The Life of a Dog Told by the Dog

This is a Leonberger blog but sometimes I post about books that are not about Leonbergers but that are books that I want to promote. This is another one of those. I just read Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story (Kindle Edition), by Sally Cronin. It was a book that I loved and therefore I want to promote.

A photo of the front cover of the book Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story, Kindle Edition, by Sally Cronin. It is a Collie.
Sam, the adorable Collie. Click here or the picture to visit the Amazon.com page for the book.

This book is about a dog, a Collie named Sam who comes to live with David and Sally Cronin in Ireland. The story of Sam’s life is told through his voice by Sally. Due to the author’s skill and understanding of her dog this way of imaginary telling of a dog’s story works extremely well. It is plausible and beautiful. Click here to view my review on Amazon.

My Amazon Review of Sam, A Shaggy Dog Story

The Story of the Life of a Dog Told by the Dog

This is the story of the Collie Sam, told through the voice of Sam. His mistress Sally imagines what he must have been thinking as we follow him on all of his adventures, including his happy, sad and crazy moments, throughout his life. Sam has many dog and cat friends, and he understands cat language and so does his mistress. There was his friend Henry, the almost dead stray cat who found a home with Sam’s family. There was Danny the mischievous little dog who led Sam astray, the dangerous attack by the big vicious dog, the car rides, the beaches, and how Sam learned how to say a word in English, for real, and much more. It is the life of a dog, told by the dog himself, and it is a story well told.

Sam is also a very well-traveled dog and as you are reading the book you will learn something about traveling with dogs within the EU. You also learn something about the dog owner’s experience. I think the author is apt at figuring out how a dog must be feeling and what he might be thinking in different situations. She is well informed about dog behaviors and the reasons behind them. I’ve owned many wonderful dogs throughout my life, and I felt that the author was interpreting dog behavior and putting it into imagined dog feelings and thoughts in a very plausible manner.

I think this was a fun and interesting read. It was a real page turner, well it’s kindle, so location traverser, as you want to find out what is going to happen to Sam next. It is gripping and emotional in a good way. I think putting the story of Sam as if it is told by Sam is a clever and unique way of presenting the story of a dog’s life. I highly recommend this kindle book to all dog lovers.

About the Author

Sally Cronin is the author of sixteen books including her memoir Size Matters: Especially when you weigh 330lb first published in 2001. This has been followed by another fifteen books both fiction and non-fiction including multi-genre collections of short stories and poetry.

As an author she understands how important it is to have support in marketing books and offers a number of FREE promotional opportunities on her blog and across her social media. The Smorgasbord Bookshelf.

Leonberger Book Reviews Maybe

On Amazon my Leonberger book has 13 ratings including 11 reviews and on Goodreads I have four reviews and on Bookbub and Barnes & Noble none. All the reviews are wonderful and supportive five-star reviews. I am extremely grateful for this .💖

However, with this post I would like to shamelessly request additional reviews. The vast majority of readers do not write reviews. I know, I am the same way. It is hardly something you expect. But if anyone out there who has read my book and has not written a review somewhere, is willing to do just that, I would be very grateful. I would like to stress that the review certainly doesn’t have to be a four-star, or five-star review and they don’t need to be elaborate or wonderful or long. Short honest reviews between one-star and five-star would all be very helpful to me.

If you go to the Amazon page for my book and you scroll down until you see “Customer Reviews” on the left-hand side, there is a white button below “Customer Reviews” bars that says, “Write a customer review”. You can also get here by clicking on the small blue text near the top that says, “13 ratings”. Once you click on the “Write a customer review” button you will see four fields “Overall rating”, “Add a headline”, “Add a photo or video”, and “Add a written review”. “Add a photo or video” is optional, and I admit I have never used it. You can either type something in the “Add a written review” box or copy from, for example, Microsoft Word. Note that Amazon takes a few days to publish a review after it has been submitted.

It works similarly on Barnes & Noble but here you have a blue button towards the bottom on the left. On Bookbub there is a red button towards the bottom left and on Goodreads there is a black “write a review” button in the middle halfway down.

By clicking on any of the pictures below you can visit my book on Bookbub and Goodreads.

he image shows the Leonberger lying in the green grass. Click on the image to go to the Bookbub location for the book.
This is a photo of our late Leonberger Bronco lying in the grass in the front yard soon after a toe surgery. Click on the image to go to the Bookbub location for the book.
The image shows two photos. On the left is Leonberger puppy wearing scarf. On the right is an old Leonberger lying in the frass. Click on the image to go to the Goodreads location for the book.
This is a photo of our Leonberger Bronco at 3 months old (left) and at almost 13 years old (right). Click on the image to go to the Goodreads location for the book.

Other eBook Versions of my Leonberger Book Are Now Also 2.99

It took a while, but I was finally able to lower the price of my e-Book on IngramSpark to $2.99. It’s been $2.99 on Amazon for almost a week already. IngramSpark only update prices on Fridays, and I managed to lock myself out of my account. Fixing it turned out to be complicated.

For those who don’t know; IngramSpark is a competitor to Amazon which distributes to a whole range of bookstores, Barnes and Noble, Indigo in Canada, independent bookstores, libraries, and Apple devices. Unlike Amazon IngramSpark does not translate the dollar amount to other currencies for you so to make it simple for myself I made it 2.99 in all currencies.

Click here to visit the Nook version of my book on Barnes and Noble

The reason for the 2.99 promotion is that our late Leonberger Bronco was born on July 3rd 2007 and in his honor I launched my book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle” on July 3rd 2022, one year ago. I will do the $2.99 promotion until July 20th.

The image shows the front cover of my book "The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle". Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger. The cover is beige and brown and it has the face of an old Leonberger in the middle. Author is Thomas Wikman. Click on the image to go to the Nook (e-Book) version of my book on Barnes & Noble.
The front cover of my book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. Click on the image to go to the Nook (e-Book) version of my book on Barnes & Noble.
The image shows the back cover of my book "The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle". Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger. The cover is beige and brown and it has in image of a Leonberger in snow. Author is Thomas Wikman. Click on the image to go to the paperback version of my book on Barnes & Noble.
The back cover of my book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. Click on the image to go to the paperback version of my book on Barnes & Noble.
Endorsement by D'Nae Wilson, President, Leonberger Health Foundation International: "A wonderful tribute to the author's beloved Bronco. The stories are heartwarming as well as informative--a true glimpse into the life with a Leonberger". Endorsement by Julie Schaffert, LCA breeder since 1992: "A lovely tribute to Bronco, with lots of resources for general Leonberger Information"
These are the endorsements for the book. Click on the image to go to the Kindle version on Amazon.com.
The image shows the Leonberger lying in the green grass. Click on the image to go to the paperback version on Amazon.com.
This is a photo of our late Leonberger Bronco lying in the grass in the front yard soon after a toe surgery. Click on the image to go to the paperback version on Amazon.com.

Finally, if you would like to learn more about the Leonberger book I wrote click here or here. All royalties are donated to the Leonberger Health Foundation International.