Book Review: Woodrow on the Bench - Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog (Boston, well-loved old dog)

Woodrow on the Bench: Life Lessons from a Wise Old Dog, by Jenna Blum (Harper Collins, 2021, 197pp PB, $17.99) 

"Sometimes, it seems, when you let people know what you're going through, help arrives when you're least expecting it, bringing you what you didn't know you needed, in forms above and beyond what you've ever imagined." p. 61

The Story of a Lab, His Life and Friends

I am partial to labs. OK, I am in love with labs, and black labs are classic. So I thought Woodrow on the Bench was about a judge and a trial.

Was I wrong! Woodrow is a lovely memoir of a Boston Labrador retriever who lived across the street from a park with a bench where he and his person, Martha, would  hang out and collect friends - for who can ignore a friendly lab!

Martha's love for Woodrow comes through on every page in the way she cares for him but, not only that, Martha's bevy of friends caring for him and for Martha, whom Woodrow left behind. We read starting in May, through to December, with each month having its own subtitle. And we empathize with Martha who struggles and struggles with the question, "When?" even as she carries "Kooks" (aka Woodrow) up and down three flights of stairs every day to his park bench and his myriad of friends who stop as they walk by.

We learn of one friend all the way over in Minnesota who comes for a last visit. We meet several Boston authors, friends of both Martha and Woodrow, who come to help. Even the doorman has a special place in his heart for Woodrow - and some dog biscuits.

This is a short read for it contains the Quality of Life questionnaire (one of several) and short inter-chapters.

A Love Story

The inscription reads: "For Woodrow and for anyone who's ever loved an old dog. . . . " so have some Kleenex at the ready.

Book Review: White Cat, Black Dog (short stories)

White Cat, Black Dog, by Kelly Link (Random  House, 2023, $18, 276 pp PB) 

This is not my usual book review in which I write about plot and style. White Cat, Black Dog is a hard book to review, for me. I always have a difficult time reviewing a collection of short stories: the plots vary too much as do, sometimes, the writing. 

I wanted to read White Cat because it is short, has Dog in the title and comes highly recommended. Author Kelly Link is highly regarded: she won a MacArthur Genius Grant. 

So, how could I go wrong? I generally like books other reviewers like and pan those that others also pan. Sometimes I am the lone voice in the wilderness. 

The stories did get better and more understandable but I just don't see how they could be the basis of a book club selection or the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle  (CLSC) list for 2026 or even a finalist for the 2024 Chautauqua Prize. Obviously many people disagree with me. You might, too.

A collection of seven stories can usually be read in any order, so I started with one of the short ones, sort of in the middle. It was hard for me to understand: I found even sentences were hard to comprehend. The premise is great however: stories that are modern day remakes of the Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales.

Book Review: A Dog Named 647 (middle-grade adventure, puppy mills)

A Dog Named 647, by Nancy Kay (Speaking for Spot Press, 212 pp PB $10.99, 2025, 11+ years)

You're a 12 year-old girl and it's summertime in Missouri. You live with your mom. You have wanted a dog all your life but your mom is afraid of dogs after a childhood incident. And to top it all off, your dad moved to another state plus too often your brilliant best friend and you get into spats. Thus the stage is set for an inspiring story of a dog and a girl, a very brave and ingenuous girl.

Riveting

This reviewer received A Dog Named 647 in the mail today and devoured it in one sitting. 

But I knew I would. Leery at first, I hesitated to open this book - I am such a wuss and I knew author Nancy Kay would be touching on some serious issues, but the trials and tribulations of middle school, divorce, bullying and puppy mills were handled with great care and sensitivity.

647 is a story about friendship, about families, about love and forgiveness, about steadfastness, and about taking risks - all for the love of a pregnant dog who temporarily escaped a terrible situation. 

Even the title, A Dog Named 647, is riveting, along with the cover illustration whose dog's body language says it all - and accurately.

What's it All About?

Raising money to buy a dog at an auction, researching the internet, sneaking out at night with your best friend to gather photographic evidence, convincing the authorities to raid a puppy mill thus saving hundreds of dogs, understanding your mother's foibles and moving slowly with her fears as well as those of fearful dogs.

Author Nancy Kay is also a veterinarian so she understands dogs. And she is an author of two books* that will enhance the bond between human and animal by using education and sensitivity.

We loved this book and believe it will spark a new movement among middle-school dog lovers like Kids United for Animal Welfare. It's just what the doctor ordered!

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*Speaking for Spot

Your Dog's Best Health

Book Review: Scout Hits the Trail (with CD)

Scout Hits the Trail, by Liam O'Donnell (Soundprints, 2008, $4.95, 32pp PB, ages 4-8, preschool to grade 2), a Pet Tales book, with assistance from the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA)

Do you remember how, when you were a kid, you had one or two read-along books and took them everywhere you went? You would look at the story and listen to it being read just for you. Maybe that's even the way you learned to read! Or, pretended to.

