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In the Book Bar: WISH ME HOME by Kay Bratt

This kitty seems to be reading a lot of dog books lately!

We found this book on Audible – it was an Audible book of the day – and we couldn’t remove the ear buds for practically the length of the book. It’s about a young woman, Cara, who was orphaned at a young age and was raised by several foster families with her sister Hana. At the start of the book Cara’s running from something – we find out what much later. Her car has broken down and she’s walking along the highway, when she finds a stray dog, who basically adopts her. She decides to go to Key West, as she’s a literary gal and has always loved Hemingway, and wants to see his house. (We could so relate – that house is one of our favorite places!) So, Cara names the dog Hemmy and off they go.

They meet many strangers along their journey – most of them good people who help her out, some of them horrible. Just like in life. The book is about finding home, and eventually, she and Hemmy do just that. A home that is perfect for both of them. And the kicker – and the part we so love – is that it is Hemmy who leads her there.

Kay Bratt is a new author to us, but she reminds us of Catherine Ryan Hyde, one of our very favorite authors. We will definitely read Bratt’s other books. WISH ME HOME deserves five bonito flakes!

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In the Book Bar: SUSPECT by Robert Crais

With so many dog lovers and so many readers of crime novels, we find it strange that there aren’t more K-9 mysteries out there. Why?

Well, we were thrilled to find this one – SUSPECT by Robert Crais, which we originally found as an Audible daily deal, then loved it so much we bought the hardcover. It’s the story of Scott, a detective, and his K-9 partner, Maggie, a German shepherd who served multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and who has now retired from Marine service. Both Scott and Maggie lost their former partners – Scott’s Stephanie was killed in a shoot-out, in which he nearly died as well – and Maggie’s Pete was shot by an IED sniper. The book begins with that attack, in Afghanistan. It’s an excruciating scene and I felt so much compassion for Maggie as she stood over Pete barking and whelping, doing everything she could to protect him, not to let him be taken away by medical helicopter, even though it was clear he was gone. The snipers start shooting at her as well, so she must be flown away to safety too.

At the beginning of their partnership, both Scott and Maggie are, understandably, suffering from PTSD. These are my favorite novels, where animal and human heal each other. It helps that there’s a great, page-turning suspense at the same time! Which is why we want more K-9 mysteries… Anyway, when Scott returns to his job and begins K-9 training, he spots Maggie from afar. He is supposed to be assigned a Belgian Malinois, but there is something about this German Shepherd that he connects to, he senses they share something, and he begs his Lieutenant, the wonderful, hard-exteriored but softy-at-heart Leland, to give him a chance with Maggie. Leland explains that Maggie is too afraid of loud noises to be a sufficient member of the force, and she is about to be returned; Scott is her last chance. So, Scott has his challenges cut out for him.

And of course he succeeds. What I loved was watching him train her, get her to overcome her fears. And she helps him in return. I also loved that Crais delves so deeply into his characters’ psyches, including Maggie’s. He details her progress from knowing Scott first as a guy who’s nice to her, then a real companion, and finally to her pack leader, just as Pete once was. The shoot-out that got Stephanie killed is the subject of their investigation, as the crime still hasn’t been solved. This is both a page-turning suspense and a detailed character study, and we can’t wait for more. There’s one more book involving Scott and Maggie – The Promise – though it appears to feature mainly Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, the stars of Crais’ two main mystery series. I will definitely read it. But more Scott and Maggie, please, Mr. Crais!

And, if anyone finds any other good K-9 mysteries, please let us know!

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Review: LILY AND THE OCTOPUS, by Steven Rowley

This review was originally published July 9, 2017 but this is WK’s very favorite book for the past few years – yes, despite it being about a dog! So, we are putting it up at the top of our brand new Cat Cafe and Book Bar 🙂 Since, as we said, one of the main characters is a dog, we had our Sofia pose with the book 🙂 Here is the original review from our old Tumblr book blog:

Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley is a fitting starting book for my new blog! I found this book at my favorite local mystery bookstore, the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, AZ, even though it’s not a mystery. I’m a sucker for anything with a dog on the cover – and anything blurbed by Garth Stein:) So, I snatched it. And so glad I did. It became one of my favorite books of last year … well, one of my favorite books ever, actually.

