A handy and often entertaining primer for brand-new and longtime dog owners alike.
Troy’s helpful guide provides tips on training and caring for our faithful canine companions.
An American cocker spaniel named Dylan takes a detour from the fictional series he headlines. In this book, Troy—the author of that series and the real-life Dylan’s owner—fields fans’ dog-related questions and addresses their concerns. The book is styled as a series of letters written to Dylan’s Dog Squad, who happily reply to each letter. One couple who took in a late neighbor’s dachshund puppies wonders what the best age is to neuter or spay; for this and other questions, the members of Dylan’s Dog Squad encourage readers to seek advice from a veterinarian or ask friends who are “dog people” to recommend a local vet. The letters cover a wide range of subjects, including training (crate, potty, and leash), whether or not an Irish setter should poke her head out of a car window while on the road, and the case of a visiting relative’s Boston terrier who marks his territory all over the host’s residence. The responses are thoughtful and clearly explained throughout—and, when necessary, blunt. (To the owner whose dog has been snacking on shoes, dirty socks, and wet bath towels: “Pick up your stuff.”) Along with the Q&A sections, the book includes valuable tips delivered in a bullet-pointed format. Readers will learn what things to consider when adopting a dog and ways to make a new puppy happy (“Introduce him to your home one room at a time”).
Troy’s concise, easygoing prose is familiar from Dylan’s earlier fictional adventures. In one particularly notable section, she lists specific pointers on various canine commands such as “sit,” “stay,” “heel,” and “come”; her simple directions will surely make learning a breeze for humans and dogs alike. (The author clarifies that humans need to practice as much as their furry loved ones.) This guidebook is rife with heartfelt moments—like letters from owners who’ve lost a beloved dog—as well as genuinely curious cases, like that of a pug who, on the basis of smell, isn’t very fond of his humans’ 10-month-old granddaughter. Some of the letters to Dylan’s Dog Squad are quite amusing: One owner laments that a park ranger cited him for an unleashed dog; now his Weimaraner has a rap sheet. Another tells of a greyhound mix scraping her humans’ legs with her cone of shame—apparent payback for being made to wear it. While some of Troy’s advice understandably overlaps (“yummy treats” make an especially effective motivator), parts of the book are outright repetitive; for example, details on all 10 of the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen tests are repeated almost verbatim. The author rounds out this relatively short book with recipes for doggie pupsicles (peanut butter and blueberry) and a list of American Sign Language commands that owners can teach their dogs—and that Dylan, both real and fictional, has mastered.
A handy and often entertaining primer for brand-new and longtime dog owners alike.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
None
Does glasnost mean the Cold War is over? Le Carre, the ultimate chronicler of Cold War espionage, ponders that issue (and others) in an up-to-date spy fable: his drollest work thus far, his simplest plot by a long shot, and sturdy entertainment throughout—even if not in the same league with the Karla trilogy and other le Carre classics. British Intelligence has gotten hold of a manuscript smuggled out of Russia. Part of it consists of wild sociopolitical ramblings. But the other part provides full details on the USSR's most secret defense weaponry—which is apparently in utter shambles! Can the UK and US trust this data and proceed with grand-scale disarmament? To find out, the Brits recruit the left-wing London publisher Bartholomew "Barley" Scott Blair, who has been chosen—by the manuscript's author, a reclusive Soviet scientist nicknamed "Goethe"—to handle the book's publication in the West. Barley's mission is to rendezvous with Goethe in Russia, ask lots of questions, and evaluate whether he's for real. . .or just part of a KGB disinformation scheme. Barley—a gifted amateur jazz-sax player, a quasi-roue in late middle age—has few doubts about Goethe's sincerity; he shares, with increasing fervor, the scientist's Utopian dreams of nth-degree glasnost. But the mission is soon mired in complications: CIA interrogations (with lie-detector) of Barley; venal opposition from US defense-contractors; and Barley's intense—and dangerous—love for Goethe's friend Katya, the go-between for his USSR visits. Narrated by a Smiley-like consultant at British Intelligence, the story, unwinds in typical le Carre style (leisurely interrogations, oblique angles), but without the usual denseness. The book's more serious threads—debates on disarmament, Barley's embrace of world peace over the "chauvinist drumbeat," the love story—tend toward the obvious and the faintly preachy. Still, Barley is a grand, Dickensian creation, the ugly Americans are a richly diverting crew, and this is witty, shapely tale-spinning from a modern master.
None NonePub Date: June 9, 1989
ISBN: 0141196351
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989
In Geller’s debut novel, a husband and wife face tough decisions when doctors diagnose their young son with a rare liver disease.
Marcia and Michael Kleinman’s marriage—already sailing on rough waters—hits the rocks when a sudden onset of jaundice sends their son, Max, to the doctor. Initially inconclusive, tests eventually show a rare condition that will likely require a liver transplant. This crisis forces Marcia, the novel’s protagonist, to face the problems in her marriage and her dissatisfaction with life in general. Her mother was once a classical pianist (she recorded a few albums that “didn’t sell particularly well”), and Marcia also dreamed of a career as a musician, until marriage and motherhood sidetracked her. Now, faced with an ailing son, she plays piano again, finding release in her attempts to master some of Beethoven’s most challenging sonatas. Author Geller understands the drive of the artist. “It’s not the notes exactly,” Marcia says; it’s “capturing it. Capturing the music.” A neat sentiment—the difference between knowing technique and knowing music lies in the heart of the true artist—but one that perhaps underlines a problem with this novel: Sometimes it feels like Geller knows the notes but lacks the music. As such, the interpersonal notes—the overbearing mother, the distant husband, etc.—feel over-rehearsed, rote and drained of invention, leading to a finale that flirts with melodrama. Yet the novel succeeds because Geller, a pathologist, spends most of his time focused on a realm he understands very well: the world of medicine. There aren’t many works of fiction that focus so completely—and so devastatingly—on the process of illness: the meetings, the waiting, the diagnoses, etc. All of this is communicated with the cool tone of a great doctor giving a patient the bad news while looking her in the eye.
Medical drama outweighs interpersonal drama in this affecting debut.
Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2014
ISBN: 978-1481762328
Page Count: 290
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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