2 book reviews.

 So, having finished Gold and Cattle Country, and The Accidental Demon Slayer... Guess I should review them.

The Gold and Cattle Country book, it is about a gent that grew up in John Day, Oregon. He wrote it in 1961, and tells of his personal history as a kid, and a cattle rancher, and the area where he lived. He described things from the literal horse and buggy era, to when trains came in, to when trucks became the common transportation. 

A lot of the history is fascinating, what jobs were like, what people did at the ranch, and nearby. He didn't do gold mining himself, that I read, but talks a fair bit about some of the miners, and the methods they used. 

While that was great, I sort of went cold with some of the things he described, quite frankly, he sounded... 

Okay, one of the stories from when he was ten. 

He had a dog that rounded up cattle by biting and hanging onto their tails, to get them herded. Well, during this time, men from China were in the area working, and wore the long braid down the back. He would sic his dog on them walking by, the dog would hang onto the braid, pulling the man over backwards. He seemed to think this was funny.

Ha. 

Not... 

There was other bits I won't bother with, but it very much made me feel less happy about the book, and the man. 

He also could have taken 2 or 3 chapters off the end, 2 were just political diatribes. It was some in relation to cattle ranching, and property ownership, among other things, so I suppose it related, but really took away from the rest, at least to me. The last chapter was letters from all his friends saying how wonderful it was that he'd written a book. That said, a relative of mine was one of the letter writers, but it gave me the impression of either an ad (buy my book, but- I just read it!), or a vanity press style book. 

So, it's a Very Good for the history, but I would knock it down to fair to good, with all the other "stuff".

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The Accidental Demon Slayer was a freebie I picked up for my ebook collection to see if I wanted to read the series. 

A kindergarten teacher meets her Grandma, who turns out to be a member of a group of biker gals who are a witch coven, who need to find her on her 30th birthday, when her demon fighting powers bloom. 

Which she finds out about when a demon shows up in her bathroom... 

It was a quick read. Turns out to be a hybrid novel, adventure/romance. I am biased, don't care for romance novels. And the guy. 

Oh, that character was as flat as a crepe'. Even with the special magic he was imbued with, and the problems he had to solve (with her help)... I just did not care about him. The various women characters were at turns, hilarious, daring, infuriating, and silly. Not sure if the talking dog was a boy or a girl, but I even got more emotionally involved in it than her lover!

I'd like to think I'm not a total prude, but I like sex to be implied in a story, they kiss, they leave the room, come back with rumpled clothes and grins, something like that. 

This book was all but a how-to manual for several pages. I skimmed. Nipple, nipple, member, nipple, back, butt, nipple, member, oh, look, something related to the plot, aaand nipple again... 

Oi... 

In short, if you like female oriented adventure stories, and romance novels, this is the book for you. It was not however, the book for me. I will call it Good. 

I adored several of the characters, but I don't think I will be getting the rest of the series. I just really couldn't get into enough of the plot and that flat, flat guy for it to be worth it to me... Meh. 

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I have my next book, Ruth Stout No Work Garden Book. It was recommended by the instructor of the class I took, and I managed to find a copy, (it's out of print, copyright 1971). 

See what this one is like!