Pugh shares a lifetime of lessons learned from the pups she has parented and loved.

When the author was a child, her father brought home a scrawny, medium-sized stray dog the family named Tippy. As it turned out, Tippy was a runner, and after one of her forays, she returned home pregnant. Scrappy was the one pup in her litter that Pugh convinced her mother to keep. Unfortunately, when the author was 12 years old, her parents separated—she and her mother moved to an apartment in San Francisco, and Scrappy was soon given away. But Pugh’s love affair with dogs had become ingrained, though it would be many years before she adopted another one. In her early 20s, divorced and with a young daughter, Pugh met and married her second husband, Bob. It was time for a new pup. Not all of the adoptions went well; there were a couple of biters returned to their previous residences, and one dog was killed by a car. Finally, they found a keeper, Chessa. Years after Chessa’s death, as the author’s marriage began to dissolve, she discovered Henry through Poodle Rescue. A large and majestic white beauty, he had been returned three times for biting. Without a second thought, Pugh stepped right up to the plate—he was just the challenge she needed (Henry was indeed a biter, but with the help of a trainer, he began to shine). She has not been without a dog since. From the outset, the narrative is pleasantly engaging, but with the arrival of Henry the book grows into a passionate memoir, filled with often funny vignettes depicting Henry’s antics and those of the dogs that followed him. Pugh’s articulate prose is informative and witty, loaded with sarcasm and self-deprecating humor: “I used to say Henry thought I was the girlfriend of the leader of the pack. If he’d had a credit card, he would’ve ordered me a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses.” Appreciation of her many pups’ unique personalities and talents pour lovingly from each page.

Charming, poignant, and amusing, with a plethora of memorable canines.

In Pugh’s debut novel, a young woman from California joins the Freedom Riders in 1961, gets arrested and jailed in Mississippi, and learns that not everyone appreciates a hero.

Jeri Turner is a 17-year-old spitfire who lives with her cantankerous grandmother in Los Angeles in the early ’60s. As the Civil Rights movement sweeps the country, Jeri volunteers with the Congress of Racial Equality to fight segregation in the South via nonviolent protests. Upon arriving at the bus depot in Jackson, Miss., her group is assaulted, arrested and sent to Parchman Farm, the maximum-security unit of Mississippi’s State Prison. There, through her cell’s air vent, Jeri meets black inmate Ellis Lee. Their brief interactions impel Jeri to skirt big-picture racism and focus on helping Lee—a cause that she is convinced deserves attention, but one that proves disappointingly futile. Pugh’s evocative novel effectively encapsulates the physical and emotional volatility of the Civil Rights era. A former Freedom Rider, the author illustrates the frustration, anger, fear and idealism of youth in her spirited, sharp-tongued protagonist. Pugh writes without sentiment, yet her honest dialogue and insightful descriptions of people and places evoke the visceral sting of injustice. Her ability to create and hold tension is a consistent strength in this novel, and the novel’s tension parallels the tension generated during that era. Pugh also balances the external turbulence with inter-movement politics and personalities. Each character has his or her personal motivations for joining CORE, the validity of which are questioned and judged as much as any criminal’s—black or white. The result is a multilayered story that shows how prejudice and condemnation exist on many levels, across generations, races, genders and states.

A sharp coming-of-age story that makes history come alive.