Today my book is being featured on Sally Cronin’s prominent Smorgasbord book promotion blog
Tag: Löwenhöhle
Leonberger In Online Preston Hollow Peoples Magazine
Three weeks ago, I made a post about our late Leonberger Bronco (and my book) being featured in a local Dallas magazine called the Preston Hollow Peoples Magazine. This magazine has 47,000 subscribers. In that post I posted screenshots of the printed version. Today they posted the free online version of the magazine. Click here to see the article about Bronco, my book and me. Click here to see the front page of the online version of Preston Hollow Peoples Magazine. The headline of my article can be found on the front page.
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.
The King of Texas is Cute
Recent dialogues at the Wikman residence concerning our mini-Australian Shepherd Rollo.
Rollo loves belly rubs.
Rollo: laying down on his side, opening his legs a bit and barking once. That’s how he asks for a belly rub.
Thomas: Honey, can you give Rollo a belly rub? I’ve done it several times today.
Claudia: No, I am cooking. You do it.
Thomas: I walk over to Rollo to give him a belly rub. He loves it, turns over and kicks his legs, and he looks like he is laughing like a child being tickled. Then I stopped.
Rollo: One loud bark. That means he wants more.
Thomas: continues giving a belly rub.
Rollo wants to sit where you are sitting.
Rollo: I am sitting on the sofa and Rollo comes over and taps me twice on my knee. That’s the command Rollo gives when he wants to sit where you are sitting.
Thomas: I move over.
Rollo: jumps up and sits where I sat.
Claudia: Thomas do you remember the trainer who said that Rollo thinks he is in charge and that we need to fix that?
Thomas: Yes, but he is so cute.
Rollo wants to sleep on the bed but not alone.
Rollo: I am sitting on the sofa and Rollo comes over and scratches me on my knee while leaning backwards as if he wants to leave. That’s the command Rollo gives when he wants to go to bed but he does not want to go alone.
Thomas: Honey can you go lay down in the bed with Rollo. I am busy reading.
Claudia: No, I am not doing that anymore.
Thomas: stands up and follows Rollo into the bedroom and lays down on the bed as Rollo jumps up on the bed.
Claudia: Thomas you should not be doing that either. Remember, it is not good that Rollo thinks he is in charge.
Rollo: falls asleep while Thomas reads a book on the bed.
Rollo and Bronco
Rollo and Bronco (our Leonberger) were best buddies. We no longer have Bronco, but we have Rollo who is the worst behaved dog we’ve ever had. It already started while we were still having Bronco. Rollo walked all over Bronco, like he did with people. If a few people were sitting on the sofa, Rollo would just walk from one end of the sofa to the other, stepping on everyone’s legs or bellies in the process. He still does that. He frequently bit Bronco’s tail and even swung in it as if it was a swing. Bronco was extremely patient and did not get angry, except one time when Rollo stole his toy. Bronco’s loud booming bark scared Rollo and he let go of the toy. However, to be on the safe side we put Rollo in a playpen, or baby jail, as we called it. Rollo came to love his baby jail.
Rollo’s other commands and peculiarities.
Rollo scratches doors he thinks should be open, which is basically every door, and if no one comes to open the door, then he barks. When he wants to play with a toy, he barks at the toy box with one loud bark until I give him the toy he wants. He barks at balls that roll in under sofas and beds and expects someone to get them for him. Rollo loves balls. I should say, naturally, we have commands for him as well, such as sit, stay, come, and shake, and he obeys them most of the time. But he has commands for us too. He sleeps in our bed, typically in the middle, surrounded by his subjects, me, Claudia and Daisy.
The greatest quality that someone could have.
What is the greatest quality someone could have? Is it intelligence? Is it knowledge? Is it wisdom? Is it charm? Is it beauty? Is it courage? Is it strength of character? Is it work ethics? Is it honesty? Is it integrity? No, it is none of that. The most important thing in the world is that you are cute. That is why Rollo is the King of the House, in fact the King of Texas. But seriously, Rollo is spoiled, he sleeps in our bed, he does not like other dogs (except Daisy), and this is our fault. Before we can get another Leonberger we must work on certain bad habits. However, his cuteness and his innocence make this harder.
