Wednesday, April 14, 2021

by Debbie Rosenberg

There are an amazing amount of "holidays" during the month of April.  I found a website that lists 119 holidays!  Isn't it great that National Hug Your Dog Day (4/10), National Pet Day (4/11) and National Pet Parent Day (4/25) all fall in one month!  Sorry cat lovers, the only cat specific holiday I spotted was National Hairball Awareness Day (4/30) which just isn't the same.  

All of these days reminded me of some of the great books that have animals in them, such as David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter mystery series.  Andy, a wealthy and witty lawyer deals with criminals, cops, and the courtroom in these fast paced legal thrillers. Andy loves dogs so each novel title refers back to a dog in some way. Start with Leader of the Pack.

Spencer Quinn writes a fun series about  P.I. Bernie and K-9 failure Chet who solve mysteries in a fast-paced humorous style.  The stories are told from Chet's point of view.  Start with Dog on it.

Garth Stein's novel The Art of racing in the rain is the thought provoking story of Enzo, named in honor of Enzo Ferrari. His owner is a race driver, and Enzo is a bit of a philosopher looking back on his life and what he's learned. This was also made into a movie which you can check out here.

The new novel Joint Custody by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, is a romantic comedy compared to The Art of racing in the rain meets The Parent Trap. It tells the story of a dog's attempt to get his human parents back together.     

Even though I didn't find a fun holiday in April for cat lovers, we do have lots of fun books that include cats in the stories. 

Rita Mae Brown writes intricately plotted cozy mysteries in her Mrs. Murphy series. "Harry" Haristeen, postmistress, and her cat Mrs. Murphy and Welsh Corgi Tucker investigate. Start with Wish you were here.

Julie Chase writes the Kitty couture cosy mystery series. Lacy Crocker comes back to New Orleans after a nasty breakup to open her dream business, a high end pet boutique and bakery.  Unfortunately, her glitter gun is used as a murder weapon.  Start with Cat got your diamonds.

We also have some wonderful nonfiction books about cats and dogs and even training!  

No ordinary dog : my partner from the Seal Teams to the Bin Laden raid by Will Chesney. Will became a K-9 military dog handler in 2008 and worked with Cairo for several years.  In addition to working military raids, Cairo helped Will deal with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. 958.1047 Chesney 2020.

Olive, Mabel, & me : life and adventures with two very good dogs by Andrew Cotter. So what does a sportscaster do when Covid hits and there are no games to announce? He makes sports parody videos starring his two retrievers bringing moments of hilarity to life at home.  

I'm really looking forward to How Stella learned to talk : the groundbreaking story of the world's first talking dog by Christina Hunger - coming in May. Christina is a speech-language pathologist who works with toddlers.  She wondered if her new puppy could use some of the same equipment and tried using paw sized buttons that say a word when pressed with Stella.  Stella knows more than 30 words and even puts them together to get her point across!

Nala's world : one man, his rescue cat and a bike ride around the globe by Dean Nicholson shares his story of traveling from Scotland by bike to learn about the world.  He didn't plan to rescue a stray kitten, but it was worth it!

Decoding your cat by the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists 636.8083 American 2020 is the purrfect book to help you figure out why your cat is doing something and how to change unwanted behaviors.

With the many training books we own, such as Canine Good Citizen by Mary Burch New NF 636.7083 Burch 2021, to Dog training 101 by Kyra Sundance 636.7088 Sundance 2017 there's probably no good excuse for my dog being responsible for the destruction of two library books, but what can I say?  Now that nicer weather is here, it's time for me to get busy training!

Debbie Rosenberg has worked in the FDL Public Library Reference department for 30 years.