National Dog Day Reading List

 


 


Love dogs?  Check out these books.  Unless noted, the dog doesn’t die.

 

Thor by Wayne Smith – what does a dog do when a werewolf threatens his family.  Read this short and compelling novel to find out.  This is a movie of this book.  Good cast, but bad movie. 

 

Plague Dogs by Richard Adams – Adams is better known for Watership Down, and like that novel Plague Dogs is a novel with a message – stop animal experimental.  It is a book that will make you cry, but the dogs do not die.  There is a cartoon of this book.

 

The Sunnybank Series and various other dog books by Albert Payson Terhune – New Jersey native, Terhune wrote books about his collies (Warning, the books sometimes end with the dog dying, usually of old age) as well as fictional stories about dogs, usually collies, though he does have a fondness for mutts.  His most famous is Lad: A Dog.  They sometimes get classified as children’s but are really for all ages.

 

Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly.  I tend not like lap dogs.  Sometimes I even say you shouldn’t be able to punt dogs, but Hambly’s historical fantasy made me apprentice Pekingese dogs. 

 

The Samuel Johnson series by John Connelly.  Sam Johnson, no not that one, has a dog named Boswell.  The series is even fun for adults.

 

Walter the Farting Dog by William Kotzwinkle.  Does your dog have smelly farts?  As in clear the room farts?  Try this book on for size.

The Coyote Road edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling – collection of canine featuring fantasy short stories.  As with anything edited by either lady (separately or together), it is a wonderful collection.

Flush: A Biography by Virgina Woolf – it is fitting that Woolf wrote this fictional memoir of the Brownings (Elizabeth and Robert) dog.  It actually has some humor in it.

 

Jack London – Look, if you are reading this post and you don’t know why he is mentioned.  Start with White Fang!




Photo by Christine Ethier on August 26, 2020. Image may contain: dog, table and indoor.

 

Oweny the Mascot of the Mail Service by James Bruns.  This short biography of Oweny, a dog who become a world traveler, is good.  Oweny traveled the world and you can see him, well the stuffed him, at National Postal Museum in DC, one of the best museums there.  The book does end with his death.

 





Jim Kjelgaard – wrote dog books and dog books.  Geared towards younger readers, they usually involve a boy and his dog.  My favorites are Outlaw Red and Snow Dog.

 

Baree the Story of  a Wolf Dog by James Curwood – what the title says.  But Curwood understood dogs so it makes a great read.

James Herriot’s Dog Stories -though I suggest reading all the Herriot books, this collection focuses on dogs.  Keep in mind that Herriot was a vet, so sometimes the dog dies.

Avery Barks Cozy Dog Mysteries by Mary Hiker.  I have only read two of these, but they feature a woman and her rescue dog.  They are fun and make good use of the dogs.

Beasts of Burden by Evan Dorkin -  This comic series details the work of a group of dogs that protect their neighborhood from various ghosts and ghouls.  There is death and one of the stories has a very dark crime at its core (but it is a good story). 

 

The Incredible Journey by Shelia Bunford – seriously, this book deserves the attention it gets.

We3 by Grant Morrison – this graphic novel is very much like the Plague Dogs but with a military bent.  (warning, death).

 

The Wolf in the Whale by Jordana Max Brodsky – this fantasy novel speculates about a meeting between the Inuit and the Vikings.  Dogs feature prominently in the book.



The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher
– horror book with a very lovable dog.  Kingfisher has said she does not kill dogs in her books.

 

 

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