A charming self-help guide that occasionally overstates its central conceit.
Larrikin shares self-improvement advice gleaned from dogs in this delightful guide.
At the center of the book is Rosie, a composite of the author’s pups, who have taught him how to live well. The first chapter finds the author doomscrolling when Rosie has an attack of the zoomies, prompting him to embrace the philosophy, “Be where you are. All the way.” Larrikin shares the details of a terrible workday and contrasts his negative inner monologue with the unconditional positive regard he receives from Rosie upon his arrival home. In another chapter, the author marvels at how Rosie can shake off a face-plant during a Frisbee session, while he, in contrast, spirals after an awkward handshake at a networking event, noting that humans are at the mercy of “The Archive,” a storage center where the brain saves and replays mistakes. Following an anecdote about a forced podcast-free walk, Larrikin introduces the concept of “savoring,” or appreciating the good. A story about Rosie going “belly up” at a dinner party prompts reflection on the power of vulnerability. Other lessons include embracing play and accepting compliments. The final chapter focuses on connection, the loneliness epidemic, and the ways in which dogs create “social infrastructure” for their humans. The book concludes with the realization that “The teacher has been asleep on your couch this whole time. She’s ready whenever you are.” Larrikin effectively balances entertaining anecdotes, insightful observations, and practical exercises in this humorous guide. By sharing his personal and professional foibles, the author imparts advice as a fellow traveler rather than an all-knowing expert. He explains more complex concepts in plain language, observing, for example, “the brain’s tendency to evaluate experiences through the lens of ‘What does this say about me?’” To cut through overthinking noise, he offers strategies with memorable names like the “Guilt-Free Fifteen” (a brief period of rest) and self-inquiry suggestions like “Would my dog care about this?” At times, the book stretches the dog-as-teacher metaphor a bit too far, as in “Every fire hydrant is an art gallery.”
A charming self-help guide that occasionally overstates its central conceit.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781972647004
Page Count: 183
Publisher: Terrapage Press
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: today
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.
In which the veteran humorist enters middle age with fine snark but some trepidation as well.
Mortality is weighing on Sedaris (Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002, 2017, etc.), much of it his own, professional narcissist that he is. Watching an elderly man have a bowel accident on a plane, he dreaded the day when he would be the target of teenagers’ jokes “as they raise their phones to take my picture from behind.” A skin tumor troubled him, but so did the doctor who told him he couldn’t keep it once it was removed. “But it’s my tumor,” he insisted. “I made it.” (Eventually, he found a semitrained doctor to remove and give him the lipoma, which he proceeded to feed to a turtle.) The deaths of others are much on the author’s mind as well: He contemplates the suicide of his sister Tiffany, his alcoholic mother’s death, and his cantankerous father’s erratic behavior. His contemplation of his mother’s drinking—and his family’s denial of it—makes for some of the most poignant writing in the book: The sound of her putting ice in a rocks glass increasingly sounded “like a trigger being cocked.” Despite the gloom, however, frivolity still abides in the Sedaris clan. His summer home on the Carolina coast, which he dubbed the Sea Section, overspills with irreverent bantering between him and his siblings as his long-suffering partner, Hugh, looks on. Sedaris hasn’t lost his capacity for bemused observations of the people he encounters. For example, cashiers who say “have a blessed day” make him feel “like you’ve been sprayed against your will with God cologne.” But bad news has sharpened the author’s humor, and this book is defined by a persistent, engaging bafflement over how seriously or unseriously to take life when it’s increasingly filled with Trump and funerals.
Sedaris at his darkest—and his best.Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-39238-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
PROFILES
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