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A review by bookysue
How Dogs Love Us: A Neuroscientist and His Adopted Dog Decode the Canine Brain by Gregory Berns
5.0
Truly fascinating. And incredibly entertaining! And yet...science-y! I kind of got a Radiolab-type feeling while reading this book, and that's a very good thing. Much like Radiolab, it simplified the science and made it easy enough for someone like me to understand, and although I found the author's writing style strangely stiff and almost robotic at first, I really came to love it by the end. He sort of just tells it like it is, sometimes to the point of silliness. Like on page 71 when he introduces the idea of building an MRI simulator: "I was looking forward to this. Constructing a simulator would let me dust off some woodworking equipment that had been lying dormant in the garage. It's fun to build stuff."
I was like, "It's fun to build stuff? Really??" But what can I say, the guy's charming. And I think it was his matter-of-fact style that helped me survive the chapter about Lyra's death. I almost didn't make it through, and I'm not afraid to admit that I sobbed like a damn baby. But I can't say I was surprised to find such a tearjerker in a book about dogs...Writers just can't resist it.
The other cool thing about the book was the sprinkling of photos - It was neat to see Callie and some of the other dogs in the project, and the brain scans were really cool. And the visuals were subtle and carefully chosen - it wasn't too much, as it easily could have been.
This book has it all - amazing scientific discoveries, cute dogs, parts that made me guffaw, and parts that made me cry. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a fantastic book that I could not put down - I had to read it all in one day. And best of all now I know my dog's caudate is lighting up when she looks at me with those beautiful brown eyes of hers cuz she has mad feelings for me.
I was like, "It's fun to build stuff? Really??" But what can I say, the guy's charming. And I think it was his matter-of-fact style that helped me survive the chapter about Lyra's death. I almost didn't make it through, and I'm not afraid to admit that I sobbed like a damn baby. But I can't say I was surprised to find such a tearjerker in a book about dogs...Writers just can't resist it.
The other cool thing about the book was the sprinkling of photos - It was neat to see Callie and some of the other dogs in the project, and the brain scans were really cool. And the visuals were subtle and carefully chosen - it wasn't too much, as it easily could have been.
This book has it all - amazing scientific discoveries, cute dogs, parts that made me guffaw, and parts that made me cry. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a fantastic book that I could not put down - I had to read it all in one day. And best of all now I know my dog's caudate is lighting up when she looks at me with those beautiful brown eyes of hers cuz she has mad feelings for me.