Animal Magnetism

September 15, 2009
Brown, the best-selling author of over 30 books, including "Rubyfruit Jungle" and the Sneaky Pie Brown mysteries, celebrates the many creatures that have enriched her life and inspired her animal characters. Her first childhood friend was Mickey, a cat who taught her to play, followed by Chaps, a retriever who taught her not only animal communication but, most important, the enduring power of love. Brown's passion is fox hunting (for readers concerned with animal rights, she stresses the fox is not killed in the U.S. version of the sport), and she describes in detail her friendships with horses, hounds, and even the foxes. Sprinkled throughout Brown's memoir are snippets of her life story, her worldview, her political philosophy, and praise for her Southern heritage. VERDICT Fans of Brown's mysteries will clamor to meet the real-life models for Sneaky Pie Brown and other members of Brown's literary menagerie. This will also attract readers who enjoy heartwarming animal tales (e.g., Vicki Myron's "Dewey"). [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 6/1/09; library marketing.]Florence Scarinci, Nassau Community Coll. Lib., Garden City, NY

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2009
In this rollicking memoir, best-selling author Brown shares stories of relatives and their pets, neighbors and their pets, her own pets, and other animals she has known, all written in a sit on the porch and Ill tell you a story style that she has perfected. Growing up in an iconoclastic familyher mothers advice keep your mouth shut and do what you want sums it upshe writes fondly of PopPop, her grandfather with a drinking problem, and her mothers friend Diddy, who kept her money in her bra where her cancer-removed breast used to be. But mostly Brown writes of animals and what theyve taught her throughout her life: foxes taught her about conversation (these little canines always chatter amongst themselves); Percheron mare Suzy Q taught her about horse love and horse language; chickens taught her about pecking order and how people in groups follow the same rules; and then there was Sneaky Pie, the gray tabby that Brown refers to as her business partner (and coauthor of the Mrs. Murphy series). Sure to be a hit with Browns fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)