New Releases this Week, Part Two

Born to Bark by Stanley Coren

Simon & Schuster -- Trade Paperback

"For Christmas the woman who would become my wife bought me a dog—a little terrier. The next year her Christmas gift to me was a shotgun. Most of the people in my family believe that those two gifts were not unrelated."

So begins Born to Bark, the charming new memoir by psychologist and beloved dog expert Stan Coren of his relationship with an irrepressible gray Cairn terrier named Flint. Stan immediately loved the pup for his friendly nature and indefatigable spirit, though his wife soon found the dog's unpredictable exuberance difficult to deal with, to say the least.

Even though Flint drove Stan's wife up the wall, he became the joy of Stan's life. The key to unlocking this psychologist-author's way of looking at dog behavior, Flint also became the inspiration behind Coren's classic, The Intelligence of Dogs. Undeterred by Flint's irrepressible behavior (and by the breeder's warning that he might be untrainable), Coren set out to prove that his furry companion could pass muster with the best of them. He persevered in training the unruly dog and even ventured into the competitive circles of obedience trials in dog shows, where Flint eventually made canine history as the highest-scoring Cairn terrier in obedience competition up to that time. (Stan chose not to tell his wife that the highest-ranking obedience dog of that year, a border collie, earned a total score that was fifty times higher.)

The longest-running popular expert on human-dog bonding, Coren has enlivened his respected books and theories about dogs with accounts of his own experiences in training, living with, loving, and trying to understand them. A consummate storyteller, Coren now tells the wry, poignant, goofy, and good-hearted tale of his life with the dog who (in the words of his own book titles) taught him How to Speak Dog and How Dogs Think and whose antics made him ask Why Does My Dog Act That Way? Illustrated with Coren's own delightful line drawings and photos, and interwoven with his heartfelt anecdotes of other beloved dogs from his earlier life, Born to Bark is an irresistible good dog/bad dog tale of this extraordinary, willful pooch and his profound impact on his master's insights into canine behavior as a research psychologist and on his outlook on life as a whole.

An Eagle Named Freedom by Jeff Guidry

Harper Collins -- Trade Paperback

“A hauntingly beautiful story of rescue and rehabilitation….[A] gorgeous tale of redemption.”
—Susan Richards, New York Times bestselling author of Chosen by a Horse
“I could not put this book down.”
—Stacey O'Brien, New York Times bestselling author of Wesley the Owl

In the tradition of A Lion Called Christian and Alex and Me comes An Eagle Named Freedom, Jeff Guidry’s remarkable story of how he rehabilitated a severely damaged bald eagle back to health—and how the majestic bird later inspired the author to triumph over cancer. Animal lovers and readers fascinated by the spiritual ties between animals and humans will not soon forget this beautiful, inspiring true tale of an extraordinary friendship.

Book Description

From the moment Jeff Guidry saw the baby eagle with broken wings, his life was changed. For weeks he and the staff at Sarvey Wildlife Care Center in Puget Sound, Washington, tended to the injured bird. Miraculously, she recovered, and Jeff, a center volunteer, became her devoted caretaker. Though Freedom would never fly, she had Jeff as her wings. And after Jeff was diagnosed with stage three non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2000, Freedom returned his gift. Between sessions of debilitating chemotherapy, Jeff’s visits to Freedom and their special bond soothed his spirit and gave him the strength to fight. A tender tale of hope, love, trust, and life, this moving true story is an affirmation of the spiritual connection that humans and animals share.