The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs by Patricia B. McConnell

246 pages

Long before there was the dog whisperer, there was…Patricia McConnell. McConnell is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist with a Ph.D. in Zoology, but her expertise in training dogs comes as much from her decades of experience on a sheep farm as from her formal education. I picked up The Other End of the Leash because I wanted some guidance regarding the dogs in my life. It proved very useful in that regard, especially in calling my attention to how human behavior, down to the most indiscernible gesture or flash of eye contact, can affect dogs in very dramatic ways. And in how drastically we—dogs versus humans—differ in terms of our senses. McConnell illustrates this with a moving story about how her cat was rescued from certain death, thanks to her Border Collie’s keen sense of smell. But aside from being a how-to manual, it’s a compelling and well-written read for anyone interested in animal or human behavior.

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? By Roz Chast

228 pages

I’ve always been a fan of Roz Chast’s cartoons in the New Yorker, but this memoir gave me a much deeper appreciation of her work. In Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? Roz Chast gives an honest account (often brutally so) of her experience caring for her aging parents. Her descriptions in words and pictures of her parents’ Brooklyn apartment are so vivid that at times I almost felt claustrophobic. Like many of their generation, the Chasts grew up with nothing and felt the need to keep everything through the years. I especially liked the drawing of a decades-old oven mitt of her mother’s that had been patched with fabric from a decades-old dress of Roz’s. On a more serious note, Roz talks in-depth about her relationship with her mother, which ever since childhood was more fraught than her easy relationship with her dad. She describes her mother’s stubbornness and angry outbursts (which her mom called “a blast from Chast”) and how a favorite line of her mother’s when she was growing up was “I’m your mother, not your friend.” Towards the end Roz wonders what it might have been like if her mom could have tried to be both, but realizes that it’s too late in their relationship for that. A handful of photographs throughout the book serve as a nice reminder that these are real people, not just caricatures (not to mention the adorable photos of a stoic, young Roz), as do the touching poems written by Roz’s eloquent mother. Don’t let the fact that Roz Chast keeps her parents’ ashes in her closet fool you; this beautiful portrait of the aging and dying of two amazing people does more to honor her parents than a fancy urn on the mantelpiece ever could.