Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

"When a dog is finished living his lifetimes as a dog, his next incarnation will be as a man." Enzo, a shepherd-poodle-terrier mix, is ready. Raised from puppyhood with his best friend Denny Swift, a mechanic who's training to race cars, together they watch countless hours of race footage. As he gets older he spends his daytime hours watching TV while Denny is at work. So Enzo knows about the world beyond the Swift home near Seattle. I love all the descriptions of how he relates life to various movies and actors.

The book begins and comes full circle with Enzo old and facing death. The rest of the book is his time to remember. Denny loves Enzo like a son. Denny eventually falls in love with Eve, who becomes his wife and then comes along Zoe, their daughter. Enzo isn't happy about sharing Denny but he becomes dedicated to Eve & Zoe. Then Enzo smells something bad happening in Eve and you know that it can't end well. But I couldn't have anticipated the suffering Denny & Enzo would face together. Bad things do really happen to good people in real life and in this novel, and then worse things, and soon I had to remind myself that this is just a story!

Thankfully there is a happy ending and Enzo's greatest dream comes true. But you'll have to read it to see what it is. But if you don't cry buckets of tears at the end then I don't know what to tell you!

I read this for my book club that I belong to with some other librarian friends. I had heard about this book but it would probably not been one I would have read as I knew it would have a sad ending. So I listened to it on CD during my commute and really did enjoy it, had to sit in the parking lot with tears running down my face at one point. Who wouldn't want to have a dog like Enzo? I know that I have a cat, Tigger, who is right up there.