This is a coffee-table book of photos and brief descriptions of about 60 breeds of dogs, and 4 or 5 longer essays about dogs. Each breed is given 2 facing pages, 1 large and 1 small photograph, and about a half-page of text.
Sadly, there is much not to like about this book. The photos are lackluster, for the most part. The author and photographer intended to catch the 'nature' of dogs, but the photos uniformly fail to do that. Playful breeds are not shown as playful, working breeds are sometimes shown working, but without enough context to let the viewer understand what the dog is doing. The photos are all either black and white, sepia, or tinted. I have no idea why. I would have preferred color, since the textual descriptions included references to the dogs' color.
In the introductory essay she points out that each dog is an individual. We don't grow attached to bloodlines but to individual dogs. Yet none of the photos seemed to capture any individuality - the dogs just seemed to be typical of their breed.
The essays were uneven. The essay by Kevin Kling about his lifetime history with dogs was entertaining. The essay by Winona LaDuke on 'rez dogs' was just irritating - Native American origin myths leave me cold (as do all other origin myths). Nothing in LaDuke's essay told me anything that would illuminate the nature of dogs.
The best thing going for this book is that it doesn't take long to read. Still, it was an hour of my life that I'll never get back, and I would not recommend this book to anyone.
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