【推荐2】Grace and her family thought they had lost Thor forever when they moved to Windsor Nova Scotia from British Columbia last August.

“We probably spent seven or eight months looking for Thor,” Grace said. “What made it worse was that there were rumors (谣言) going around that there was dogfighting in our area. We still always hoped that somebody had taken him to be a pet, but you just never knew.”

“It was horrible. My daughter Bronwyn would try to find Thor everywhere, which had been a Christmas present for her. Even while watching TV programmes, she would say, ‘Oh, look! That dog looks like Thor!’” Grace said. Then the family moved, and the hope became impossible.

But one day, the phone rang. It was their former vet (兽医) in British Columbia, saying Thor was in a rescue shelter in High River, Alberta. He had been found at a work camp in the northern part of the place and taken to south by a man planning to keep him. But the man was forced to turn him over to the shelter when he couldn’t keep Thor in his rented home. Luckily, the ring on Thor’s neck gave people some information.          

Thor was flown to Nova Scotia last week. The family picked him up at the airport. “Thor was just lying in his box and looking down, and my daughter walked over and said, ‘Hey Thor.’ He immediately stood up, trying to greet my daughter. We let him out and he jumped on her as if he was giving her a big hug and he kissed her face. Then he sat down suddenly at her feet and rolled over for attention. He was cute.” Grace said.

【推荐3】In the last three years, I have read approximately 150 books. Reading almost every day in the last three years has increased my reading comprehension. It has also improved my own writing skills. This has boosted my confidence and encouraged me to start writing more often. I am now writing a fiction book. I write and edit for Odyssey, and I am an officer for the SNHU Book Club. This has also helped me become a better student. I’m able to read and comprehend the text more for each class, and do well on the assignments because of my better writing skills. I truly love it, and can’t imagine where I would be right now if I hadn’t become a bookworm.

Because I read so much, I have decided to start doing a written version of a book haul (读书分享会). In short, a book haul is a review of the books read each month. They are typically done as a video, but until I have the proper equipment to do that, I will be writing mine. At the end of each month I will discuss the books I read, the books I bought, or received, and then ask for your thoughts and suggestions.

January was a busy month for me. I only finished one book, Mark of Distinction by Jessica Dotta. It’s the second book in the Price of Privilege trilogy. I bought Carve the Mark, Veronica Roth’s new book, and An Unquiet Mind, a psychology based book by Kay Redfield Jamison. I plan on reading these in February, as well as the third section of the Red Queen series, King’s Cage by Victoria Aveyard, which will be released on February 7. I am so excited for it!     

If you’ve read any of the books I ever mention, feel free to reach out either on here, or Twitter! I love chatting about books!

【推荐1】After six years of improvement, Ye Olde Black Bear in Tewkesbury, UK will be open to customers. The pub, which was established in 1308, is believed to have once been visited by William Shakespeare. But while many people in the town are delighted that one of its most famous buildings and businesses has been revived, others living close to it have a different voice.

The house has a large open area at the back for hosting live music events, for which the City Council has decided to review (校审) the licence following complaints from the public. The pub said, on its Facebook page: “To review the longstanding licence of The Black Bear is placing it at risk of closure.” It urged its supporters to write letters of support which it would forward on to the council.

The council said, in a letter to residents living near the pub, that possible measures it might take included limiting outdoor entertainment at the site to six days a year, ending at 10:30 pm each time, and requiring a noise limiting device to be fixed. The pub is run by landlord Luke Haynes and his family, who say their research shows it is the oldest pub which has always been a pub in the UK.

Luke said allowing only six events a year would mean the pub would not survive financially, adding profits earned by staging live music sessions in the summer would enable the pub to get through the winter.

He said: “The support from the town has been absolutely great. It’s a very small number of people who are complaining. We’ve had huge support from our neighbours. I’m trying to work with the council to come up with solutions to this.”

The pub’s fans have gathered behind the bid to keep it going, with an online demand having been signed by more than 2,800 people. Georgie Smith, who started it, said: “We believe closing the Black Bear would be harmful to our community, both socially and economically. The importance of pubs in the UK cannot be overstated. They are part of our cultural heritage.”