Book Recommendation: Lives of the Monster Dogs

Last Friday, my girlfriend (hereinafter referred to as Cheryl) and I spent a few hours enjoying the free air conditioning at a local Barnes & Noble. I leafed through a stack of books and magazines, and jotted down a couple of investment ideas. On the way out, I saw a paperback copy of Kirsten Bakis's wildly original first novel, Lives of the Monster Dogs on a rack of used books. I had read the book when it was first published in 1997, and Cheryl picked it up on my recommendation. She finished it today and gave it the thumbs-up as well, so I thought this was as good a time as any to mention the book. The publishers of the paperback version wisely kept the great cover art of the hardcover edition, the malamute in a smoking jacket.

Here is M.G. Lord's New York Times review of the book, "Unleashed on Manhattan: An army of civilized, talking dogs, the dream of a mad Prussian scientist, descends on the city". The New York Times later named the novel one of its "notable" books of the year for 1997.

As far as I can tell, Kirsten Bakis hasn't written another novel since, but according to Wikipedia, as of 2005, she was working on her second novel. I'll have to keep an eye out for it.