Inside of a Dog, Alexandra Horowitz

Similar to The Art of Racing in the Rain, this book has a close-up of a dog on the cover. Inside of a Dog is non-fiction, however. This book addresses what dogs know, how they think, and our misconceptions of their "feelings." It talks about how we tend to use anthropomorphisms to describe them. That's not to say that dogs don't have feelings; they just express them in different ways. Horowitz had a nice writing style, and I enjoyed reading her explanations. Another author could have just as easily made this so boring, as I'm not that interested in dogs, but I was really hooked to this book. Horowitz made things simple enough that you could understand without being a scientist and had interesting facts, theories, and explanations. Also, unlike some science books I could mention, the print wasn't this small and I could read it well. I'm not saying that I have anything against books with tiny print; they just are kind of off-putting, if you know what I mean. For anyone, I would reccommend this book, but especially if you're a dog lover. Inside of a Dog will give you a new perspective on your canine friend (if you have one.) And even though I don't have a dog, I learned a lot about dogs. For example, do they really lick your face as a sign of affection? Do they really like those raincoats that you put on them? Something I enjoyed was that Horowitz used her own dog, "Pump" (Pumpernickel) as an example to illustrate her various points. It gave a concrete basis for what she was talking about rather than forcing you to imagine a dog doing something. 4.5 stars, 297 pages.