Staff Picks

If you are interested in the new findings in research on our canine friends The Genius of Dogs by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods is a great book to look at. 

Brian founded the Duke (as in University) Canine Cognition Center where they study dogs to help determine their true intelligence and how they learn.  This has been a fast growing area as scientists and behavioral studies experts around the globe have been finding out just how smart “man’s best friend” really is. 

If you are truly interested, you might even check out their website http://www.dognition.com that is an offshoot of their university work.  There are some sample activities you can try for free.  Additionally for a fee, you can join the studies and test your own dog with tests created by the Center.  Your results will be added to the others reported by “citizen scientists” and reviewed by the center.  It is not meant to signify “my dog is smarter than yours.”  Rather, it provides insights as to how your dog learns and how you might better communicate with your dog.

Joan Dudzinski
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

Have you ever taken care of a neighbor’s cat?

In Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles a freelance writer from London housesits in a gloomy unnamed Eastern Europe country.  One leather couch, two cats, a professional grade piano, an extremely delicate wooden floor, one hostile housekeeper and a few dozen bottles of wine – what could possibly go wrong?  A lot more than you could ever imagine. 

Humor and action give this literary novel real appeal.  Like red wine on light wood, what starts out as a simple story turns quite a bit darker.  Fans of Franz Kafka, Edgar Allan Poe and Charlie Chaplin films will appreciate the metamorphoses of both character and setting in Care of Wooden Floors.

Before the neighbors drop off their keys this summer make sure you've read Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles.   It's definitely the funniest and most original book you'll ever read about housesitting.       

Alicia Cavitt
Information Specialist

Staff Picks

Two of my favorite recent novels couldn’t be more different.

The Dinner by Herman Koch is a novel originally published in the Netherlands which has become an international bestseller.  Two couples meet at a fancy restaurant and, as they eat their very sophisticated dinner, more is revealed about their relationships and the real reason they have met: to discuss a terrible crime committed by their teenaged sons.  Critics have compared The Dinner to another hot novel, Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl.  (I liked Gone Girl, but I liked The Dinner more.)  Claire Messud writes in The New York Times: “There is a bracing nastiness to this book that grows ever more intense with the turning of its pages.  It will not please those who seek the cozy, the redemptive or the uplifting.”

 Much less misanthropic is The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, a sweeping novel that follows the lives of a group of six creative people who meet as teenagers at a summer camp for the arts.  It is a very satisfying read about love and friendship, with likable characters.  Critics have compared The Interestings to Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  (I liked Freedom and The Marriage Plot, but I liked The Interestings more.)

Stephen Kight
Assistant Director for Public Services