Show Me 5 Saturday: Marley & Me by John Grogan

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1 Book you read and/or reviewed this week: Marley & Me by John Grogan

2 Words that describe the book: Dog love

3 Settings where it took place or characters you met: 1. Setting: Early 1990s-2000s, Florida and Pennsylvania 2. Marley—a male Labrador retriever affectionately called "the world's worst dog" due to his penchant for eating everything and anything, his unbridled enthusiasm and appetite for life, his inability to be trained, his pathological fear of thunderstorms. 3. John and Jenny Grogan—a young married couple who adopt Marley in the first years of their marriage and grow alongside Marley as dog owners and parents of three children

4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it: 1. I liked the author's obvious affection for Marley and his ability to bring Marley to life. 2. I liked the lessons that the author learns from Marley about living life and loving fully. 3. I liked being reminded of how wonderful (and exasperating) dogs can be and what a valuable place they have in a family. 4. I liked how the author kept the book firmly on Marley and his misadventures but still wove in details about his marriage and family life. 5. I liked the photos that were included in the book and the afterward included by the author.

5 Stars or less for your rating? I gave the book 3.5 stars. It was a wonderful, easy read and I would recommend it to almost anyone but it wasn't a book that rocked my world forever. A perfectly enjoyable read but nothing more. (Nor do I think it was meant to be any more than that.)

Why and Where I Got The Book

I read this book as part of my own Take A Chance Challenge. This was the book I read for the Public Spying part of the challenge. This part of the challenge asks you to:

Find someone who is reading a book in public. Find out what book they are reading and then read the same book. Write about it.

I saw another mom reading this book at my son's karate class so I read it too. (I later confessed to her that I used her for this part of the challenge after we became friendly. Plus I thought she might think it strange that she read a book and then I show up with the same book right after her!) I got my copy of the book from Paperback Swap.

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