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My Life with a Very Large Dog
by Lauren Fern Watt
The playful, epic adventure of a 160-pound English Mastiff and the twentysomething girl who grew up alongside her - Marley & Me for a whole new generation.
Lauren Watt took her 160-pound English Mastiff to college - so of course after graduation, Gizelle followed Lauren to her first, tiny apartment in New York. Because Gizelle wasn't just a dog; she was a roommate, sister, confidante, dining companion, and everything in between.
Together, Gizelle and Lauren went through boyfriends, first jobs, a mother's struggle with addiction, and the ups and downs of becoming an adult in the big city. But when Gizelle got sick and Lauren realized her best friend might not be such a constant after all, she designed an epic bucket list to make the absolute most of the time they had left.
Bursting with charm, this unique, coming-of-age story of a girl making her way through life is a testament to the special way pets inspire us to live better, love better, and appreciate the simple pleasures. Gizelle's Bucket List is the humorous, poignant lesson our pets teach us: to embrace adventure, love unconditionally, and grow into the people we want to be.
"A tender, heartfelt story." - Kirkus
"For anyone who's ever owned and lost a dog, this account holds familiar strains of sadness, comfort, and hope." - Booklist
"Gizelle's Bucket List explores the unique bond - a complete integration of spirits - that can occur between a human and a dog and make us better than who we were. Told with humor and compassion, this book will also move you to tears." - Larry Levin, New York Times bestselling author of Oogy: The Dog Only a Family Could Love
"[Gizelle's Bucket List] is funny, sad, wise and uplifting. It made me laugh; it gave me many reflective moments about not putting requirements on people or dogs; and I'm glad I wasn't reading the ending in a public place." - Ted Kerasote, author of Merle's Door: Lessons from a Freethinking Dog
"The heart of this delightful book isn't a dog, it's just that - heart. Gizelle, big-bodied, big-spirited, inconveniently big at times, is a big-hearted mastiff in declining health who uses a bucket list tour, a loving gift from her human (the author), to quietly wiggle a return gift into Lauren's own big heart. Gizelle's Bucket List is a dream (and a dog) well worth reading about." - Steve Wolf, author of Comet's Tale: How the Dog I Rescued Saved My Life
This information about Gizelle's Bucket List was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Lauren Watt was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in the suburbs of Nashville, Tennessee. After college, she moved to a tiny New York apartment with her 160-pound English Mastiff, Gizelle. Her first book, Gizelle's Bucket List, has been translated into eleven languages and optioned for film.
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