About book Things Your Dog Doesn't Want You To Know: Eleven Courageous Canines Tell All (2012)
Aspen picked this book up at the library when we were looking for some puppy training books and when she saw that both Steve Martin and Mr. Monk (Tony Shaloub) endorsed it, she rushed it to the check out counter. We thought it would be a fun, fluffy read and on the whole it was. Tinkerbell the Chihuahua and Moonbeam the mutt were my favorites. Moonbeam is clearly a Durango doggie all the way. I nearly lost my breath laughing at some of Moonbeam's antics! So, when we read the final entry and ended the book down, unhappy and CRYING, I was pretty miffed. (Even the comment about doggie heaven being the same place as squirrel hell didn't pull the ending out.) I HATE animal books that end with the animals dying. This wasn't even a real animal biography, so why were we forced to reach for the tissues at the end? So this is a case of "don't judge a book by it's cover" and also "seriously do your research before you sign up for a book tour." Because the fact that I didn't enjoy this book is 100% my fault. See, what happened is that I saw the adorable cover with the cute little puppy faces and decided based on the title that it was going to contain dog facts/training advice. I glossed over the summary and didn't read the exerpt because I thought it would be like "I'm not a person" and then a little paragraph about how it's important not to treat your dog like a child and why. Which is what I wanted to read But it's actually humorous essays from a dog's point of view and it's not really advice it's more like what your pet would say if he or she could talk.So it's not that the book isn't funny or that it wasn't well written, it's that it's in a genre that I just don't find all that entertaining. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that my review is totally biased and it's totally my fault because I went into the book with faulty expectations. That said, I'm going to do my best to review the book based on its merits and not on how it didn't meet my expectations.WritingCutesy I think is the best way to describe it. There are 11 different dogs, each of which has his or her own personality. Each dog also has a story line - there's the German Shepherd who is looking for a job, an elderly Cocker Spaniel who is dealing with age, a Bloodhound who wants to be a movie star rather than a hunter, etc. Each story has a cute picture to go along with it. It's something you'd find in the humor section at Barnes and Noble - one of those books with as many pictures as words and something funny on each page? Do you know what I'm talking about? Am I making any sense?Entertainment ValueAgain, I think this was really just meant for a different audience with different expectations. I personally wasn't all that entertained. Straightforward literal humor just isn't my thing. But I think this does have a huge potential for readers who prefer that kind of humor. I can think of several friends and family members off the top of my head who would love this kind of book - I'll probably be passing it on to one of them.OverallIt wasn't my thing. I didn't love it. But I don't think that means that the book wasn't successful for what it was intended to be - a humorous collection examining life from a dog's point of view. Like I said, I think that had I not jumped on the book for its adorable cover and paid more attention, I would have had a more accurate understanding going in. Lesson learned. But I do think the book is perfect for many readers and there are quite a few people I'll recommend it to. Thanks to TLC for letting me part of the tour! Click here for a list of other tour stops.
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Nice light read that made me laugh and smile - and hug my dogs more.
—eringolke
