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Summary: Insight into dogs
Review: I found this book to be the most beautiful expression of grief I have ever read. As we watch Paul go through all the stages of struggling to understand his wife's death - shock, sadness, betrayal, anger and angst - he finally comes full circle back to love. The loss of not only Lexy but then Lorelei spoke so clearly to me about understanding the place that dogs hold in our hearts. Lorelei represents all that is good in this world - total unconditional love. I could not put this book down and recommend it highly.
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Summary: Interesting
Review: I really liked this book. It was a very fast read and it kept me interested. I continue to think of the story over and over again......it is a little bit haunting.
Man loves women, discovers her dead, dog is the only eye witness. What he does in his grieving period is well, human, I think.
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Summary: Beware, lovers of dogs!
Review: Yes, as various reviewers have stated, this is an emotionally charged and interesting book. It's beautifully written, quirky and off-beat.My problem is with the animal abuse. I wasn't prepared for it, and was deeply shocked when it showed up. The images presented stayed with me for weeks, and I felt betrayed by the book for springing them on me. I realized I had to write a review in order to warn others who, like me, monitor their exposure to descriptions of human cruelty perpetrated on the defenseless. So beware, animal lovers. This book may really hurt.
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Summary: Strange. Very Strange.
Review: I ordered this book from my Public Library System based on a blurb I read pre-release, which heralded it as a great mystery with dogs serving as canine Dr. Watsons. It is not. Nor can it properly be filed in the library's "Mystery" section. It is Literature. Sparse, haunting, sometimes lyric, Literature. When I received the book, I noted that Noveau Novelist Carolyn Parkhurst is described on the inside back jacket as holding a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in creative writing from American University. This frequently, as in this case, portends a cerebral hand-wringing. I also noted that the book had become a selection of the Today Show Book Club, (Hey! I don't get up in time to languish in front of the TV before bolting out the door in the morning!) another ominous portend. And it was deja vu all over again. Prior Reviewers have already given away more than enough of the plot. If you want to pre-read it, read them. I would just add that I was disgusted by the doggie disfigurement. If you loved *The Lovely Bones*, you'll lap this right up. Reviewed by TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer.
Rating: 
Summary: Barking up the wrong tree
Review: Intriguing premise, some good prose and imagination, nicely paced, but ultimately a disappointment. Once you get to the parts with an underground cult in suburbia (who just happened to live in the same neighborhood as the protagonist) doing mutilation surgeries on dogs to try to get them to speak English, a television psychic who takes copious notes of all her conversations for the book she's writing (who'd read that one?), and a PhD in Linguistics who is about as bright as a blown light bulb. Similar in tragic tone to "The Lovely Bones," but without all the humor. My advice: speed-read through all the Dogs Hooked on Phonics stuff, and you'll finish in half the time and may be moved a bit by dysfunctional people meeting in mid-life and trying to overcome their psychological issues.
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Summary: Strange story
Review: I'll cut to the chase. This book quickly reminded me why I don't read fiction anymore. I tried one more time. Now I remember.
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Summary: A real downer
Review: A friend told me this book had been on the USA Today bestseller list for a long time. Okay, so I read the blurb. A man teaching a dog to talk. I remember how much I loved Dean Koontz's Watchers and forked over way too much money. Certainly the author is skilled, but this book is not uplifting like The Lovely Bones. I can handle death, but when dogs are mutilated, I can't take it. What really haunts me is that the author probably saw an article about actual people who do these horrible things and went on to weave a fictional story about it. I know these things exist in the real world, but I don't have to read about them for entertainment. And that's why I read. Anyone else who wants a good book about dogs, if you haven't read Watchers, pick it up. It's been re-released recently. Sorry, Parkhurst, but you're off my list.
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Summary: Author lacks talent, but excels at gratuitous violence
Review: "Dogs of Babel" has to be the most vile, disgusting book I have EVER read. The author's dark side is scary -- that she would utilize animal cruelty of the most evil kind imaginable (not once, but twice) to sell books makes me frightened she is on the streets. This is gratuitous violence at its worst. I checked this book out of a library, so am certainly glad I didn't give this person a dime of my money. I was ready to toss it mid-book, but felt, to be fair, I would see if the author had any purpose for the cruelty to the dogs in her story and if the merits of the book could redeem her choice to write about such depravity. Turns out she did have a purpose-- to sell books, period. Redeeming merits? NONE.
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Summary: Not Like The Lovely Bones
Review: Why was this book compared to The Lovely Bones? I heard that and expected this book to be about someone from the afterlife trying to communicate back to the current people on earth. I guess whenever there is a best-seller or a popular movie, people think they can promote a new book or movie by claiming that it's the next Harry Potter, or the next Big Fat Greek Wedding. Anyway, after feeling misled and actually reading the book for what it was, it wasn't too bad. In fact, there was point where I was horrified at the thought of what would happen next in the story and that added some suspense for me. It was enjoyable to slowly get to know the wife via flashback and see that there was more to the story than initially laid out - I believe they call that How The Story Unfolds.
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Summary: Dark and Haunting
Review: To say that I loved this book would be putting it mildly. The characters, the plot, and the beautiful prose of this author has been haunting me since I read it. The novel takes you on a rollercoaster ride that I did not want to get off of. Although the story line seems farfetched, in the context of the book and the characters it truly did seem believable. I would highly recommend this book, but not to those who cannot handle something of this dark of nature or someone who is grieving the loss of a loved one. It is a very deep novel and it seems to stick with its readers.
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