A Dog Walks Into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher
*Starred Review* Halpern realized that Pransky, part yellow Lab and part poodle, was so smart and energetic that she was bored in spite of the pleasures of her leash-free Vermont life. As her daughter left for college, Halpern herself feels the need for a new adventure. So she plunges into the rigorous training required for Pransky to become a certified therapy dog. When they begin visiting a nursing home each week, Pransky proves to be a dog of phenomenal empathy, affection, and patience. An immersion writer—Halpern participated in neurological studies for her last book, Can’t Remember What I Forgot (2008)—she is skilled in the art of combining vivid in-the-moment storytelling with thoughtful analysis. She warmly and incisively portrays the people they meet and contemplates the vagaries of memory, the inevitability of loss, and persevering joy. A deeply ethical thinker with a bright sense of humor, Halpern uses the seven virtues as organizing principles, subtly shaping her engrossing account to reveal fresh and provocative aspects of restraint, prudence, faith, fortitude, hope, love, and charity as she addresses the complexities of infirmity, dementia, and death; animal intelligence; and how doing good benefits all involved. The result is a profoundly affecting and edifying chronicle brimming with practical wisdom and things “that were so unexpected they seemed miraculous.” --Donna Seaman