Must Love Dogs [Kindle Edition]

Claire Cook (Author)

Book Description

Praise for Must Love Dogs:

"A hilariously original tale about dating and its place in a modern woman's life."- BookPage

"Can another novel about a 40-year-old divorcee creating a new life for herself actually be of interest? Surprisingly, yes . . . this novel is a hoot." - The Boston Globe

"Funny and pitch-perfect." - Chicago Tribune

* The internationally bestselling novel that became a major movie starring Diane Lane and John Cusack.

* "Voluptuous, sensuous, alluring and fun. Barely 40 DWF seeks special man to share starlit nights. Must Love Dogs."

* Contains an exclusive forward with behind-the-scenes snippets from Claire Cook's book-to-movie experience, as well as book club questions.

Want more fun fiction by award-winning, bestselling author Claire Cook? Multiple Choice, the story of a mother and daughter going to college at the same time, is now an eBook, too!

Don't miss Claire Cook's other novels, including Wallflower in Bloom, Life's a Beach, Best Staged Plans, Seven Year Switch, The Wildwater Walking Club, Summer Blowout and more. And Time Flies is now available for preorder!

Read excerpts and find book club questions at ClaireCook.com. Follow Claire on Facebook at ClaireCookauthorpage and on Twitter and Pinterest at ClaireCookwrite.

More praise for Must Love Dogs:

"This utterly charming second novel by Cook is a fun read, perfect for whiling away an afternoon on the beach." - Library Journal

"'Eternally hopeful book reviewer seeks wildly witty novel on singles scene/personal ads. Stylish prose and sense of humor preferred. Looking for fun, not longterm entanglement. Must love readers.' Respondents to such an ad might include Claire Cook, whose new novel, Must Love Dogs, tells the story of a down-to-earth divorcee seeking companionship through the personals. . ." - USA Today

"Cook dishes up plenty of charm." - San Francisco Chronicle

"[A] laugh-out-loud novel....a light and lively read for anyone who has tried to re-enter the dating scene or tried to `fix up' somebody else." - Boston Herald

"Claire Cook's characters aren't rich or glamorous -- they're physically imperfect, emotionally insecure, and deeply familiar. Must Love Dogs is a sweet, funny novel about first dates and second chances." - Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children

"This story is so delicious, so funny, so warm, that one engages on the first page and still wants more on the last. A truly joyful read." - Jeanne Ray, author of Julie and Romeo

"Reading Claire Cook's Must Love Dogs is like sitting down with a close friend -- a really entertaining close friend. Its heroine will strike a familiar chord in any woman who's been through a divorce, dusted herself off, and ventured back into the dating jungle. Funny and quirky and honest." - Jane Heller, author of The Secret Ingredient

"Reading Must Love Dogs is like having lunch with your best friend -- fun, breezy and full of laughs." - Lorna Landvik, author of Patty Jane's House of Curl

"Claire Cook's "Must Love Dogs," a book that's got more giggles than soda bread has raisins." - Hartford Courant

"[A] tart slice-of-the-single-life...breezy first-person narration...fast-paced" - Publishers Weekly

"If Must Love Dogs is any indication of her talents, readers will hope that Claire Cook will be telling breezy summer stories from the South Shore of Massachusetts for seasons to come."- The Washington Post

"In an age when whiny novels about 30-something "singletons" whose sole goal in life seems to be snagging a decent man, Must Love Dogs is a refreshing antidote. . . .Reading about Sarah Hurlihy's travails is like talking to a comedic, self-deprecating friend. Cook's humor breezes through the pages as she details the perils -- and perks -- of plunging back into the dating scene." - Book Page

