"Women Who Run With the Wolves"

I am re-posting the introduction to this story by Katie Arnold-Ratliff, associate editor of Oprah Magazine and author of the novel Bright Before Us,with a link to the full story that she wrote in Slate Magazine Friday, October 14, 2011. She talks about how more and more dog memoirs are written by females, and briefly reviews a few of them.

Women Who Run With The Wolves

Jill Abramson’s The Puppy Diaries, Julie Klam’s You Had Me at Woof, and why dog women get more respect than cat ladies.

By Katie Arnold-Ratliff Posted Friday, Oct. 14, 2011

Few things these days are as likely to land a book on the nonfiction best-seller lists as a dog—particularly one whose incorrigible mischief, heart-rending rescue, or fraught integration into the author’s life sparks a realization about love, kindness, or What’s Really Important. In the post-Marley and Me publishing landscape, the dog-as-harbinger-of-wisdom grows ever more ubiquitous, and though Marley was written by a man, more and more of the writers who are following his lead seem to be female. The dogs at the center of these books are, in turn, ever more exceptional, the kind of dogs who double as life coaches and inspire titles like these: Maggie: The Dog Who Changed My Life, Blind Hope: An Unwanted Dog and the Woman She Rescued, and Paws and Effect: The Healing Power of Dogs...

Read full story and Katie's additional dog memoir reviews here: http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2011/10/jill_abramson_s_the_puppy_diaries_julie_klam_s_you_had_me_at_woo.html