Laurie Morrow

Picked this up on my dad's recommendation. I was excited about some of the contributors, like Wodehouse and Thurber, and came away with a few new authors to admire. I liked the humorous stories more than the hunting stories, although I still appreciated the writing style in some of those. Here's the list of stories, which include fiction and nonfiction, some of them excerpts from longer works:

Parapups , by Corey Ford
5 stars-Loved this story about dogs living on air bases during World War 2
Random thoughts on Random Dogs , by John Steinbeck
4 stars-pretty short, but I really liked certain turns of phrase, like this one.

I have owned some astonishing dogs. One I remember with pleasure was a very large English setter. He saw things unknowable.

Dogs , by Ring Lardner
3 stars-I liked it OK.
How to Name a Dog , by James Thurber
5 stars-I got a lot of laughs reading this one.
The Fighting Strain , by Albert Payson Terhune
3.5 stars-Some of these older stories pretty casually refer to drowning puppies, and I have a hard time getting past that. There was one standout line when the main character Trent, who on his way home from a stint in prison, rescues a dog who is being beaten, and finds the men who framed him squatting in his house. They attack him and he fights back. Once the dog Buff joins the fray, I love this line describing the end of the battle.

The rest was conquest.

The Care and Training of a Dog , by E.B. White
4.5 stars-Short sweet and well-written
Robin , by Jim Corbett
3.5 stars-The big game hunting stories aren't my favorites, but I was moved by Corbett's affection for his dog.
Your boy and his Dog , by Robert Benchley
4 stars-short and funny
Being a Public Character , by Don Marquis
5 stars-this ties with the Wodehouse story for favorite-love the voice of this accidental hero
A Very Shy Gentleman , by P.G. Wodehouse
5 stars-Hilarious-I would expect nothing less from Wodehouse.
Ulysses and the Dogman , by O. Henry
3 stars-It was OK. Not every story can be The Gift of the Magi.
Buffalo Hunt , by J.A. Hunter
3 stars-Another big game hunting one. Meh.
Verdun Belle , by Alexander Woollcott
3 stars-another wartime story, this time in World War 1. Didn't like this one as much as Parapups.
Some Dogs , by E.C. Keith
3 stars-more hunting blah blah blah-I liked the way he described his dogs, though.
With the Cougar Hounds , by Theodore Roosevelt
4 stars-for some reason this had a bunch of typos, but I really liked the way he wrote about the nature that surrounded him on this hunting trip in Colorado, and I especially liked his descriptions of the different dogs and their characters.
Rex , by D.H. Lawrence
3 stars-Didn't really like this story from his childhood, especially the way the dog was treated.
The Road to Tinkhamtown , by Corey Ford
5 stars-Beautiful sad story-it will make you cry, but not for the reason you might expect… (more)