Photo: Ben Goldstein/Studio D

Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love
By Larry Levin
224 pages; Grand Central

Oogy is a dog who gets noticed—and not always in a good way. With the mass of scar tissue covering the mutilated left side of his face and his missing ear, strangers fail to see Oogy's inner beauty. Not so Larry Levin, who tells the inspiring story of how Oogy not only survived grotesque brutality—as a puppy he was bait for fighting dogs—but kept his gentle, trusting nature. Rescued barely alive in a police raid, Oogy, an Argentine Dogo (a little-known breed), goes to live with Levin and his family. Through Oogy, Levin learns to deal with his own, less visible wounds and observes the dog's effect on other emotionally scarred people: "If this dog can go through the hell he did and emerge capable of giving and generating as much love as he does, so can they." — Karen Holt

• Get the reading group guide