This book is a wonderful escape for anyone who picks it up, but if you are familiar with Cape Cod or the coastline of New England you'll find it even more appealing. The people and places so accurately described in Taber's work will make you a convert and read all of her books. Her prose is so superb that you forget you're reading at all and feel that you're having a conversation with Gladys herself. Gone from this world for over two decades, Gladys is still alive with such a presence in these pages that I open her books when I need comfort and I feel as if I'm speaking to my grandmother. An accomplished professor of Writing, a Wellesley grad, a naturalist, and a New Englander, Gladys Taber will remind you that all is and can be right with the world.

In this book, Taber is successful in taking us through the year one month at a time, season by season. One can imagine themselves living at Stillmeadow in the quiet, country atmosphere.

Throughout the book, Taber muses on different subjects such as wildlife, cooking, bird watching, pets, flower arranging, weather, and other country items of interest.

This is a book for anyone who enjoys living in the country or who desires to live in the country. It is a book to read at leisure so that you can savor it page by page.

As a former country dweller and a now-reluctant city dweller, it brings back many fond memories of my childhood growing up in the country.

I love Gladys Taber's books.

In STILLMEADOW ROAD, Taber diaries life in her Connecticut farmhouse, circa 1960. Perhaps the charm of her books is in the simplicity of the life she describes. Perhaps it's in her delight in words as well as in her existence. Certainly it's in the phrasing she uses, the verbal portraits she paints of her life, her dogs, her friends. Here is warmth and love and charm in print. Here are simple vignettes to warm the reader's heart and challenge her to find the same delight in life wherever she may be.

"We have an appointment with winter," she writes in the beginning, "and we are ready. The wood is stacked with seasoned applewood and maple, the snow shovel leans at the back door, the shelves are jammed with supplies. When the first innocent flakes drift down, we put out more soot and fill the bird feeders. When the snow begins to come in all directions at once and the wind takes on a peculiar lonely cry, we pile more wood on the fire and hang the old iron soup kettle over it, browning the pot roast in diced salt pork and onion. As the blizzard increases, the old house seems to steady herself like a ship against a gale wind. . . Snow piles up against the windowpanes, sifts under the ancient sills, makes heaps of powdered pearl on the ancient oak floors. But the house is snug in the twilight of the snow and we sit by the fire and toast our toes feeling there is much to be said for winter after all."

Appreciation of life flows through these pages, sparkling with common sense and wisdom like wave-caps glistening in the sunlight of wise reasoning.

Of August she writes: "For after the vigorous growth of the spring and summer, nature comes to a pause, and the countryside has a dreamy look. We need to pause, too, in the midst of pickling and canning and freezing, and let the serenity of the season give us tranquility...It is time to sit quietly in the shade of the apple trees...There is more to living than the endless activities we all pursue. Most of us indeed seem to live on a wheel which revolves faster and faster but has no true destination...But since we have just so much time alloted to us, some of it should be spent in reflecting, and some in pursuits which have nothing to do with our daily lives...because life isn't a business; it is a precious gift."

Gladys Taber's legacy is a celebration of life as she chose to live it. Her books are gems of poetic but light prose with depth, perception and feeling. The shallow and pseudo-sophisticated reader may label her "sentimental" but there is nothing idealistic or shallow about her writing. She simply lives and appreciates a simpler life than most choose.

STILLMEADOW is a book you can put away when life interferes with your reading and it's interesting enough to pull you back, eager to take up where you left off.

Gladys Taber presents a delightful and informative history of her life with her personal pets and as a breeder of cocker spaniels and Irish setters. Her first childhood pet, an Irish setter, was a reluctant gift from her father who had offered a diamond ring as a reward for good grades in school. Gladys preferred a dog and continued to lavish love and devotion on her dogs and cats throughout her life. Gladys Taber is a marvelous author who takes you back to a simpler time and makes the reader feel that they are there watching a beautiful sunset, smelling spicy aromas from her kitchen or watching her Irish setter run across the lawn at dusk. She gives very practical advice about the care of dogs and the steps involved for those who are interested in training and showing their pets. I grew to love her writing style from her other books and greatly enjoyed this one.

In The First chapter of "Especially Dogs" Gladys Taber tells us about her first Dog, Timmie, and because of her vivid and heart-tugging descriptions Timmie is still alive and resting his head on the laps of readers after more than fifty years.