Book ~ "Another Good Dog: One Family and Fifty Foster Dogs" (2018) Cara Sue Achterberg

From Goodreads ~ When Cara felt her teenaged children slipping away and saw an empty nest on the horizon, she decided the best way to fill that void was with dogs - lots of them - and so her foster journey began.

In 2015, her Pennsylvania farm became a haven for Operation Paws for Homes. There were the nine puppies at once, which arrived with less than a day’s notice; a heartworm positive dog; a deeply traumatized stray pup from Iraq; and countless others who just needed a gentle touch and a warm place to sleep. Operation Paws for Homes rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in the rural south and shuttles them north to foster homes like Cara’s on the way to their forever homes.

What started as a search for a good dog, led to an epiphany that there wasn’t just one that could fill the hole left in her heart from her children gaining independence - she could save dozens along the way. The stories of these remarkable dogs - including an eighty-pound bloodhound who sang arias for the neighbors - and the joy they bring to Cara and her family (along with a few chewed sofa cushions) fill the pages of this touching and inspiring new book that reveals the wonderful rewards of fostering.

When asked how she can possibly say goodbye to that many loveable pups, Cara says, “If I don’t give this one away, I can’t possibly save another.” Filled with humanity and hope, "Another Good Dog" will take the reader on a journey of smiles, laughs, and tears - and lead us to wonder how many other good dogs are out there and what we can do to help.

I love reading books about animals ... and how could I resist the picture of the dog on the cover!

This is story of Cara ... a married mom of three children, who is an author (I read and enjoyed her first book, I'm Not Her).  In 2015, her dog, Lucy, had passed away and she wanted to get another dog.  Rather than adopting another one right away, she decided to foster dogs for Operation Paws for Homes, figuring when the right one came along, she would become a "foster fail" and keep that dog. 

This is her story of fostering 50 dogs (she has since fostered over 100 dogs) ... the foster times ranged from twenty-four hours to months, puppies (at one point she had 12 new-born puppies and their mother plus other fosters) and older dogs.  She keeps a blog of the dogs she fosters.  At the end of the book, there are full-colour pictures of the dogs she had fostered (it was great to be able to put a face to a dog as I was reading about).  Also there are reasons to foster dogs and reasons why people don't.

I enjoyed this book and enjoyed the writing style.  The passion for ensuring rescue dogs find homes rather than be euthanized definitely came through.  She never hesitated to jump in and do what she could and she had quite the variety of dogs coming into her home.

I am a volunteer with a local cat rescue.  I would love to foster cats but (1) we have two of our own (our tabico can be a bit bitchy) and (2) I would have a hard time saying good-bye to my fosters (I have friends who were foster fails).  So as a social media volunteer, I can use my skills and interests and I'm still helping to find homes for rescue cats and kitties.  It was interesting to read how hard it was for Cara and her family to say good-bye to some of the dogs ... some of the dogs they would have loved to have kept but they were happy that they did find their forever homes.  She knew that if she kept a dog, she wouldn't be able to save the next one.

The author is donating some of the proceeds from this book to Operation Paws for Homes.

Book ~ "I'm Not Her" (2015) Cara Sue Achterberg

From Goodreads ~ It was a Tuesday like any other. And then it wasn't. A simple encounter at a supermarket changed Carin Fletcher's and Leann Cane's lives - literally. Suddenly Carin, a pretty, self-absorbed, underemployed college graduate, finds herself living as Leann, an uneducated, perennially poor, obese checkout clerk, and vice versa.

Carin is at first horrified: she’s enormous, she can barely make ends meet, her husband is an abusive loser and she's saddled with the kid Leann had when she was a teenager. Meanwhile, Leann is initially thrilled: she's escaped destitution, she looks like a model and people treat her completely differently.

But as the days pass, it becomes clear that life isn't clear-cut for either woman. Carin finds herself attaching to Trevor, Leann's precocious son, and developing feelings for Jimmy, a fellow employee who treats her with the respect few others bother to give her because of her appearance. At the same time, Leann is living a life she's always wanted in a body she's always dreamed about, but that doesn't mean that all of her problems have gone away ... and a new one is emerging with Carin's sometimes-boyfriend.

Both women are facing unknowable futures that neither could have imagined. Are they destined to live this way forever? And if so, where will it all lead?

Carin and Leann are both in their early twenties but their lives are totally different.  Carin was raised as an only child of older rich parents.  She is pretty and thin and, along with her friends, makes fun of people who aren't perfect like they are.  Scott is her friend who is more than a friend at times.  Carin works for an insurance company in a job that isn't too demanding of her.  She doesn't lack anything ... for example, she has 50 shades of lipstick lined up on her dresser.

Leann is poor, lives in a dump of an apartment and works as a cashier in a grocery store.  She is abrasive and uneducated.  Seven years ago she got pregnant when she was 16 with Trevor and her mother made Leroy do the right thing and marry her.  Leroy is a truck driver who is only home on the weekends.  He loves nothing better than to drink, do drugs, belittle Leann by calling her stupid and fat (Leann is almost 400 pounds) and push her around.

There is an accident at the grocery store while Leann was working and Carin was shopping.  The next thing they knew, Carin and Leann had switched bodies and were living each other's lives.  Carin now lives in the kind of body she had mocked in the past.  She has nowhere to go, no money to go anywhere and no one will believe that's she's really Carin, not Leann.  Not knowing how to switch back or why it happened in the first place,  Carin must now live Leann's life, dealing with things she's never had to deal with before.

You would think that Leann has the easier life now living in Carin's nice apartment and spending Carin's money.   She doesn't know how to act in this new way of life, though, plus she misses Trevor.

What an intriguing storyline!  I enjoyed the writing style and the story.  It is written in first perspective perspective from both Carin and Leann's point of view, though there is more focus on Carin.  It's clear whose voice it is.   I think the author did an excellent job writing the dialogue to distinguish Carin and Leann.  Though Leann has Carin's body, it's definitely Leann's uneducated mouth that we hear.  It was interesting to read Carin's reactions as she has to learn how to maneuver Leann's obese body (even getting in and out of bed is a struggle) in addition to the reactions of others to her appearance (those same ones she had exhibited in the not too distant past).  As a head's up, there is swearing and violence.

I look forward to reading other books by the author.