It’s kind of hard to describe – mostly realistic with a slight bit of fantasy thrown in. Ted is a gay man living in Los Angeles, approaching middle age, his writing career is not going so well, he’s broken up with a long-term boyfriend, he’s not tremendously close to family. And then, his dog, Lily, his best friend in the world, becomes sick with cancer – the “octopus” which he finds one evening on her head, with its tentacles creeping down over her temples, taking root. It’s a rather fitting image of cancer. The book is basically about his dealing with this horrible impending loss.

I found myself relating to so much of Ted’s life. I’m not a gay man, but I am a writer and I lived in LA and I know too well how it feels to be stuck in your writing career, to not be in a relationship, and to have your pets be a huge part of your world, even if it’s largely a world of your own human-centric creation. Ted and Lily have movie nights, pizza nights, they have lively discussions of actors and actresses. My dog and I have different kinds of discussions – we talk about passing scenery and prior travels when we’re on road trips, people when we’re at outdoor cafes, books and news and Facebook friend updates when we’re lazing on the living room couch. She goes practically everywhere with me, she sits at my side when I read or write, we eat together, sleep together, we experience the world together. I can’t imagine losing her. It physically hurts to think about it. Everyone can relate to this book because everyone has someone they share their life with, whom they can’t imagine living without.

The book is about love, the deepest friendship imaginable, about surviving grief, and about surviving death. Ted is an agnostic throughout most of the book, but at the end, he comes to believe that Lily will experience the afterlife. He tells her to look for her mother up in heaven; she will take care of her. And, later, when he embarks on a new (human) relationship, he tells the new man the story of Lily, making Lily very happy. So, Lily will survive, as we all will, through story, though art. This book is ultimately about the power of literature, which, as the owner of Gatsby Books in Long Beach, CA, once said, connects us all through time and place.

Rowley recently toured to promote the paperback. So fabulous to meet him at Changing Hands in Phoenix!

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Review: DOG CRAZY, by Meg Donohue

WK found this wonderful gem used at one of her favorite bookstores, Changing Hands. Where would we be without our indie bookstores???

The cover kind of makes the novel look like cute chick lit, but it is so much deeper and more serious and it contains some of the most beautiful, visceral evocations of dog / human love and what it’s like to lose a beloved pet. Donohue has an MFA from Columbia and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth and it shows.

Maggie is a young psychologist specializing in pet bereavement. She’s just taken the plunge and relocated from her Philadelphia hometown to San Francisco to open her new practice when her beloved dog, Toby, is stricken with cancer and dies. She’s so traumatized that she ends up an agoraphobe (like her mother), unable to leave her house. One of her new clients is Anya, whose brother has hired Maggie to help his sister overcome the loss of her dog. Anya’s dropped out of school and lost her job over her trauma. Problem is, Anya doesn’t want to overcome her dog’s death because she believes her dog is still alive but has been kidnapped. No one in Anya’s family believes her and Maggie is unsure whether the dog is still alive but is compelled by Anya’s deep convictions to help her search. In order to do that, she, of course, must go out of her home, which she does initially with the help of her friend’s therapy dog, Giselle, then with the help of Anya.

The story is part mystery – is Anya’s dog still alive?, part story of friendship between the two young women, and part psychological journey to mental wellness. You just know Maggie will end up with one of the many dogs she helps along her journey – from the stray, to the rescue with behavioral problems preventing his adoption, to Giselle the therapy dog – and you’re rooting for her to take one into her home and love him like she did Toby.

It’s a wonderful book particularly for anyone suffering the loss of a pet who needs to know they are far from alone.

Sofia, our dog, poses with the book, and she gives it five scrumptious bonito flakes!

