A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me - Hardcover

Katz, Jon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375502971 ISBN 13: 9780375502972

Publisher: Villard, 2002

Synopsis

“Change loves me, defines and stalks me like a laser-guided smart bomb. It comes at me in all forms, suddenly and with enormous impact, from making shifts in work to having and raising a kid to buying a cabin on a distant mountaintop. Sometimes, change comes on four legs.”

In his popular and widely praised Running to the Mountain, Jon Katz wrote of the strength and support he found in the massive forms of his two yellow Labrador retrievers, Julius and Stanley. When the Labs were six and seven, a breeder who’d read his book contacted Katz to say she had a dog that was meant for him—a two-year-old border collie named Devon, well bred but high-strung and homeless. Katz already had a full canine complement, but instinct overruled reason, and soon thereafter he brought Devon home.

A Dog Year: Twelve Months, Four Dogs, and Me is the story of how Devon and Jon—and Julius and Stanley—came to terms with each other. It shows how a man discovered a lot about himself through one dog (and then another) whose temperament seemed as different from his own as day is from night. It is a story of trust and understanding, of life and death, of continuity and change. It is by turns insightful, hilarious, and deeply moving.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Praise for A Dog Year

“A great book that dog lovers will definitely enjoy.”
–Booklist

“The story line of Katz’s latest book can be summed up very simply–two dogs die and two new ones join the family
but its charm comes from an intricate blend of witty anecdote and touching reflection.”
–Publishers Weekly

“A surfeit of tail-wagging, face-licking love.”
–Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Running to the Mountain

“A wonderful book — personal, moving, funny... to call a book a perfect gift always seems slightly patronizing, but I already have a long list of names — yes aging baby boomers — I’m intending to give Running to the Mountain.”
–USA Today

“A funny, moving, and triumphant voyage of the soul... Katz finds faith not by running away, but by realizing that spiritual sustenance comes from within — from the decency with which we handle our roles as spouses, parents, and friends.”
–Boston Globe

“You’ll love this book.... In the end, we admire Katz, not for the spiritual grace that he seeks but for the grace he finds: the grace of fatherhood, husbandhood, of tending fully to those who depend on him to be a source of stability in their world.”
–Men’s Journal

“Candid and inspiring... Katz has much to be proud of: he faced himself, he rearranged himself, and he came back to write movingly of the experience.”
–Washington Post Book World
Praise for Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho
“In Geeks, Katz displays a deft reporter’s touch and shows us the geek truth, rather than simply telling us about it.... Too often, writing about the on-line world lacks emotional punch, but Katz’s obvious love for his ‘lost boys’ gives his narrative a rich taste.”
-New York Times Book Review

“Geeks is a story of triumph, friendship, love, and above all, about being human and reaching for dreams in a hard-wired world.”
-Seattle Times

“A touching page-turner about social outcasts using technology to wriggle free of dead-end lives.”
-U.S. News & World Report

“An uplifting and hugely compassionate book.”
-Philadelphia Inquirer

About the Author

Jon Katz has written eleven books, six novels and five works of nonfiction. A two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award, he has written for The New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone, and Wired. He currently writes about technology, media, and culture for the Web site Slashdot.org, and is a contributing editor to public radio’s Marketplace and to Bark magazine. A member of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, he lives in northern New Jersey with his wife, Paula Span, a reporter for The Washington Post, and their college-student daughter, Emma Span. Jon Katz can be e-mailed at jonkatz3@comcast.net or jonkatz@slashdot.org.

About this edition

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0375502971
• ISBN 13: 9780375502972
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224