[.uk] What Wendell Wants: or, How to Tell If You're Obsessed ...

Recommended for any dog owner:
We bought a Papillon and the breeder who sold her to us highly recommended this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was hard to tell how much was "real" versus made up or exaggerated in the telling, but regardless, it was a good read, if only to convince myself that I'm not that obsessed with our dogs!

Quick entertaining read, but recommend others instead:
I found this book to be quite funny in its accounts of life with Wendall (or more so life with Jenny who worries about Wendall). I smiled and chuckled often as I read. However, while I am obsessed about dogs, I was relieved to find that I am not obsessed in the ways that Jenny is. But while this was a good book, it does not even compare to similiar books about life with dogs. I would recommend Marley and Me by John Grogan, A Dog Year by John Katz, and The Dogs of Bedlam Farm also by John Katz over this book anyday. Those books all seemed to captivate me and connect me to the owners in a way this book never did (although perhaps it's because this is also much shorter).

A light, fun read about a woman's relationship with her dog - joys and perils of psychoanalyzing everything:
The author was very funny and the stories rang true so many times - the thought we put into our dogs health, well-being and feelings can be over the top. She would go to any length to make sure Wendell the dog was happy and safe, and the stories were hilarious. In the end, we would all do the same. She also gives cute little descriptions of "Ten Types of Dog Owners" that all dog owners can identify with.

Would have benefitted from editing:
As the obsessed owner of a blinded-at-birth basset hound, I really wanted to love this book. But it should have been trimmed by one-third before it went to print. I quickly grew weary of the incessant cutesy parenthetical asides, as well as Lee's habit of explaining/belaboring her jokes and pop culture references. Either we get it or we don't. Move on. (Oops, was that a belaboring? \oSee, this is how she writes!\c). However, I enjoyed the brief essays and observations scattered throughout the book. Keyword being "brief." But the rest of it read like the work of a talented high-school student who is too amused by her own wit. For my money, the classic in the doggie love genre is Jacqueline Susann's wonderful "Every Night, Josephine." And from Lee's frequent use of the word "glorious" - an adjective that Jackie used quite a bit in her book, but to much more comic effect - I'm guessing that Lee has read it too.

Five paws from an Owner Who Would Be Dog.:
A review from the author of Born Without a Tail: Jenny Lee's hilarious book will resonate with any dog owner. Much of it was laugh out loud funny. I related with so much of what she describes - and saw myself, and my dogs in so many of her descriptions. A great and fun read for any dog lover.