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Review: THE RIGHT SIDE, by Spencer Quinn

Because this is a book featuring a dog – and a black dog at that – we have graciously allowed our sister, Sofia, to model it 🙂

Witty kitty, being a cat, of course loves cat books, but she can most definitely enjoy a really good dog book as well. Especially because of that dog sister of hers… Anyway, Spencer Quinn is the author of the super engaging, comical dog / human mystery series, Chet and Bernie, and also the children’s series, Bowser and Birdie. This is not the same kind of dog book as those, in that the dog here does not narrate any part of the story, and for much of the story he does not have a name. But he does have a strong personality, strong opinions, and he helps his human, LeAnne, solve her mystery. So we love him! This book is also quite a bit more sobering than the others.

LeAnne has just returned from the war in Afghanistan, during which she lost one of her eyes. She’s angry, suffering from PTSD, and is trying put her life back together now that combat no longer seems an option. Her Army superiors ceaselessly interrogate her about the attack that disfigured her, wanting to find out who was behind it. But she doesn’t want to try to remember. Too painful. So, LeAnne flees the hospital and goes in search of the missing daughter of a friend she’s made while in the hospital, who died of her wounds. Along the way, LeAnne meets this mysteriously smart, knowing dog, and he helps her solve the missing girl mystery, and in his own way, helps her learn to trust again.

LeAnne was a very compelling character – as was the dog – and WK found herself really rooting for LeAnne to find the girl, figure out what happened in Afghanistan, come to terms with her past, overcome her PTSD and get a grasp on her future, and befriend the dog 🙂

WK gives THE RIGHT SIDE five bonito flakes!

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Review: DOG LOST, by Ingrid Lee

I saw this book in my local library and was immediately drawn to the title and cover. Written in 2008, and based on a true story, it’s a powerful tale of a pit bull puppy, Cash, who, in protecting her best friend, MacKenzie, angers the boy’s father, who hauls her off to the middle of nowhere to fend for herself. At first everyone is scared of the dog, since she’s considered a “dangerous breed,” but Cash is no vicious predator. Not only does she refuse to fight when she is captured by the leader of a horrid dog-fighting ring, but she ends up saving the lives of more than one human, as well as that of a cat used as bait by the dog fighters. Written by a Canadian writer, Ingrid Lee, the book was published at a time when Ontario was considering whether to ban the breed, which would have led to the euthanasia of entire shelters. Cash is a shining example of the ludicrous cruelty of such a law. And yet, I know from the Best Friends documentary, “The Champions,” about the rehabilitation of the Michael Vick dogs, that Ontario does have such a ban, so, sadly, it passed. I remember Montreal was deciding whether to enact something similar a year or two ago. It was put on hold then. This book reminds me to check up on that. I really hope it never passed. As “Dog Lost” shows, it is people who are the villains, not the dogs.

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Review: FENWAY AND HATTIE, by Victoria J. Coe

I found this book at my library. Cover was just so enticing 🙂 And I’ve read so many wonderful middle-grade books lately. I read it in one sitting and loved it. Fenway a is jolly, spunky little Jack Russell terrier (and who doesn’t love a terrier!) who loves his “short human,” Hattie. One day the family moves from their Boston-area apartment to the suburbs. Fenway is deeply confused. Where is his beloved dog park? Why is the new floor where Hattie puts his food bowl so slippery and scary? And, most importantly, why is Hattie so interested in her new next-door neighbor and in learning to play softball and not with him? Fenway must find a way to get Hattie back. He tries all kinds of things that don’t work, some of which make you just cringe knowing how much they will backfire – such as eating her new mitt! Makes sense though – if the mitt is taking your best friend from you, well then you must destroy that blasted mitt! But finally, he does it – he and Hattie both adjust and find happiness in their new lives.

This book was cute and funny, but it also made me think about how difficult it can be for pets to adjust to a new environment. One time when we got to our new apartment, my cat wandered around for five seconds then went straight back into her carrier and cried in it all night. I couldn’t entice her into bed with me for anything. Moves can by discomfiting and even scary for everyone in the family, most of all those who can’t be told in so many words not to worry, that everything will be okay. Take time and care with your fur babies!