Our latest book club pick is the cute and clever Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue. We both have soft spots for rescue dogs (although Lisa's chewed her favorite shoe as she was writing this post and she is NOT happy about it) and love the premise behind this must-read novel that's out just in time for spring break.
And we have a copy for giveaway! Lucky you! Just leave a comment to be entered to win. Contest closes March 19th at 6pm PST.
The scoop: The USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls returns with an unforgettably poignant and funny tale of love and loss, confronting our fears, and moving on . . . with the help of a poodle, a mutt, and a Basset retriever named Seymour.
As a pet bereavement counselor, Maggie Brennan uses a combination of empathy, insight, and humor to help patients cope with the anguish of losing their beloved four-legged friends. Though she has a gift for guiding others through difficult situations, Maggie has major troubles of her own that threaten the success of her counseling practice and her volunteer work with a dog rescue organization.
Everything changes when a distraught woman shows up at Maggie’s office and claims that her dog has been stolen. Searching the streets of San Francisco for the missing pooch, Maggie finds herself entangled in a mystery that forces her to finally face her biggest fear-and to open her heart to new love.
Packed with deep emotion and charming surprises, Dog Crazy is a bighearted and entertaining story that skillfully captures the bonds of love, the pain of separation, and the power of our dogs to heal us.
Our thoughts: We're both huge dog lovers and Meg Donohue fans, so this was a win-win for us!
Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue
1. We love the premise of DOG CRAZY. How did you come up with the idea?
Thank you! I knew that I wanted to write about the human-canine bond. I also know from experience how difficult it is to lose a beloved dog—I lost my dog “soul mate,” a Portuguese water dog named Oe, about six years ago and I still think about him every day. So I was thinking about how to write about dogs, and how much I still miss Oe, and the idea came to me to write a story from the perspective of a pet bereavement therapist. I met with a pet bereavement therapist in San Francisco in order to pick her brain and get a glimpse of the profession; our conversation fascinated me and solidified my desire to write this story. In addition, my current dog is a rescue dog and a truly wonderful companion and family member. My husband and I often ask ourselves where he would be if not for us, and where we would be if not for him. I loved the idea of writing about that relationship between people and their rescue dogs … that whole question of “who is rescuing whom?”
2. It's obvious through your writing that you're a dog lover, tell us about yours! (Is he/she the one in your author pic?)
Yes, the dog in my author photograph is our dog, Cole, the afore-mentioned rescue. We adopted him through an organization in San Francisco that brings homeless dogs over from Taiwan. We picked up Cole at the San Francisco International Airport in the company of several other families that were picking up his littermates. It was a very sweet, very fun scene. When we first adopted Cole, my husband and I had only been married for one year and we didn’t have any children. Now we have three young girls and Cole has welcomed each in own tolerant, patient manner. He is cherished by each of us.
3. The puppies on the cover of your book are too cute. What's the story behind the cover?
My editor sent me a couple of cover images to weigh in on. They were both great, but I just couldn’t resist these puppies. Maggie, the protagonist of DOG CRAZY, believes that spotting a puppy is good luck (it’s her version of spotting a heads-up penny), so in addition to just being doggone cute (sorry), the puppies suitably reflect the story. The only thing I asked was if the designer could add in something in the background to make it clear that this is a San Francisco-set story … through cover-design magic, the Golden Gate Bridge appeared.
4. What is something your readers might be surprised to know about you?
Readers know (or at least they do now!) that I am a huge dog lover, but they might be surprised to learn that for a long stretch of my life, horses were equally important to me. I started riding at a young age and became a barn rat by high school, spending many of my non-school hours roaming a horse farm just outside of Philadelphia. I kept riding into my twenties and was the captain of my college’s equestrian team (yes, I’m still quite proud of that!). So perhaps it was only a matter of time before I began working on…
5. What are you working on next?
… A horse novel! LOVE SONGS AFTER DARK is the story of a famous radio talk show host and her horse-obsessed teenage daughter. After a serious riding accident, the daughter undergoes a significant personality change, morphing from a shy wallflower to an outspoken risk taker. Since I can’t resist a love story or a mystery, there will be at least one of each in the story. It’s early days, but I’m enjoying getting to know these new c