The Well-Being and Happiness of Your Leonberger
I recently finished reading “Leonberger: Dog breed overview and guide Paperback – July 8, 2023”, by Nina Pultova. I bought the paperback version from Amazon, and it is 94 pages. It currently costs $9.99. There is also a kindle version, 74 pages, that costs $2.99 but if you have Kindle Unlimited it is free. The dimensions of the paperback are 6 x 0.22 x 9 inches, and the weight is 5 ounces, ISBN 979-8851501135.
Briefly, the book had some strongpoints but also some significant weaknesses. The author has written 192 dog breed books in a fairly short time. Impressive but that might explain why it was felt so generic. It was obvious that she did not have much experience with Leonbergers. I gave the book three stars. Below is my review of Leonberger by Nina Pultova. Click here to see the original review on Amazon.
The Well-Being and Happiness of Your Leonberger
The author, Nina Pustova, is a Ukrainian veterinarian who without question has a lot of knowledge of dogs. She is undoubtedly doing wonderful work for dogs in Ukraine under some very difficult circumstances. In this book she gives great advice on caring for and training dogs and the book has a positive and warm feel. It is well edited with respect to the English. I did not see any typos. The book is in black and white and contains no photos except for the beautiful Leonberger photo on the front cover. Nina Pustova has written 192 books on different dog breeds, which is quite an accomplishment.
Unfortunately, the information she presents in the book is pretty generic. Any book on a specific dog breed is bound to contain a fair amount of information that applies to dogs in general. However, if you are looking for in-depth Leonberger specific information this book does not provide much of that kind of information, even though there is some. It seems to me that the author does not have a lot of personal experience with Leonbergers. The book did not contain a lot of incorrect information, but I noticed a couple of noticeable errors. The author claims that a distinctive feature of Leonbergers is their double dewclaws on the hind legs. I think she is referring to Great Pyrenees here, not Leonbergers. She also states that they may have a black mask on their face. Well, that is a breed standard requirement, not just a “may”. They all have black masks.
I also found the “Myths and Misconceptions Debunked” chapter at the end of the book a bit peculiar. As an example, the first myth she is debunking is “Leonbergers are aggressive and dangerous”. Leonbergers are in general certainly not aggressive and dangerous, but no one thinks so either. It’s like debunking the myth that “Chihuahuas are large dogs” or “Canadians are impolite”. People don’t think so in the first place. The same applies to all her alleged myths. There are, however, real Leonberger myths. For example, one myth is that Heinrich Essig, the founder of the Leonberger was the mayor of the town of Leonberg. This is stated in a lot of Leonberger books and websites including Wikipedia, even though it is false information.
The biggest issue for me was the layout of the book. First there was a lot of repetition of information as well as overuse of certain words and phrases such as “…well-being and happiness of your Leonberger”. Secondly, the layout / book design made the book feel like a long list. Each page had a few subtitles on gray background followed by one paragraph written as a command or a fact, and this pattern was repeated throughout the book. Every now and then the subtitle would be at the bottom of a page and the associated paragraph at the top of the next page, which doesn’t look nice. I think this list pattern would work in a blog post but not in a book.
So, this book has some great strengths but also many weaknesses and therefore I am rating it three stars.
Reviewing The Climate Casino by William D. Nordhaus
Normally the focus of my blog is on Leonbergers, especially our late Leonberger Bronco, but sometimes I present a good book which I want to promote. Today I would like to present and review The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics for a Warming World, Hardcover – October 22, 2013 and paperback– February 24, 2015 by William D. Nordhaus. The hardcover version has the dimensions 6.13 x 1.06 x 9.25 inches and the weight 1.54 pounds and currently cost $13.41 on Amazon.
Nordhaus received the Nobel prize in economics 2018 “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis” (Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences). Nordhaus is one of the most prominent economists in the world and without doubt a genius. He is worth listening to.
Before I present my Amazon review, I would like to point out that this book is very important for a few reasons.
- Nordhaus has been referenced, for example, in articles in the Wall Street Journal as someone who claims that climate change / global warming is costlier to mitigate than to allow to happen and that it might even be beneficial. He vehemently denies that he ever said something along these lines, and it is important to understand how this misunderstanding came to be.
