When Kate Macdougall’s latest and last costly mistake as a London
auction house employee results in termination, she decides that a lifelong affection
for canines is sufficient justification for setting up as an urban dog-walker—despite
the fact that she hasn’t had a pet dog since childhood. So begins this delightfully
witty and utterly immersive memoir of the travails and the joys in her quest
for personal fulfillment and monetary sustenance.
In 2006, when she starts her business, dog-walking
wasn’t actually a profession, a fact her divorcee mother will constantly point
out. Alternating from certitude, ignorance, bravado, and doubt, Kate cobbles
together a collection of clients even more idiosyncratic, demanding, and
eccentric than their pampered pets. Her most sterling and useful characteristic
is the ability understand of dogs as a species and as individuals with unique
needs for exercise, companionship, discipline, and diet. Her fond acceptance of
their habits, quirks, phobias, and preferences enables her to match them with
appropriate members of her own staff, each of whom also presents certain
eccentricities that must be coped with or dealt with.
An added complication is the dog owners, who in
the main prove more difficult to handle than their precious but often neglected
pets. Here, too, Kate eventually excels, through trial and error, resignation
and resolve, keeping in mind the needs of the animal each time she confronts
the difficult, demanding, and judgmental humans connected to them. Alert to
class indicators, within her own broken family and those of her clients—the comfortable,
the classy, the creepy—she not only matures, but earns insight into her own neediness
and hopes for the future. She and her employees gamely navigate the city’s challenging
geography and the intricacies of transportation logistics as her clientele
expands. But just as her reputation seems assured, the financial collapse of
2009 and ensuing recession threaten her small measure of success with corporate
ex-pat Americans and Londoners who abruptly decide that a dog walker is a
luxury too far in hard times. It is then, amidst all the stress and panic, that
her canine-averse fiancé suggests getting a dog of their own, an adventure in
itself, and a first true test of their solidity as a couple and their readiness
for marriage, parenthood, and an inevitable search for the ideal location in
which to live.
This is a memoir about dogs—endearing and
memorable and challenging ones—but it’s also very much about humans. How they
relate to their pets and other people, their ease or difficulty in doing the
right thing for themselves and their animals, how their good traits and bad
ones are revealed through their interactions with the dogs and the dog-walkers.
Not only is it beautifully, cleverly written, ultimately it is deeply moving
memoir of overcoming struggles and finding identity and purpose in the life of
a flawed but admirable young woman. (William Morrow, hardcover/ebook/audiobook,
6 July, 2021)
You Belong Here Now, Dianna Rostad’s debut historical novel, offers a complex and nuanced portrait of home life, community values, and persistent struggles facing a Montana ranching family in the 1920s. Their challenges multiply with the arrival of three fugitives from an orphan train traveling from New York City: teenager Charles, Irish immigrant Patrick, and scrawny Opal, all of whom have been rejected as adoptees in the course of their cross-country journey. Nara Stewart, the fiercely independent female protagonist, is dubious about keeping--much less adopting--the orphans, but the need of farm labor overcomes her reluctance. Charles, burdened by a violent and possibly criminal past, grows into a determined protector, not only of his fellow orphans, but the family who can't fully trust him but strive to redeem him. The characters' varied internal and external conflicts are realistically portrayed, the period detail is skillfully blended, and the harsh land itself—its wild creatures and pervasive threats--are depicted with flair and faithfulness. Very highly recommended. (April 6, 2021, William Morrow Books, paperback, 368 pp.)
In a well-organized collection of tips and hacks, Master Gardener Jon VanZile offers hundreds of time- and cost-saving suggestions for the indoor and outdoor garden. Workable and effective non-toxic and natural shortcuts are a valuable commodity, and this knowledge is creatively and systematically shared, numerically and through a searchable index. VanZile covers germination of seeds and propagation by cuttings, container plants, containers, care of tools, pest control, and collecting the harvest. Among the more interesting tips: using honey as a rooting hormone, seed starting in an ice cream cone (not the sugary kind), cinnamon as an anti-fungal treatment to protect seedlings from wilt, powdered milk as a calcium booster for tomatoes, and the myriad uses of coffee grounds.
For
some, the proposed outdoor decorations might go against personal aesthetics and
allowable degree of whimsy in the garden—re-purposing broken and discarded
objects into “funky displays” might not suit everyone’s style. But the wealth
of advice presented is sound and safe, and the presentation style is readable
and sincere. (Adams Media, paperback/ebook/audiobook, 256 pp., 6 April, 2021)
Kay's permissive yet tortured marriage to financier and sometime lyricist James Warburg, and her detached mothering of three daughters is overshadowed by focused commitment to Gershwin and her determination to promote her own musical gifts. And while creativity—solitary and mutual—lies at the core of the emotional and relational arc, embedded within the novel is an examination of ethnic and cultural identity in America as totalitarianism begins its inexorable march across Europe.
Elegantly-attired characters emerge from exquisite New York apartments to attend elite social gatherings and explore Harlem jazz joints. They endure rehearsal agonies and celebrate opening nights. Throughout, Kaplan's skill and the lovers' looming fate propel the reader towards a poignant but inevitable conclusion. (March 2, Gallery Books, hardcover, 352 pp.)
Comedic and elegiac, farcical and tragic, complex and engrossing, Leslie Epstein’s Hill of Beans is an energetic and entertaining depiction of the symbiotic relationship between moviemaking and warmongering. This detailed and imaginative representation of Hollywood dynamics and military events, before and during World War II, is revealed through the minds and motives of multiple characters. The disparate witnesses are Abdul Maljan, ex-pugilist and masseuse to film mogul Jack Warner and President Roosevelt, Warner himself, the fictional half-Jewish German starlet he lures to Hollywood, the Reich Minister Joseph Goebbels, and gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. With the later addition, at the height of World War II, of Joseph Stalin and General George S. Patton.
The connections between the film
industry, politics, and war, are wittily and movingly drawn. The author’s
uncles, twin screenwriters Philip and Julius Epstein—Academy Award winners for Casablanca—would have loved this
fictional version of their boss, the priapic punster Warner, their own antics,
and the haphazard creation of their iconic film.
London and the Seventeenth Century: The Making of the World's Greatest City
