By Lee Montgomery
256 pages; Viking

Another book about dogs? More slobber and soulfulness and uncurbed enthusiasm? Yes, because Woof! (Viking), edited by Lee Montgomery, is an especially fetching collection of essays (including two, by Abigail Thomas and Jim Shepard, first published in O) that proves you can't have too many lessons in ferocious devotion. Wolf down Anna Keesey's growling "Let's Go, My Love" and Chris Adrian's "A Good Creature"—as soulful as they come.

— Cathleen Medwick