- Nordhaus believes that climate change / global warming is happening, that it is dangerous, costly and that we humans are the cause of it.
- When calculating the potential cost of climate change Nordhaus does not take into account things like the extinction of species, not because it doesn’t matter, but because it is so difficult to put an economic value on it. Therefore, his calculations should be viewed as a baseline, a minimum to consider. If death is free of charge, it is not included, which he makes clear.
- Nordhaus takes into account the fact that technological progress and economic progress is making us more resilient. For example, despite the fact that natural disasters are getting worse, much fewer people are dying from them because we have become much better at preventing casualties. For example, WHO calculated that if global warming continues unabated 80 million additional people will die from malaria by 2050 due to the extended geographical spread of mosquitoes carrying malaria. Nordhaus takes into account the fact that future medical technology will be much better so that this may not be a big problem.
- Nordhaus also takes into account discounting. The fact that money is more valuable today than it is tomorrow. Twenty thousand dollars may be worth one hundred thousand dollars fifty years from now if you let it earn interest. Therefore, we should not spend too much money today to fix future problems (despite that fact we should still spend money today). The annual discount rate he is using is 4%. Some say that is too high.
- All that is mentioned above causes many environmentalists to jump to the conclusion that he is downplaying the cost of climate change / global warming. It also makes fossil fuel industry apologists falsely conclude that he is on their side. Thereof the confusion in Wall Street Journal articles.
- What he is doing is making his economic arguments for action today unassailable. No matter how you downplay the risks they should be addressed today based on purely economic rationale.
- He stresses the concept of economic externalities, something a lot of people don’t understand, especially people who learned economics from talk show hosts and politicians instead of taking classes in economics. An externality is an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party’s activity. It makes the free market fail and allows regulation to improve economic efficiency. It’s a big deal.
It should be noted that he is the world’s topmost expert on the economics of climate change / global warming. To see my original review, click here.
My Amazon Review
About The Thorniest of Externalities
In this book Nobel Prize Laurate in Economics (2018) William Nordhaus analyses the economic consequences of global warming. Nordhaus takes seriously the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change, but he avoids all exaggeration and tries to be as realistic and conservative in his estimates as possible. He stresses that global warming is a major threat to humans and the natural world. That past climates were driven by natural sources, but that current climate change is increasingly caused by human activities. He gives us a brief introduction to climate science and the conclusions presented by the IPCC. He states that potential damage will be concentrated to low-income and tropical regions and explains that there are dangerous tipping points.
He explains that his economic analysis leaves out some potentially important consequences of climate change because they are difficult to quantity or because economic concerns are not the primary concern in those cases. He states that the most damaging impacts of climate change – in unmanaged and unmanageable human and natural systems – lie well outside the conventional marketplace. An example is species extinctions. There is no price tag on the value of a species. He explains that there have been five mass extinctions over the last 500 million years and now a sixth one is developing. That is a serious scenario he could not include in his economic analysis.
In his economic analysis he takes into account that many northern developed nations will be economically advantaged by global warming, as long as the temperatures do not rise too much. He takes into account that future generations will be wealthier, have better medicine, and will possess technologies that will help them adapt better to climate change. For example, the area in which malaria is endemic is likely to grow because of global warming thus potentially killing tens or hundreds of millions of people assuming today’s medical technology, but in the future medical technology will be better so that is not likely to happen. In fact, many of the health impacts of climate change are likely to be manageable in a future wealthier world. This is one reason why trying to slow economic growth to stop global warming is a bad idea that is counterproductive. There are much better ways.
Another important feature of his analysis is discounting. Money is more valuable today than tomorrow. Twenty thousand dollars may be worth one hundred thousand dollars fifty years from now if you let it earn interest. Therefore, it may not be worth paying a thousand dollars today to save future generations five thousand dollars. He uses a significant discount rate that has been criticized, but the important thing to remember is that this way he is not exaggerating. As it turns out, climate change is still expensive to future generations depending on how far we allow it to go. It is definitely worth investing today in slowing climate change. His graphs demonstrate that economic losses quickly become gigantic if you go too far beyond the temperature optimum (which depends on the assumptions behind the graph). One graph was 2 ¼ Celsius, another 3 ½ Celsius. Note, that is without considering unquantifiable consequences.
