dogs

‘Cat on a Hot Tin Woof’ by Spencer Quinn is the latest in the fabulous ‘Chet and Bernie Mystery’ series

/ Pamela Kramer

How can you not love a book narrated by a dog who understands a lot of what’s going on, but also — in true, believable doggy style — misses so much? Spencer Quinn has an almost supernatural ability to write like a dog. Or at least what we think our dogs really might be thinking as they go through life with us. And in his (and Chet and Bernie’s) latest story, “Cat on a Hot Tin Woof,” there’s finally a cat! Actually, as Chet might put it, “There might be two cats, but I can’t count past two.”

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‘Dog Person’ by Camille Pagán is a love story: to dogs, to people, to bookstores, and to books

/ Pamela Kramer

“Dog Person” is Camille Pagán’s ultimate love story. It’s a story about all kinds of love, and maybe, most of all, it’s a love story about the love we feel for our dogs and what they bring to our lives. But it’s not “just” a dog story (funny thing, when I was typing this review, without thinking, I wrote “Dog Story” as the title). This lovely, heartwarming, heartbreaking, beautifully conceived novel is about love in all its permutations; a mother’s love, our love for our animal companions, our love for our partner, our love for our parents (or not), our love for our friends and family, and our love of reading and finding safe spaces in which to read.

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‘The Best Dog in the World: Essays on Love’ edited by Alice Hoffman

/ Pamela Kramer

We read books about dogs for the same reason we have dogs in our lives: we just can’t get enough of them. (At least I can’t.) And in this touching and memorable collection of dog essays, “The Best Dog in the World,” those of us with dogs might just think that our beloved dogs belong in there as well, because the best dog in the world is usually our own dog. The essays are expertly edited by Alice Hoffman, who in the Introduction, shares her touching story about Houdini, her beloved dog. And she writes what all dog parents know, “I still don’t think I was worthy of him.”

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‘The Snow Lies Deep’ by Paula Munier is another twisty addition to the ‘Mercy Carr Mystery’ series

/ Pamela Kramer

“The Snow Lies Deep” and perhaps nowhere deeper than in a small village in rural Vermont at Christmas. Paula Munier takes us right into the heart of the small, picturesque town of Northshire as the town celebrates the holiday season in grand style. The village is hosting the “Solstice Soirée,” “twelve days of eating, drinking, and making merry, beginning on the winter solstice and continuing through Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Christmas right on to New Year’s Day.”

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‘Dogged Pursuit’ by David Rosenfelt – back in time to the beginning

/ Pamela Kramer

David Rosenfelt’s 31st (!) entry in the Andy Carpenter Mystery series is “Dogged Pursuit.” But this one is significantly different from the earlier entries in one important way: it’s a prequel featuring Andy as a rookie in the defense attorney business. He’s approaching thirty years of age and has decided that it’s time to help those who are essentially victims of the system. He wants to give the wrongly accused a real chance in court. And though he’s relatively young, and all his previous work has been on the prosecution side, he has an inner confidence that whispers, “Help people. You can do it.”

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Animal picture books to amaze, entertain, inform, and enjoy (really enjoy!)

/ Pamela Kramer

Kids love reading about animals, and in these wonderful picture books, imaginations will take flight just like Seven, the magnificent pigeon in the first book. They will learn about the perfidy of fish in the brilliantly hysterical book about not trusting fish, “Don’t Trust Fish.” Snakes and dogs and small creatures round out the animals we meet in these charming picture books. And a nonfiction series, “Meet the Wild Things,” brings unusual animals to our attention.

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Andy Carpenter strikes (yet) again with ‘And to All a Good Bite’ by David Rosenfelt

/ Pamela Kramer

David Rosenfelt’s 32nd (!) Andy Carpenter Mystery novel, “And to All a Good Bite,” strikes again with classic suspense, violence, and Rosenfelt’s trademark humor. Attorney Carpenter’s first person narrative is typically and hilariously on display on virtually every page — even when violence is involved — and the dialogue is consistently equally funny, all of which leads to as enjoyable a mystery novel as you are likely to find. Anywhere.

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‘Beyond Her Reach’ by Melinda Leigh is the 10th book in the gripping Bree Taggert Series

/ Pamela Kramer

A really good series, like Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggert series, has novels that stand alone but also has characters who grow and change from the first novel through the procession and the progression of stories. This series story arc, combined with the individual gripping novels, is what keeps readers coming back to read book after book. With this series, author Melinda Leigh manages to accomplish all that and more. In addition to a really likable, vulnerable but strong main character, sheriff Bree Taggert, there is a romantic partner, and a family. And one of the things I love about this series is the dogs, lots of dogs. Rescue dogs. Rescue dogs who save lives.

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‘A Dog in Georgia’ by Lauren Grodstein: A woman in search of a dog finds herself

/ Pamela Kramer

When there’s a dog in the title, I’m hooked. And in “A Dog in Georgia,” author Lauren Grodstein has provided not only the titular dog, one Angel—who acted as a school crossing guard for children, for heaven’s sake, before she disappeared—but a plethora of street dogs who live, apparently mostly happily, in Georgia (the country, not the state). And when Amy Webb finds herself in need of something meaningful to accomplish, she decides to travel to Georgia and find the missing Angel.

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‘Mouse & His Dog: A Dogtown Book’ by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko is the second book in this heartwarming series about friendship, love, rescue dogs, and a mouse

/ Pamela Kramer

“Mouse & His Dog” by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko follows “Dogtown” in the adventures of dogs at a private dog shelter called, of course, Dogtown, as narrated by the mouse who lives there. This mouse loves the dogs in Dogtown, and he desperately tries to find them homes before they end up on “the list.” In this beautifully written, touching novel that is both an ode to the joy of loving dogs and a plea to rescue one, we meet several dogs who are typical of dogs we might really meet in a shelter.

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‘The Night Woods’ by Paula Munier is the 6th dog-filled mystery in the Mercy Carr series

/ Pamela Kramer

In the latest mystery in the Mercy Carr series, “The Night Woods,” main character Mercy and her husband Troy have settled into their new historic home, Grackle Tree Farm, and are waiting for the birth of their first child. Mercy is restless, and as her delivery date nears, she worries more and more about being a mother. Will a baby change her? Will she be unable to continue working and solving murders? Will she be a decent mother? Will her baby be a dainty feminine girl with whom she will have nothing in common? (She’s hoping for a boy.)

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“The More The Terrier” by David Rosenfelt with a really important pooch in addition to a murder

/ Pamela Kramer

In this, the thirtieth entry in David Rosenfelt’s “Andy Carpenter Mystery” series, “The More the Terrier,” the dog, we are happy to report, actually plays an important role in the unfolding of the plot. Murphy, apparently a Yorkie mix, shows up out of nowhere at Andy’s house and is soon recognized as a little guy whom Andy and his family and friends had rescued sometime before his new appearance at their doorstep. They remember the family who had adopted him, and they return him to the Bremers’ home. Mrs. Bremer is thrilled to have him back, yet she is terribly sad. Her son, BJ, has been arrested for murder.

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