American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee

3.5 stars
I’ve always been a wolf fan. They are majestic animals and not just because I love reading the porny books featuring wolf shifters.

Back in the day my now ex-husband and I heard about a man that bred hybrid wolves. We were interested and that’s way before any legal aspects were really talked about. (I know..I’m old as crap.)
We visited the man and we immediately fell in love with one of the pups. He was a shy little guy but the owner would not just let us take him. We had to meet with him several times before we could take the animal. I never really knew the animals wolf percentage but at the time I was young and stupid enough to think it would all be okay. I know his mom was an Alaskan Malamute but I knew that there was definitely wolf blood in the pup.
We named him Diablo and he really did become a member of our family.

(My kids face is blurred on purpose even though this pic is over 20 years old…because trolls) Diablo was a pup in this photo.

Now I’m going to admit. I loved that animal. He was extremely protective of my family. Would I do it again? Not on your life. Now as I’m older I know that wild animals should be wild and not bred with domestic animals. I love and appreciate them but we went through hell with him just being a mixed breed. Not because of the animal. My neighbors hated him. Not dislike. HATE. If he left our property (as animals will tend to do) people freaked out. Diablo was shot by my neighbor while he was standing in my yard. While we were outside with him. Was he doing anything? No, that didn’t matter though. He was hit by a car once..on purpose. We went to court about him twice. Finally he was found poisoned when we returned home one day. I still miss him.

If he had been an alpha male we probably would have had some trouble. I know this so don’t troll me and tell me how stupid we were. Like you’ve never been stupid.

Anyways, this book tells about wolves being reintroduced into Yellowstone Park. It does try and tell both sides of the story. From the hunter/farmer side to the wolf enthusiast. It is obvious that the author is pro-wolf though. As am I.
He follows the story of one of the most famous wolves called O-six. She is an alpha female and it follows her from the time she meets her mate until she is killed.

I’m not going to describe her life because I think you should read this book. I do know that it sucks that wolves have such short life spans. Not just because natural events happen that lessons their chances of survival, but that people hate what they really don’t understand or can control.

I will admit that when this wolf dies in the book I spent a good thirty minutes crying…and I hardly ever cry. I felt gut punched when I read that her mate cried over her body.
Stop this stupid, people. Go read up on all the good things that happen when you have natural predators in an ecosystem.

Booksource: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for review.

Grand Central Market Cookbook by Adele Yellin and Kevin West

This book just made me mad that I don’t live near Grand Central Market. It gives the background of the market and then the bestest part ever happens. You get some of the recipes.

That has got to be the best name for a recipe ever! I want to make it just so I can say I’m serving you some Egg Slut and you best eat it. But I know these male people that live in my house are weird about eggs being burnt to death and they would never even get it near their lips. The more I look at it though the more I want it. Pureed potatoes with a poached egg on top..yum.
Don’t knock it. I never imagined that I would ever go for an egg that wasn’t completely what I’d call done either until a week or so ago, the chef that I work with made a kale Caesar salad that had a poached egg on top of it with a brioche crouton comes to see me in my dreams now. It’s better than porn.

I was actually going to cook some of these recipes before I posted the review but I had already gone to the grocery store and there is no way in heck I’m venturing that twice so soon. #ain’thappening

There are several of these recipes that are on the flying monkey house menu in the next week or so though…because

Even my crappy photo skills can’t mess up how good all that looks.

I LOVE this book, it has so many things that I now must eat and since I’m too poor to get on the plane every day for Los Angeles I’ll have to give up and cook them myself.

Booksource: I received a copy of the book in exchange for review from the publisher.