All his talk about discounting, certain economically positive consequences of climate change, that we will get better at adapting, etc., has led to misunderstandings by those with imperfect reading comprehension. Some environmentalists have concluded that he is underestimating climate change, and some climate skeptics have incorrectly concluded he is on their side. An article in the Wall Street Journal incorrectly claimed that William Nordhaus predicted that climate change would be economically beneficial.
Perhaps the most central concept in his analysis of how to approach the problem is externalities. An externality is an indirect cost or benefit to an uninvolved third party that arises as an effect of another party’s activity. For example, those who produce emissions/pollution do not pay for that privilege, and those who are harmed are not compensated. Global warming is a particularly thorny externality because it is global. Inventions correspond to positive externalities. Innovators are frequently paid only a small fraction of the benefits their innovations bring, while benefiting all of society. This is why subsidizing technology and innovation can be beneficial to the economy.
He states that economics teaches us that unregulated markets will not put the correct price on externalities like CO2. To make the market more fair, efficient, and grow the economy faster you try to correct for the externality and the best way to do that is a Pigouvian tax. Market fundamentalists who’ve learned economics from talk show hosts but never taken an economics class may balk at this, but it is a basic concept in economics, like supply and demand. Towards the end he strongly argues for some sort of a carbon price, which I saw as the conclusion of the book. I thought his book was very informative, excellent analysis, and very well written.
The Day Surstromming Gave American Students a Culture Shock in Their Own Country
In my recent post called “Culture Shock Sweden USA” I included a photo of myself opening and smelling a can of north Swedish fermented herring, or as it is properly called “surströmming”. It is a specialty from the north Swedish Highcoast where I grew up. Underneath the photo I wrote “Unfortunately, all the Americans experienced a culture shock from the fermented herring.” See the excerpt below. What I should maybe have mentioned in my post is that even though it was a joke, it was still true. People were not ready for what was coming.
After I had posted “Culture Shock Sweden USA”, I posted a link to my blog on my Facebook and I received a few comments including comments from two people who actually were there at the fermented herring party in 1987. I’ve included the comments below.
Surströmming first-timer videos are getting pretty common these days, but I still always end up laughing until I can barely breathe when they start the uncontrollable retching! Always reminds of the Surströmming party and that nasty prank we pulled on the residents of Glaser House! 🤣 — Lee
Delicious memories….NOT!!! 🤢🤮 — Alyce
What happened was that as soon as I opened the can, all Americans dashed for the windows or doors trying to escape the smell. In the party invitation we had left out one or two details, like that surströmming is often said to be the worst smelling food in the world. The “nasty prank” Lee was referring to was me and him going around the dorm and placing left over surströmming in the ventilation drums of the dorm. I admit that was immature. Luckily, it did not work as well as we had hoped, or we probably would have both been expelled.
This is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the topic:
Since gaining notoriety as one of the world’s smelliest foods, surströmming has become the focus of a number of “challenge” videos on YouTube and other platforms where people uninitiated to the food show themselves opening a can for the first time, usually to visceral reaction, and then try to eat the fish without additional preparation. Often the videos show the participants gagging, swearing, holding their nose, or vomiting.
To read more about surströmming on the disgusting food museum’s webpage click here.
In the end we had a good time. The smell dissipated and people ate and drank other things we offered. We swedes ate the surströmming but a few others tasted a little bit as well. We knew what the reaction would be, and we did not offer the fermented herring in the hopes that people would love it. It became a good source of conversation and jokes, and that’s what we hoped for. I should say that you normally open the cans outside and let the smell dissipate before you eat them. The surströmming taste mostly like pickled herring with lemon and lots of salt and you typically eat with onion and potato or rolled in soft and thin bread (tunnbröd).
Have you eaten any weird foods?
