After several tissues and my emotions under control, I sat down to write my review of The Lost Dogs: Michael Vick’s Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption, written by Sports Illustrated senior editor, Jim Gorant. The cruelty that these dogs endured was heartbreaking, but their will to survive was amazing. I have some knowledge of dog fighting and familiar with the Vick dogs–Cherry, Georgia, Meryl, Denzel, and Mel–after watching the Best Friend’s Dogtown episode that featured the Vick dogs (Best Friend’s Animal Society took the 22 dogs that had been categorized as the “most challenging” cases).
In the first chapter of At Home, Bill Bryson surveys his own home, an old Norfolk rectory, and considers the career of the young rector for whom it was built in 1851. Thomas JG Marsham would have enjoyed an income of around £500 – £400,000 today. He was, Bryson writes, one of "a class of well-educated, wealthy people who had immense amounts of time on their hands. In consequence, many of them began, quite spontaneously, to do remarkable things". He cites the examples of George Bayldon, whose services were so poorly attended he converted half his church into a hen-house, and Reverend George Garrett, who pioneered submarine design.