Content warning: for those who just wanted a fun book about a guy doing battle with a rooster, McGrory starts out by dedicating a good chunk of the beginning of the book to his awesome dog, Harry, who gets very sick and he has to put to sleep. I had just put my cat to sleep a few short weeks ago and found myself sobbing while reading that section in public.

I really enjoyed this book, despite my crying jag. Harry's death led to a relationship with Harry's vet, who happens to also come with a suburban life, two kids, and a small menagerie. Buddy, the title rooster, comes along thanks to a science experiment from one of Pam's daughters. McGrory's trials and tribulations with the rooster mirror his own struggle to adjust to suburban and family life, after decades of living alone in the city.

This was a sweet and funny book. Though I was as befuddled by McGrory at the sheer amount of STUFF his soon-to-be step-daughters needed. I grew up and live in surburbia. I don't have kids but I have memories of when I was a kid and I certainly didn't have $200 birthday cakes or extravagant birthday parties. Weird.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via Goodread's First Reads program ( )

The author is a divorced journalist, living in the city with his beloved dog, Harry. Pam is Harry's vet, who takes up with the author after her divorce. Her daughters have a chicken project with school, only the chick that hatches is a male and the girls won't give him up. The rooster loves Pam and the girls, but is at war with the author. Funny moments as the author navigates from bachelor city living, to suburbia with Pam and her girls plus a menagerie of animals ( )

We eat our roosters. That's all I have to say about this book.

Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man by Brian McGrory is a brilliant memoir about the reluctant transition a man must make from content autonomy of singlehood to the selflessness that’s required in a longterm relationship, the unexpected and ever-changing moods of children — and in this case, a house full of pets.

Brian McGrory’s experience as a writer and editor for the Boston Globe since the eighties has clearly given him an advantage in writing novels, which in Buddy, obviously showcases his natural ease in writing an effortless and an easily readable and enjoyable prose.

The writing is indicative of McGrory himself: intelligent, witty, thoughtful, and humble enough to be accommodating to those he cares about.

The history of his life-changing relationship with his beloved golden retriever, Harry, is especially genuine and heartfelt that readers, even professed non-dog lovers, will naturally feel a connection to this intelligent, loyal, and gregarious dog, and a deep appreciation for their exceptional relationship with one other.

In comparison, the reader may indeed get frustrated with Harry’s polar opposite, Buddy, the incessantly pecking and crowing, much beloved and spoiled, self-indulged, and self-important, territorial rooster of the family.

It seemed for much of the book that poor McGrory was not only outnumbered by females, animals, and decisions that often put him last; readers may have felt an undeniable empathy—even pity—for the man who reluctantly accommodated great change in his life because of his love and commitment to one woman in his conceding role as second husband, stepfather to two stepdaughters, and bewildered co-owner to 12 feisty animals: Baker, Walter, Charlie, Tigger, Lily, Dolly, Mokey, Lala, Smurf, Chaz, Buddy, and the nameless frog — in one boisterous household.

I certainly did.

The injustice of McGrory’s desires almost always put last in accommodation to please Pam, his wife, and her two daughters in their desire to appease, nurture, and indulge their beloved and domesticated rooster, Buddy, baffled and infuriated me.

While I couldn’t understand how one’s love for an animal could impede on the desires and needs of a family member like McGrory, the length in which the family accommodated this regal, strutting, pecking, and attacking, feathered bird was over and beyond any pet owner’s natural obligation.

But this family isn’t ordinary. Nor is their lifestyle, which accepted and fell in love with an animal that originally began as a school project.

To read the rest of my review, you're more than welcome to visit my blog, The Bibliotaphe Closet:

http://zaraalexis.wordpress.com/2013/03/12/book-review-buddy-how-a-rooster-made-...

Thanks,
Zara ( )

I have had this book on my to be read pile for a while. This is one book where I was really looking forward to reading this book. I used to raise chickens and turkeys. For a brief time we even had a rooster. Yet he went to a good home as living close to neighbors is not always a good mix. Plus, my dad did not enjoy being woken up by the crowing of the rooster. I loved my chickens. In addition, it has been a long while since I have read a good chicken story.

Sadly, this book was not what I was looking for. There was one brief moment early on where Buddy and Brian had "guy" battle to see just who was boss. Buddy won. As I read this, I had a smile on my face and even had to read this to my husband. Yet, this was the last time that Buddy would make an appearance in a long time. I can't tell you when he appears again as I got to chapter nine and put the book down. Not to take anything away from Mr. McGrory but I really was only intrigued in Buddy and his encounters with him and not so much about his life. Which if it had been more interesting then maybe I would have been more invested. ( )