Olive, Mabel and Me

Olive, Mabel and Me: Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs by Andrew Cotter

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

I enjoyed this book but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping for. I came to it after watching the Olive and Mabel videos and was expecting more dog anecdotes. Although titled Olive, Mabel and Me, there was a bit too much ‘Me’ and not enough of Olive and Mabel. In fact, a substantial part of the book is a treatise on mountain climbing, something in which I have no interest so I found myself having to wade through Ben this and Ben that while wanting to read more about the dogs. Likewise, the author is a freelance sports broadcaster and frequently has to travel so some of the book read like a travelogue. Being more of a stay-at-home person unless there's an opportunity to go somewhere and fish, I wasn't too interested in flying or distant destinations.

There were some amusing parts but the book isn’t on par with the videos. There are some pretty good photographs and the dog anecdotes stand out so even though some of it is tedious I can recommend the book. After all, one of my friends has two labs and I figure anything with such dogs making even walk-on bits between the covers is worth reading.




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