When our rescue pup Cookie meets a new person, her instinct is to be wary. I’ve seen the hackles go up on her back and her ears and tail alert. But if I say, “be nice” I can see her shift to the point where I swear she’s even giving a little smile.
You see, she’s trying to be good. She’s struggling to do the right thing against a nature, or some bad nurturing, in her past.
This will sound familiar to Mark Rowlands. He is a philosopher and a dog lover and his dog, Shadow, also wrestles with doing the right thing.
Rowlands’ new book, “The Word of Dog,” argues that dogs, with their uncomplicated joy, unbridled happiness and commitment to action give us direction toward a more fulfilled life.
He writes in his new book that although dogs have no idea what philosophy is, they live the big questions. “It is through their lives that they impart philosophical lessons…”
Minnesota author Peter Geye is heading to Duluth for a special spring edition of Talking Volumes. Join Kerri Miller for a conversation with Geye at St. Scholastica on May 1.
What if liberals’ penchant for scarcity has been holding America back from solving our most challenging problems? That’s the thesis of Derek Thompson and Ezra Klein’s provocative new book, “Abundance.”
In a politically divided time, perhaps we can find common ground in a good book. Ask a Bookseller has been reaching out to independent booksellers across the country, and they’ve recommended books of hope and connection to others and to the planet.
A brave hummingbird does what she can to fight a fire in Sascha Alper’s new book. It was one of the last projects illustrator Jerry Pinkney worked on before he died. His son Brian finished it for him.
“Buffering the Vampire Slayer” podcasters Jenny Owen Youngs and Kristin Russo write about their community of fans, and how it helped them keep working together after a split, in “Slayers, Every One of Us.”
These books confront readers with the recent past and distant future, bring them to southeastern Africa and an alternative Japan, and bedeck their pages with subversive cartoons and lush landscapes.
