The Purest Bond

An entertaining, thoroughly researched and profoundly informative book addressing the tremendous impact dogs have on human lives.

 

“Dogs…serve as a sort of balm to the mental health struggles and ongoing stress that are plaguing people worldwide. Our canine companions help us feel grounded and present-minded, leading by example,” writes authors Jenn Golbeck (The Golden Ratio Cookbook) and Stacey Colino (Unlock Your Menopause Type). In The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection, they present an entertaining, insightful treatise on the impact dogs have on human life. This writing duo--with accomplished backgrounds in academic, scientific, and psychological issues--weaves together groundbreaking research and down-to-earth stories that explore the many benefits of the human-canine bond.

 

Supported by scientific information, the narrative weaves in psychological studies examining how dogs impact, support, and improve the mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the human condition. A thorough section on aging dogs and coping with loss and grief is most compassionately rendered.

 

“In exchange for us feeding, loving, and caring for them, (dogs) pay us back many times over.” The gratifying research culled and entertainingly presented by Golbeck and Colino, will change the lives of dog lovers and readers similarly.

 

The Purest Bone: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection by Jen Golbeck and Stacey Colino

Atria Books, $28.00 hardcover, 9781668007846, 256 pages

Publishing Date: November 14, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

The Perfect Other: A Memoir of My Sister

A hauntingly reflective memoir details the intricacies of mental illness and the bonds of sisterly love and loyalty in this life--and beyond.

Deep, everlasting love, grief and the mysteries of mental illness are undercurrents that propel The Perfect Other, a chilling, moving memoir by Kyleigh Leddy. A graduate of Boston College now in pursuit of her master's in social work, Leddy grapples with the life and loss of her older sister, Kait, a young woman affected by schizophrenia.

 

Leddy has spent a large part of her young life grappling with the sudden and unexplained disappearance of her 22-year-old sister, Kait, last seen on a frigid January night in 2014. Security cameras show that her older sister took a taxi to the foot of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge in Philadelphia, Pa., ascended to the highest point and then disappeared. It is believed she jumped; however, her body was never recovered. Thus, her whereabouts remains a mystery--one that haunts Leddy and sets her on a course to make sense of the shocking tragedy, both personally and through a more psychologically clinical lens.

 

Through a sensitively drawn, stream-of-conscious narrative--spurred by a "Modern Love" column Leddy published in the New York Times--she stitches together remembered fragments and pivotal scenes from the life she, her mother and father shared with Kait. After sustaining a head injury, Kait started to exhibit concerning erratic behaviors that took inexplicable, unruly--often violent--turns. Leddy's raw search for understanding, meaning and peace grants readers a rare personal glimpse into the universal mysteries of mental illness and the long-lasting traumatic effects it has on those afflicted, as well as those in its orbit.

 

The Perfect Other: A Memoir by Kyleigh Leddy

Mariner Books, $28.99 hardcover, 9780358469346, 304 pages

Publication Date: March 8, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 8, 2022), link HERE

To read the longer form of this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (January 7, 2022), link HERE

The Great Grisby

Part history book, part memoir, The Great Grisby written by Oxford-educated, Mikita Brottman, PhD (Thirteen Girls) is a fascinating exploration of how dogs have changed people and the world in myriad ways. Brottman acquired her first dog, Grisby—a lovable, French bulldog—when she was close to 40 years-old. Her eight-year "love affair" with Grisby encouraged her to better understand their mutual affinity and the many roles dogs have historically played in the lives of others who share their loyal companionship. In the process, she unearthed a trove of information about the ineffable bond between notable humans and their canines.

Over 26 chapters, Brottman analyzes many stories including those of avant-gardes Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and their string of standard poodles; poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her inseparable connection to her cocker spaniel, Flush; Philosopher Schopenhauer and his attachment to all his dogs, always named Atma; Freud's late-life fondness for chows, especially females; Picasso and his curious relationship with Lump, his beloved dachshund; and aristocratic dogs including Prince Albert's greyhound, Eos, and Russian Princess Tatiana and Ortipo, the French bulldog gifted to her by a grateful soldier. Also included are references to the dogs of politicians and in-depth depictions of canines as featured in literature from Charles Dickens to Albert Camus.

Interspersed throughout short chapters, the author shares lively, personal anecdotes about Grisby and how he served as "a buffer...and a bridge" keeping Brottman connected to a world she concludes is generally more empathic because of human-canine kinship. 

The Great Grisby: Two Thousand Years of Literary, Royal, Philosophical, and Artistic Dog Lovers and Their Exceptional Animals by Mikita Brottman

Harper, $25.99 Hardcover, 9780062304612, 288 pp

Publication Date: October 7, 2014

To order this book via INDIEBOUND link HERE

Note: This review is a reprint and is being posted (in a slightly different form) with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (10/14/14), click HERE