All the experts agree that having a workout buddy is one of the best ways to stick to any fitness program. What better buddy can you ask for than the one who always wants to be with you, is raring to go whenever you yell “walkies!” and who will eat his organic veggies without any complaints (well ok, if they are in biscuit form)? Right off the bat this book states that getting fit is not about having a tiny waistline or big biceps, it’s about being able to ‘function at our full potential when we engage in physical activity’. This goes for your dog, too. Throughout, human and canines are compared in terms of obesity risks, fitness benefits, and it gives even gives point-by-point information on human and doggie nutrition, pacing for any age (of dog or human) and types of exercise you can do together – including some human activities that can be adapted for dogs, and vice versa – even in the pool. With lots of pictures and helpful side-hints, this fitness book describes how exercising with your dog can increase physical, mental and emotional health for the both of you. Don’t try this with the cat.
Click here to find this book in the Stratford Public Library's catalogue.

What’s summer without a large dish of, well, dish? And who can dish it out better than the self-professed “gayest man he knows”, Leslie Jordan? Leslie Jordan is probably best known as the campy “Beverly Leslie” from television’s Will & Grace, and claims to have fallen ‘right out of the womb to land smack dab in his mama’s high heels’. In his memoir Mr. Jordan reveals how he always knew he was ‘different’, but that his grandparents and mother never questioned him during his southern Baptist youth. He also paints a tender – yet brutal - picture of his time as a hospice volunteer with Linn House in West Hollywood at the height of the AIDS crisis and hysteria in the early 1990’s, and his commitment to the Trevor Project, a national GLTB helpline. There is plenty of upbeat celebrity chat about his times on-stage (like the time he was a Ferengi with a Tennessee accent on Star Trek) - and off-stage (like the time he shared a prison cell he with Robert Downey Jr. - which turned out to be a lot more poignant than it seems). Throughout the autobiography the elfin maven speaks frankly (and often graphically) about getting started in “the biz”, and his many uphill battles with drugs, sex-addiction and self-loathing. But although some of his stories are harrowing, Mr. Jordan never sounds self-deprecating; rather his anecdotes are full of self-awareness and even better, self-acceptance. The result is a very readable memoir with an atmosphere of gratitude and grace that is quite inspiring.
Click here to find this book in the Library catalogue.

For the avid Southwestern Ontario Gardener there is no better-known personality than Ed Lawrence, the gardening guru heard every week on CBC radio. Each week his noon-time call-in segment is flooded with calls about houseplants, fruit trees, garden and animal pests, organic veggie-growing, lawn woes and various other horticultural questions and dilemmas; his radio portion became so popular that CBC just recently expanded his time slot, but for those of us unluckily unable to get through on the phone or who can never find a pen quickly enough to jot down his advice, he has gathered 25 years of calls and questions into this handy answer book. The chapters correlate to months of the year, which is not particularly helpful for quick reference, so the detailed index at the back is excellent for pinpointing problems with pear propagation or for finding fixes for that failing ficus. Although it could use a few photos of the mites, moulds and blights that affect plants, this is a fantastic manual for gardens of any scale and gardeners with any shade of green thumb.

Click here to find this book in the library catalogue.

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