Authors on the Air: The 'Dog Whisperer'

by Staff, PW Daily for Booksellers -- Publishers Weekly, 2/9/2004

Yesterday on the Today Show:

• Nieca Goldberg, chief of cardiac rehabilitation at the Women's Heart Program at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and author of Women Are Not Small Men: Life-Saving Strategies for Preventing and Healing Heart Disease in Women (Ballantine, $14.95). PW's diagnosis: "In this comprehensive guide to cardiac health, Goldberg uses numerous case studies to show how women think they're suffering from fatigue or stress or are simply overweight when in fact they're showing signs of cardiac obstruction."
• Andrew Schneider, co-author with David McCumber of An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal (Putnam, $25.95). PW's measure: "This book chronicles [newspaper reporter Schneider's] inquiry into an enormous coverup by Grace Corporation, which ran the Zonolite factory."
• Susan Douglas, co-author with Meredith Michaels of The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women (Free Press, $26). PW's take: "Douglas (Where the Girls Are) and Smith College philosophy professor Michaels, 'mothers with an attitude problem,' blow the lid off 'new momism,' 'a set of ideals . . . that seem on the surface to celebrate motherhood, but which in reality promulgate standards of perfection that are beyond [a mother's] reach.' "

This morning the Today Show heard out Jan Fennell, author of The Dog Listener: Learn How to Communicate with Your Dog for Willing Cooperation (HarperResource, $16.95). PW wagged its tail about this title, writing, "Expanding upon the theories of horse trainer Monty Roberts (the basis for The Horse Whisperer), Fennell believes one can best train dogs by emulating natural behaviors, that is, by treating them as they would treat each other in the wild. Her intelligent, straightforward and humane method has engendered controversy and increasing enthusiasm."

Today Morning Edition's "resident cowboy poet," Baxter Black, gave a roundup of the 20th National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, in Elko, Nev. Black's most recent title is Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet: More Commentary by NPR's Cowboy Poet & Former Large Animal Veterinarian (Three Rivers Press, $14).

Tomorrow Weekend Edition gives a soapbox to Thomas Mallon, author of Bandbox (Pantheon, $24.95). PW's opinion: "A new, gleeful exuberance infuses Mallon's latest novel, in which he turns his talent for fastidious historical detail (Dewey Defeats Truman, etc.) to the elaboration of a comedy of errors set in Manhattan during the 1920s."

On Sunday Weekend Edition chats with Elmore Leonard, author of Mr. Paradise (Morrow, $25.95; HarperAudio unabridged cassette, $29.95, unabridged CD, $34.95).

For a complete listing of television and radio shows and their guests--including regional NPR shows such as the Diane Rehm Show and the Connection--see Motor Online.

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