Dear Great Book Guru, As a dog lover myself, I have noticed that Sea Cliff is a veritable paradise for our canine brethren and home to many extraordinary dogs. Have you a book to recommend that has dogs as a theme? Canine Enthusiast

Dear Canine Enthusiast, Yes, there is indeed a bevy of beloved dogs here in Sea Cliff: Rusty, Chevy, Cuda, Chloe, the two Winnies, Lucky, Emma, Nelly, Rascal, Ariel and Oberon are just a few that come to mind. And, yes, I have a fascinating, albeit quirky, book in which dogs play a major role: DOGS OF BABEL by Carolyn Parkhurst who also wrote my great favorite - NOBODIES' ALBUM. DOGS OF BABEL opens with the death of a young scientist's wife. Was it murder, suicide, accident ? The only witness was the family dog. The grieving widower becomes obsessed with solving the mystery of his wife's death, so obsessed that he decides the only solution is to teach the dog to speak so it can tell him what really happened. We learn much about the physiology and psychology of dogs, but we learn even more about the intricacies of a marriage and its troubling legacy of guilt and grief. The characters are not particularly well-developed but there is an interestingly villainous subplot. After reading this book, you will never again look at a dog without wondering….."is it possible?"