Alexandra Horowitz

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Inside of a Dog and The Year of the Puppy, this ';elegant and entertaining' (The Boston Globe) explanation of how humans perceive their environments ';does more than open our eyes...opens our hearts and minds, too, gently awakening us to a worldin fact, many worldswe've been missing' (USA TODAY).Alexandra Horowitz shows us how to see the spectacle of the ordinaryto practice, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it, the observation of trifles. Structured around a series of eleven walks the author takes, mostly in her Manhattan neighborhood, On Looking features experts on a diverse range of subjects, including an urban sociologist, the well-known artist Maira Kalman, a geologist, a physician, and a sound designer. Horowitz also walks with a child and a dog to see the world as they perceive it. What they see, how they see it, and why most of us do not see the same things reveal the startling power of human attention and the cognitive aspects of what it means to be an expert observer. Page by page, Horowitz shows how much more there is to seeif only we would really look. Trained as a cognitive scientist, she discovers a feast of fascinating detail, all explained with her generous humor and self-deprecating tone. So turn off the phone and other electronic devices and be in the real worldwhere strangers communicate by geometry as they walk toward one another, where sounds reveal shadows, where posture can display humility, and the underside of a leaf unveils a Lilliputian universewhere, indeed, there are worlds within worlds within worlds.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Inside of a Dog and The Year of the Puppy, an eye-opening, informative, ';entertaining, and enlightening' (BookPage) celebration of the human-canine relationship for the curious dog owner and science-lover alike.We keep dogs and are kept by them. We love dogs and (we assume) we are loved by them. We buy them sweaters, toys, shoes; we are concerned with their social lives, their food, and their health. The story of humans and dogs is thousands of years old but is far from understood. In Our Dogs, Ourselves, Alexandra Horowitz explores all aspects of this unique and complex relationship that ';dog lovers will savor and absorb' (Shelf Awareness). As Horowitz considers the current culture of dogdom, she reveals the odd, surprising, and contradictory ways we live with dogs. We celebrate their individuality but breed them for sameness. Despite our deep emotional relationships with dogs, legally they are property to be bought, sold, abandoned, or euthanized as we wish. Even the way we speak to our dogs is at once perplexing and delightful. In thirteen thoughtful and charming chapters, Our Dogs, Ourselves affirms our profound affection for this most charismatic of animalsand makes us ';see canine companions in new ways' (Science News).

From the #1 bestselling author of Inside of a Dog and The Year of the Puppy';an incredible journey into the olfactory world of man's best friend' (O, The Oprah Magazine), Alexandra Horowitz's follow-up to her New York Times bestseller explains how dogs experience the world through their most spectacular organthe nose.In her ';fascinating bookHorowitz combines the expertise of a scientist with an easy, lively writing style' (The New York Times Book Review) as she imagines what it is like to be a dog. Guided by her own dogs, Finnegan and Upton, Horowitz sets off on a quest through the cutting-edge science behind the olfactory abilities of the dog. In addition to speaking to cognitive researchers and smell experts, Horowitz visits detection-dog trainers and training centers; she meets researchers working with dogs to detect cancerous cells and anticipate epileptic seizure or diabetic shock; and she even attempts to smell-train her own nose. As we come to understand how rich, complex, and exciting the world around us is to the canine nose, Horowitz changes our perspective on dogs forever. Readers will finish this book feeling that they have broken free of their human constraints and understanding smell as never before; that they have, for however fleetingly, been a dog. And, as The Boston Globe says about Being a Dog, ';becoming more doglike, not surprisingly, can make anyone's life a little more vivid.'