Author:Jon Katz
When Jon took on a troublesome two-year-old Border Collie in A Dog Year, it turned his sedate life upside down and culminated in a move from suburbia to a rural farm.
But the contrary Collie - incredibly loyal but incredibly misbehaved - never settles down. Jon tries everything, obedience training, changing his name from Devon to Orson, even acupuncture, and it all helps a little, but not enough.
Together Jon and Orson chase sheep across high meadows, wade through snow, bask by a roaring stove and struggle to keep faith in each other. A story of great joy and heartbreak, in A Good Dog Jon faces the most difficult decision any dog lover has to make ...
Jon Katz understands dogs as few others do, intuitively and unburdened by sentimentality. His keen insights cut to the heart of the human-pet relationship - its immense joys and painful sorrows. With wisdom and grace, he unlocks the canine soul and the complicated wonders that lie within and offers powerful inights to anyone who has ever struggled with, and loved, a troubled animal
—— John Grogan, author of MARLEY AND MELike John Grogan's Marley and Me, A Good Dog shows how the intersection of canine and human can bsometimes result in profound love - as well as profound frustration ... A heartbreaking love story
—— USA TodayWe should all have such a companion
—— Washington Globe[A] loving tribute to that once-in-a-lifetime dog
—— Library JournalDawkins's writing demonstrates once again his consummate skill as an explainer... the topics are all laid out with that combination of clarity and verve that is [his] hallmark
—— GuardianA beautifully crafted and intelligible rebuttal of creationism and intelligent design
—— The TimesA voice of reason in irrational times, Richard Dawkins is both theorist and explainer of one of the greatest discoveries of the human mind
—— The TimesDawkins gathers up the weight of evidence into a huge lump and hurls it at us from the highest heights his rhetoric can scale... but his grandness of vision still dazzles
—— Sunday TelegraphWhether it's Lenski's bacteria or our own ancestors, Richard Dawkins discusses the evidence for evolution with his usual charm, style, clarity and brilliance
—— Simon Singh, author of 'Fermat’s Last Theorem'Dawkins is the Jeremy Clarkson of biology: an effervescent and opinionated enthusiast who loves to poke fun at opponents' idiocies
—— The Sunday TimesHe has lost none of his virtuosity in explanation, narration and the presentation of a clinching fact
—— Evening StandardDawkins remains a superb translator of complex scientific concepts ... he has a way of making the drollest details feel like a revelation
—— Publishers WeeklyThis is the book Richard Dawkins needed to write and many need to read - a comprehensive account of evolution which faces the difficulties and questions his critics have raised. In it he draws on his great ability to write about science in a way that is clear, absorbing and vivid
—— Lord Harries of Pentregarth (formerly Bishop Richard Harries)... He is an awesome thinker, a superb writer whose explanatory skills I envy, who dismisses his opponents with the thoroughness of a top silk
—— The TimesDawkins emerges like a prize-fighter, knocking out of the ring all objections
—— NatureMost importantly his writing radiates an intense sense of fascination. He is a great explainer, taking complex biological processes and making them accessible
—— IndependentIf you want to understand evolution, I doubt there are many better at explaining it to laymen than Dawkins... A writer who is red in tooth and pen, his opponents don't stand a chance
—— Scottish Sunday HeraldAn accessible, colourful and beautifully detailed look at many scientific wonders - whether it's the great variety of dogs or the sex life of orchids - and a great primer for those coming fresh to the subject
—— Irish TimesRichard Dawkin's new book... gives the fact-rejecters their just deserts
—— Daily TelegraphThe book is full of evidence, some familiar and some new. Its case is presented in a manner succinct, clear and sometimes vivid
—— Daily TelegraphNo other book currently available approaches Dawkin's comprehensive yet accessible treatment of the extraordinarily diverse and massive body of data that drives ineluctably to the same conclusion
—— National Center for Science EducationThe Greatest Show on Earth is a lucid, thorough and often exciting survey of evolution and takes in rats' teeth, dogs, bacteria, the so-called missing link, crustaceans, giraffe anatomy, hummingbirds, chimpanzees, enzymes - you name it. It is informed in nearly every paragraph by Mr. Dawkins's irrepressible enthusiasm
—— Sarah Lyall , New York TimesThe Greatest Show on Earth... is essential reading. I would currently rate it... as the best overall book on the evidence for Evolution
—— Marc E. Miquel , SCOPEThis is a magnificent book of wonderstanding: Richard Dawkins combines an artist's wonder at the virtuosity of nature with a scientist's understanding of how it comes to be
—— Matt Ridley, author of "Nature via Nurture"