Soundprints has published a wonderful story, approved by the AVMA, about a  yellow labrador retriever named Scout and who goes on a hike with his family. Everyone carries something, even Scout. After lunch, Scout saves the day but, just how, will be revealed not by me but by reading and listening to Scout Hits the Trail.

Inspired by a real dog, Scout is also depicted with appropriate body language in illustrations that seem almost to be photographs, and not only is there a glossary in the back but also a page about taking care of your dog - in the heat of summer, with an ID collar and leash on at all times, and advice about not interacting with wild animals.

Definitely a book to use daily - and keep!

Book Review: Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About (dog rescue, young woman in NYC coming of age)

Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About, by Isabel Klee (HarperCollins, 2026, 288pp HB, $19.60)

This review is here because the word, Dogs, comes before the word, Boys, in the title! And because we have put it on your To Read List for 2026. A warm, funny, inspirational book, Dogs, Boys, and Other Things I've Cried About is a book you will race through, hardly believing it could be true but loving it nevertheless.

Our heroine, Isabel, has lived many lives before she is 30 - lived in many apartments with many roommates and boys, fostered many dogs, spent many nights partying in New York City bars. . . .

A Gem of a Book

A little gem, with an added bonus that I didn't notice until about chapter 5 are the faint outlines of a dog at the top of each chapter. I wondered if their breed might foretell something about the content of the chapter but I didn't want to take the time  to analyze the possible connection. Suffice it to say that perhaps the drawings did, perhaps they didn't.

And I would suggest  paying attention to not the chapter titles as much as the months and years preceding each chapter (I didn't).

Author Isabel Klee has also given us a gift in the chapter on losing a pet and how it differs from losing a parent or other close someone. "When you lose a dog, it's impossible to imagine ever loving again. Then, one day, you stumble across another dog who needs you, and it just makes sense. . . choosing the inevitable heartbreak that comes at the end of a dog's life. They were going into it knowing how much it would hurt one day and doing it anyway. Because the loss is excruciating; there's no way around it. But the in-between is pure magic." (p. 169)

And the Story is. . . . 

The author is dog-crazy and searching for love in the Bog City. She also has a great day job with dogs. And, she fosters dogs with issues and turns them around, just by being accepting - a lesson for all of us. I would love to meet her!

A party girl, her life was exhausting for me but parts of it I envied. Does she ever truly find "true love'? (apart from dogs, that is.)

Now I am ready for her next book on more canine characters and how she loved them back to physical and emotional health!

I give this book an A-. Like Kristin Hannah's, it is emotionally exhausting but I was sad when it ended.

Book Review: Magic Hour (PNW, child: lost and found)

Magic Hour, by Kristin Hannah (Ballantine Books, 432pp, 2010, $14.00)

Remember Love Story starring Ali MacGraw and Ryan O'Neal back in the 70s? Remember it wasn't a love story between the two of them but between O'Neal's character and his father? 

New York Times' bestselling author Kristin Hannah's 15th novel is likewise the story of a little girl lost and found but primarily about two grown-up sisters (the reader actually likes and identifies with both of them). The older one, a cheerleader, becomes the town sheriff while the younger, quieter, studious one becomes a child psychiatrist who sort of runs into trouble and is asked to come home to help out her hometown, which she does. 

Magic Hour is also about forgiving, and growing up as adults after failed marriages and also about the questionable involvement of the media and its ability to twist events just a little. Throw in a disappearance or two, a prison sentence, and the beautiful Pacific Northwest and you may just fall in love with and read the rest of Hannah's work.

Magic Hour is a fast read but not because there is a lot of dialogue. Rather, because the story is so compelling and the pace is riveting. You may just devour it in one weekend, taking it with you wherever you go, on the chance you can read a quick chapter or two. 

Truly a love story about growing up and growing better and helping each other along the way, including the little girl who may just be the real winner after all.

Book Review: My Friends (teens, 25 years later)

My Friends, by Frederik Backman (Marble Sky Corporation, 390 pp, 2023, ages 16 and up, $19 PB)

A very unusual read from a Swedish author that might take you halfway through before you identify with the characters but the rest of the book is well worth it: your reading speed will accelerate and along the way you will guess at what happens - sometimes you will be wrong, though sometimes you will be right.

A group of 14-year-olds who are as tight as any friends (and any age) can be which astonished me, a senior citizen who tried to remember the summer when I was 14. Three boys and a girl (eventually) and how they spend their summer days together (sometimes pilfering, but always supporting each other). 

Other major characters in the book are the pier (though I would call it a dock) and the painting of three friends sitting on the end of the dock, the debut work of one whose name is revealed only near the end.

The prolific author of other books on my Must-Read list, My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry (with a dog on the cover) and Beartown, Frederik Backman has a very unusual style of writing. Like many others, he tells his story by going back and forth over 25 years but he also drops in a sentence here and there that are simply unforgettable gems - and these increase with frequency as the story progresses.

I only wish a reading guide had been included with questions for book clubs but, no doubt, this book will be studied for a long time.