A Very Good Old Leonberger Book
I recently finished reading “The Leonberger Hardcover version – April 1, 2000”, by Angela White. Currently it is only the hardback version that is available on Amazon, and it is 208 pages. I could not find it on Barnes and Noble or Chapters Indigo. The dimensions of this hardback are 7.25 x 0.75 x 10.5 inches, and the weight is 1.63 pounds, ISBN 978-1852790646, and on Amazon it currently costs between $4.95 and $91.85 depending on the quality of the book. It is currently out of print, so you have to buy a used copy. I bought mine for around $20.00 and except for a few scribbles on the inside cover it was in good condition.
In summary: Angela White is an experienced British author, an expert dog trainer and a Leonberger owner, well she was at the time. This book was great, much better than I expected. However, it is somewhat outdated and as I mentioned it is out of print. It does not have a great overall rating, but it seems like everyone who downrated it did so because it was out of print. I don’t downrate a book because it is out of print because that is a problem unrelated to the content of the book. Therefore, I gave it five stars.
Below is my review of The Leonberger by Angela White.
It’s Old but It Is the Most Professional Leonberger Book I’ve Come Across
I bought a used copy of the Leonberger by Angela White. Unfortunately, it is no longer in print. The author is a dog trainer and a Leonberger owner. As far as I can tell she is an expert dog trainer. In 208 pages the book covers, in detail, the origins and the history of the Leonberger breed, owning a Leonberger and the care of a Leonberger, showing your Leonberger, nutrition and health, breeding Leonbergers, and training Leonbergers. The author is British, so naturally the book is written from a British perspective. For example, she talks extensively about the (British) Kennel Club, but she does not mention the Leonberger Club of America.
The author is extremely knowledgeable, science oriented, and she knows and understands dogs, especially Leonbergers, exceptionally well. She is also a very good author and I think this book is very well written. It is jam packed with useful information, much of it I did not know. Therefore, I learned a lot from this book. It is well organized and there’s no repetition. I counted more than 180 colorful Leonberger photos that were all helpful and informative in their respective context, from whelping to old age.
I’ve read more than 30 Leonberger books, as well as other dog training books, and this book is hands down the best book on training a Leonberger that I’ve come across. The 80 pages on training Leonbergers is fabulously written with lots of helpful information. I think I can say with confidence that there is no better Leonberger book out there with respect to training. I was also impressed by the chapter on breeding Leonbergers. I am not very interested in this topic, but I’ve noticed that most Leonberger books that claim to cover breeding do not say much useful on the topic, if anything at all. This book gives a 32-page overview of the important aspects of breeding, how to do it, paperwork, etc., while referring to more in-depth sources for details.
The book was written a long time ago in 1998 (hardcover released 2000). Therefore, portions of it are outdated. This shows when the author writes about certain illnesses in Leonbergers. For example, Addison’s disease is no longer a considerable concern and some problems with Leonbergers are not mentioned. Perhaps most notable, the book states that Leonbergers should be neutered / spayed as soon as possible at the beginning of puberty. Since this book was written it has become clear that this will physically harm the dog and I see this as the major drawback of the book. Now a day it is recommended that you wait two years before neutering a Leonberger.
I am rating this book five stars despite it being outdated and despite the unfortunate advice on neutering / spaying, because the book shines in so many other aspects. I am not reducing my rating because the book is out of print since that is a problem unrelated to the content of 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.
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.
Kindle Version of my Leonberger Book is Temporarily 2.99
On July 3rd 2007 our Leonberger Bronco was born. On July 3rd 2022, soon one year ago, I launched my book The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle; Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger. I can’t believe it’s been a year already.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the publication of my book I am lowering the price of the Kindle version from $4.99 to $2.99.
Click here to visit the Kindle version of my book on Amazon.
The Amazon page says the publish date is July 2nd for the paperback version and July 1st for the Kindle. What happened was that they told me it would take 2-3 days for it to show up after I pressed the yellow publish button. The evening of July 1st 2022 I pressed the yellow publish button on Amazon and it happened quicker than I expected. But the actual launch, i.e., telling friends, the Leonberger groups I was part of, and announcing the book on social media and on this blog that was July 3rd.
I also published the book with Ingramspark, which distribute to Barnes and Nobles, Canadian stores, and in many other places. Due to technical problems, I am having a hard time changing the price on Ingramspark. I will make another announcement about Ingramspark once I solved the technical problems.
Leonberger Life 