (back in chapter 5 during my trip, we'll rejoin that in chapter 9) ... it all rolled over me in audio, and following things was fine, all informational, the chronology isn't as important as for a story/fiction. Looking back over things in the text copies I noticed the tense change and scene shifts more pointedly. I like that there were chapter headings, but they didn't automatically trigger a memory of what was in those chapters (as sometimes can happen as I glance back over the Table of Contents of a book). Most non-fiction physical copies DO have a TOC, as does this (I think all physical books should have a TOC!)
Intro - about the author's experience adopting a dog, introduces this project and Greg
Chapter 1 - Dog's Best Friend; more on Greg, how he got started, his background
Chapter 2 - On the Road Again; 1st person/present tense, to pickup the dogs
Chapter 3 - All Aboard; Still present tense, introducing all the dogs/their history, the helpers
Chapter 4 - Saving Dogs; "so I went back to Louisiana a few weeks later to find out more about Keri Bullock Toth (although technically this is in the future/and the past, it's still present tense for most, except for a past tense portion about the author's own dog and addressing the "South" issue, also another day (back to present tense) with another helper, Sara Kelly, then CJ (past tense).
Chapter 5 - Lone Star State of Mind; "now that we've seen the world Keri and Sara operate in, let's rewind and rejoin Greg during my trip with him" ... that IS how the chapter starts. More on the trip, travel, dogs, etc.
Chapter 6 - Houston, You Have a Problem; another shift "It's been several weeks since my trip ... I've returned to Texas to learn more about Kathy, Tom ..." still told in present tense.
Chapter 7 - Hard Times; another shelter spotlight
Chapter 8 - Acadiana; another shelter spotlight
Chapter 9 - Long Day's Journey Into Night; Back to the travels on the road (picking up where chapter 5 left off).
Chapter 10 - Gotcha Day; as the header says
Epilogue - wrap up, followup on some of the dogs.
There were some footnotes in the next (at the bottom of the page in physical format, at the end of the chapter in ebook ... I think they just got skipped in audio?) Pictures don't translate to audio of course but while they were nice, I don't think they added anything essential.
Just a narration note ... the narrator pronounced "dearth" as "darth" ... I fell like that should have been caught and corrected.
This was an inspiring and informative book, but also sad and a graphic in parts. 10 chapters, with an introduction and an epilogue. The presentation was a little odd ... all 1st person, but the tense would shift between present and past. The author would introduce a situation (past tense) and then suddenly shift to present tense, as he 'relives' and tells us/the reader. He refers to the book itself (back in chapter 5 during my trip, we'll rejoin that in chapter 9) ... it all rolled over me in audio, and following things was fine, all informational, the chronology isn't as important as for a story/fiction. Looking back over things in the text copies I noticed the tense change and scene shifts more pointedly. I like that there were chapter headings, but they didn't automatically trigger a memory of what was in those chapters (as sometimes can happen as I glance back over the Table of Contents of a book). Most non-fiction physical copies DO have a TOC, as does this (I think all physical books should have a TOC!)
Intro - about the author's experience adopting a dog, introduces this project and Greg
Chapter 1 - Dog's Best Friend; more on Greg, how he got started, his background
Chapter 2 - On the Road Again; 1st person/present tense, to pickup the dogs
Chapter 3 - All Aboard; Still present tense, introducing all the dogs/their history, the helpers
Chapter 4 - Saving Dogs; "so I went back to Louisiana a few weeks later to find out more about Keri Bullock Toth (although technically this is in the future/and the past, it's still present tense for most, except for a past tense portion about the author's own dog and addressing the "South" issue, also another day (back to present tense) with another helper, Sara Kelly, then CJ (past tense).
Chapter 5 - Lone Star State of Mind; "now that we've seen the world Keri and Sara operate in, let's rewind and rejoin Greg during my trip with him" ... that IS how the chapter starts. More on the trip, travel, dogs, etc.
Chapter 6 - Houston, You Have a Problem; another shift "It's been several weeks since my trip ... I've returned to Texas to learn more about Kathy, Tom ..." still told in present tense.
Chapter 7 - Hard Times; another shelter spotlight
Chapter 8 - Acadiana; another shelter spotlight
Chapter 9 - Long Day's Journey Into Night; Back to the travels on the road (picking up where chapter 5 left off).
Chapter 10 - Gotcha Day; as the header says
Epilogue - wrap up, followup on some of the dogs.
There were some footnotes in the next (at the bottom of the page in physical format, at the end of the chapter in ebook ... I think they just got skipped in audio?) Pictures don't translate to audio of course but while they were nice, I don't think they added anything essential.
Just a narration note ... the narrator pronounced "dearth" as "darth" ... I fell like that should have been caught and corrected.