I liked this memoir a lot more than "Marley & Me", at least partially because the author knew a lot more about dogs than Marley's owner did. It's a fascinating "dog biography" - partially because Merle was obviously a pretty smart animal, and partially because he & the author lived in a Wyoming paradise of mountains, free-range dogs, and elk. Kerasote is also a good writer, and brings in tons of recent research on dogs, dog training, etc. Like "Marley & Me", however, the ending is a tear-jerker. Dogs just don't live long enough.

Memoir by a reporter who gets a job in eastern OR and learns to hunt. Lots of interesting stuff on ecology, wildlife, hunting dogs, and food, as well as guns and gender roles in hunting. One chapter deals with deer hunting up north in Michigan (the author lived in our near Ann Arbor for a while).

Contemporary romance that was fun and not too deep. It was set mostly on an island in Lake Michigan, with lots of details about summer life up north (I'm betting the author has vacationed or possibly owns a cabin up there).

Phillips did attempt to bring some serious issues into the story, but that part wasn't nearly as engaging. I didn't love all the references to earlier books/other characters, either.

This is a memoir by a woman who learned that her recently deceased semi-famous father (Anatole Broyard, author & book reviewer for the NY Times) was considered Black, passing as white, by many in his extended family. His children had no idea they were anything but privileged but slightly bohemian Connecticut WASPs.

Broyard's genealogical and historical research and family memoirs tell the story of a complicated man who was born to a Creole family in New Orleans in 1920. I learned a lot about Louisiana history and race and the semi-porous color line in different parts of the US, but was occasionally bored by the way the history was presented and the author's introspection. These parts never lasted terribly long, though, and Broyard did a very nice job combining her father's and newly discovered family's history with an account of her research in Louisiana, and a more general history of segregation, Jim Crow, and Creole life.
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This is a refreshingly romance-free paranormal mystery about a newly hired lawyer at a big NYC firm. There are vampires and werewolves here, but they're very different from those in other urban fantasies, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. The main character (and probably the author) is a big horse lover and there are a couple sections about riding, which may also help you decide whether or not to check this quick read out.