Book Review: Tim Rowland's Creature Features

Creature Features
by Tim Rowland
Publisher High Peaks Publishing, November 16, 2012
160 pages

Tim Rowland and his wife live on a small farm they have populated with over a dozen feathered and furred friends.  Dogs, cats, horses, cows, chickens, alpacas, goats, donkeys and geese.  This book is the second collection of columns he wrote depicting their antics.

From the episode of infidelity when one of the geese hooked up for awhile with the miniature pony to the wee-hour bottle feeding of baby goats, to the 'processed food' preference of Opie the Bouvier des Flandres, to the late night 'entertainment' provided by Juliet the tiny Siamese these little stories are packed with giggles and guffaws.

There's the horse spooked by strawberries, the bull dog with an itch just out of reach, the bull who does it backwards, the broody hens with torrid bums, the pig who moves house, the rooster who pretends to be a hen, the baby goat in a bucket of poo, and the cow-herding dog whose herded by the cow.  And many, many more.

Warning: not intended for reading in bed lest your sleeping partner mistake you for a dog who can't reach his itch.


From the Publishers:

When Tim Rowland's earlier book of his animal essays, All Pets are Off, was published, readers immediately clamored for more. Their preference for animal stories over the political columns Tim's also known for is understandable: animals are way more fun to read about than politicians. Especially now.

So here's a new volume of over 75 warm and funny essays, from the introduction to the farm of bovines Cleopatra and Heifertiti, the Belted Galloway beauties, to the further antics of Hannah the English Bulldog and Juliet the tiny Siamese, along with assorted donkeys, pigs, goats, horses, chickens, geese-and of course, more of the joyful bouvier des Flandres named Opie-that's sure to provide loads of smiles and even outright guffaws.

What they are saying:

Praise for All Pet's Off and Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War:

"Hilarious Look at Pets - I Guarantee You Will Laugh Out Loud.Tim Rowland is the columnist in our local paper and this book contains the columns he writes about his pets, including his newest dog Opie. Anyone who has had a cat, dog, alpaca, donkey, pig, horse, or who just loves animals will find this one of the funniest books written about animals. Rowland has a way of writing that hits home to any pet owner. The book is very easy to read with each "chapter" being a page or a page and a half. I took the book on a recent plane flight and I am sure the other passengers wondered what was going on as I could not help laughing out loud. I guarantee you will too!" CJS, Amazon.com Reviewer

" For some time I have been clipping columns written by Tim Rowland from the "Hagerstown Herald", where we read them, to send to a close friend in Washington, D.C. who also likes his sense of humor and choice of rustic farmhouse topics to liven up the day's news. This friend has been so taken with his writing that she forwards all the clippings to a relative in Texas who previously edited a small town paper and lived in a semi-rural suburban setting that sounds like Tim's, with lots of animals around. When I tried to "edit" my choices of which columns to clip, she protested that her relatives were so fond of them, I should collect absolutely all of them. I thought she'd be pleased with Tim's move "up" to writing a book of curious but true tales of this area in Civil War times. Since "Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War" probably is not on the New York Times bestseller list, I wasn't sure I would find it on Amazon.com but it was there and made a good Christmas gift buy for this buddy. It was an easy way to move through my shopping list. Once it was in my hands, I couldn't resist speed-reading it for myself before wrapping it up." B. Howard, Amazon.com Reviewer

Tim Rowland is an award-winning columnist at Herald-Mail Media in Hagerstown, Maryland. He has written for numerous history and outdoor magazines and news syndicates nationwide.

He has also authored several books, most recently Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War and including All Pets are Off: A Collection of Hairy Columns, Petrified Fact: Stories of Bizarre Behavior that Really Happened, Mostly, Earth to Hagerstown, High Peaks: A History of Hiking the Adirondacks from Noah to Neoprene and Maryland's Appalachian Highlands: Massacres, Moonshine & Mountaineering

Tim is also keeper and lackey for a wide assortment of mostly non-useful, freeloading critters, aided as always by his trusty (well, mostly trusty) companion Opie.

Tim Rowland's Website: http://www.timrowlandbooks.com

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