Synopses & Reviews
Review
Despite its title, this collection of personal essays from Cole (Toxic Feedback) is not a dog book. Instead, this is a person book, and its scope is personal, for better or worse. Cole shares her most private thoughts: her worries that her husband is not her best friend”; her obsession with her previous book's Amazon.com rankings; her shock, after friend-ing her high school crush on Facebook, only to discover that he is an aggressive poster of right-wing rants
Nevertheless, by the end of this friendly, honest book, the reader will feel much affection for Cole, her little brood, and her bad dog.” Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Eli the Chihuahua, also known as Eee-Pie-Pie,” is a very bad dog. At only nine pounds he has discovered how to defy a $900 invisible fence system. He pees on imported Italian silk fabric. He wont let anyone pet the family cat in peace. And yet, his owner, Joni B. Cole, has accidently ranked him higher than her husband and kids on her happy list” and imagined kidnapping scenarios when a paperwork mix-up threatened to relocate him after his adoption went through.
In answer to countless memoirs recently published about shiny-coated yellow labs, or similar loping breeds, Cole brings new energy to the bad dog” genre with her pup, a tiny mutt with blackish, fuzzy fur and big, pointy ears. To the purebred breeders of the world, the closest Cole can guess is that Eli is a disheveled Chihuahua Bat.
Cole's talent for turning everyday moments into hilarious and meaningful episodes show that even the smallest occasions can mean a huge amount of laughter. The lessons Cole has learned from being a mother, wife and pet owner are more practical than heartwarming, and her charismatic voice is more honest than sentimental (Unfortunately, my career as an author had not been going so well these past couple years, not since Id discovered the Watch Instantly option on NetFlix”). Another Heartwarming and Hilarious Dog Story offers a message of simple love through essays of everyday proportions.
Synopsis
In this collection of twenty-eight riotously funny and outrageously honest” true-life tales, author Joni B. Cole manage to mingle low moments with high comedy; and social awkwardness with social observation.
The title essay was inspired when the author went to the bookstore and noticed all the bestsellers about adorably naughty dogs. At first resentful of these other writers successes (Unfortunately, my own career as an author had not been going so well these past couple years, not since Id discovered the Watch Instantly option on Netflix”), Cole eventually realized she had her own bad-dog story to exploithers in the form of her adorable Chihuahua Bat,” who wont be contained by invisible fencing and wont let anyone pet the family cat in peace. Yet from this huffish beginning evolved a tale as heartwarming as it is hilarious.
Self-aware, edgy, and masterfully crafted, this charismatic collection (including some heartbreakers) is for anyone who has ever felt over-attached to a pet, stalked her high school crush, said long goodbyes to loved ones, or tried to talk (and talk and talk) her way through the ups and downs of life. A wonderful new addition to a genre best described as humor that matters.
About the Author
Author of
Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive,
Library Journal strongly recommended” the book for writers, teachers, and workshops. Joni B. Cole is also founding creator of the acclaimed
This Day in the Life series, a three-book collection of women's daily lives. Her humor and human interest essays have appeared in her monthly newspaper column as well as assorted literary journals. She is also a frequent contributor to
The Writer magazine. Co-founder of the Writers Center in White River Junction, Vermont, Cole has taught writing for over fifteen years, and is a popular speaker at writing conferences around the country. She lives in Hartford, Vermont with her husband and two daughters.