Love Those Dogs

Books and dogs, what could be better?

So this is a books-and-dogs sampler of sorts.

Smart dogs. Who wear neckties and smoke pipes.

We are celebrating the Dog Days of summer at Escape Into Life with the art of EJ Miley, Jr. and a number of special features. This is Miley's monocled dog you see here.

Book reviewer Seana Graham is celebrating the "Dog Days in Manhattan" with a review of A Dog About Town, by J. F. Englert, a mystery with a dog detective.

And "Art of Sports" blogger Mark Lewis glancingly recognizes the Dog Days with his report on football coach Fielding H. Yost:

According to University of Michigan legend, Yost grew so impatient with his sluggish players, he barked: “Hurry up! … If you can’t hurry, make way for someone who can!”

Barked. Get it?

Lewis's post is mostly about bookstores in Ann Arbor, including mystery bookstores!

Meanwhile, over at her own website, EIL poet Karen Weyant talks about Love That Dog by Sharon Creech, a book I haven't read but hope to discover somewhere in my house on the kids' bookshelves! I know The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, is there somewhere, too.

The Dog Days traditionally fall in July and August. By some accounts (the Old Farmer's Almanac according to Wikipedia), they stretch from July 3 to August 11. Or they might last from July 23 to August 23 or July 24 to August 24...or all the way to September 5. We tend to connect the Dog Days to those terrible hot days with no rain when it's too hot to do anything. Plenty of rain here today. I went out for a bike ride and got drenched but enjoyed standing under a tent for a while with the McLean County Arts Center peeps setting up for the Sugar Creek Arts Festival.

Looks safe enough out there to try again! Off I go, probably on foot, maybe with an umbrella. Maybe I'll run into EJ Miley, Jr., an artist from Lincoln, IL. Or a sweet dog with shiny brown eyes.