What is Ann Garvin reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Ann Wertz Garvin, author of The Dog Year.

Her entry begins:

I’m in the middle of two books and they are competing for my attentions lately. The two are so different from each other that it’s not much of a competition in either direction. I’m re-reading A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving because it is such a favorite of mine. What could I ever say about a book published by John Irving, except that reading it will only enhance your writing, your life and the way you view the world. In an Introduction to 3 by Irving (Random House) Terrence Des Pres wrote, “I think Irving tells the hardest kind of truth, but in the telling insists upon the freedom to have fun.” This to me is what makes...[read on]

About The Dog Year, from the publisher:

Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She’s not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital.

But that was Lucy before the accident—before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons at bay, she’s faced with a choice: get some help or lose her medical license.

Now she’s reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband’s last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It’s only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the ragtag dog-loving addicts—and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all...

Visit Ann Garvin's website.

Writers Read: Ann Garvin.

--Marshal Zeringue