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following up on themes from her debut novel, Ready to Fall, which looked at the pitfalls of cyberspace romance, Cook here chronicles the perils of various tried and true dating ploys, from personals ads to the use of adorable pooches as date bait. "If I didn't have a job, I might have stayed in bed until I rotted," muses Massachusetts preschool teacher Sarah Hurlihy, almost 41, divorced and dateless for two years. She's out to change all that when she bravely answers a personals ad in a local paper, but instead gets the ultimate nightmarish response her would-be date turns out to be her widower father, something her sprawling Irish Catholic family naturally finds wildly funny. Her oldest sister, Carol, decides the best way for Sarah to move on is to create her own personals ad, and soon Sarah's love life is lively, if not downright rambunctious. "God hates glib," "God hates ugly" and "God hates a smarty-pants" are all standards in the Hurlihy family lexicon, but Cook employs just enough glibness and smarty-pants humor to make this tart slice-of-the-single-life worth reading. As for "ugly," Sarah also learns some serious lessons about what the word really means and it's not a prospective suitor's nose hairs, his bald pate or his beer-belly bulge. Breezy first-person narration makes this a fast-paced, humorous diversion.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This utterly charming second novel by Cook (Ready To Fall) is a fun read, perfect for whiling away an afternoon on the beach. Sarah Hurlihy is 40 years old, divorced, and happily teaching preschoolers a multicultural curriculum. But her interfering, overzealous Boston Irish family thinks that she should be dating, and with much love she is pushed into answering a personal ad from a gentleman seeking a lady "who enjoys elegant dining, dancing and the slow bloom of affection"; the clincher is that he's a man who "loves dogs." That man turns out to be the last man on earth any woman would want to date, but Sarah pushes on, slowly falling headlong into the dating game with decidedly mixed results. Meanwhile, Sarah's widowed father has his own dating troubles, brother Michael is deep in marital problems, and sister Carol is having difficulty at home with her temperamental teenage daughter, who turns to her favorite aunt for comfort and body-piercing support. Somehow, they all seem to end up on Sarah's doorstep at the most inopportune moments, keeping the laughs going all the way to the not-quite-storybook-perfect ending. Suitable for all public libraries. Stacy Alesi, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., Boca Raton,
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 489 KB
• Print Length: 304 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0050ZKYJC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,408 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars As Much Fun as a New Puppy October 4, 2003

By Mamalinde

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Laugh out loud funny, this book is as much fun as a brand new puppy (without the messy cleanup and chewed up shoes). Claire Cook takes us on a life journey with Sarah Hurlihy, 40 year old divorcee, pre-school teacher, and member of a large, wild and rowdy Irish American family. In her first foray into the world of personal ads, Sarah manages to select a Mr. Right who is none other than her own widowed father. Will she have any better luck when her sound-alike sister writes a personal ad for Sarah, and records a voice message? The importance of family relationships and the dysfunction of same glows through every single page in this delightful and frothy little book. Fun, uplifting, and insightful, I highly recommend this charming book.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Charming January 24, 2004

By David Pomerantz

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Many of the negative comments missed the point. Sure, there are books out there like The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, the meat and potatoes of reading, that leave you feeling full and perhaps a bit heavy.

Must Love Dogs is a light lunch and a sinfully sweet dessert eaten knee-to-knee with a funny, charming and sharply insightful woman.

There are certainly times you want that satisfying meal, but more often than not, I'll take the light and tasty lunch.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars MUST LOVE DOGS January 25, 2007

By Sandra L. Leonard

Format:Paperback

FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY. YOU HAVE TO READ THIS BOOK. IT WAS AWESOME. I WENT AND BOUGHT EVERY BOOK SHE WROTE AFTER READING THIS ONE BOOK. CLAIRE COOK IS THE BEST.

More About the Author

After a lifetime of fear and procrastination and sixteen years as a teacher, I wrote my first novel in my minivan at 45. At 50, I walked the red carpet at the Hollywood premiere of the adaptation of my second novel, MUST LOVE DOGS. I'm now the bestselling author of nine novels, including WALLFLOWER IN BLOOM, with a tenth, TIME FLIES, coming from Touchstone in June. Midlife rocks!

Visit ClaireCook.com, where you can stay in the loop for fun giveaways, read excerpts of all my novels and find book club questions. And make sure you check out my writing and reinvention pages, where I share everything I've learned so far.

Come hang out with me on my Facebook author page, too: Facebook.com/ClaireCookauthorpage.

And follow me at Twitter.com/ClaireCookwrite and Pinterest.com/ClaireCookwrite. I'll follow you back!

I've been a judge for the Family Circle magazine fiction contest, a finalist and a judge for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the Beach Read Festival fiction and grand prize winner. I've spoken at the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival, Cape Cod Writers Center, the California Women's Conference, and given keynotes at the Dress for Success International Conference, the Missouri Writers Guild Conference, and the Amelia Island Book Festival.

"The exuberant and charming Claire Cook is one of the sassiest and funniest creators of contemporary women's fiction," according to The Times-Picayune. People Magazine says her writing "goes down as easy as it sounds," Good Housekeeping calls it "laugh-out-loud," Redbook "gleefully quirky" and the Chicago Tribune "funny and pitch perfect." The Today Show featured Claire as a "Today's Woman."

I was born in Virginia, and lived for many years in Scituate, Massachusetts, a beach town between Boston and Cape Cod. My husband and I have recently moved to the suburbs of Atlanta to be closer to family. Check out the events page at ClaireCook.com to see when I'll be coming to an event near you - I'd love to meet you!