Dog Days: Dispatches from Bedlam Farm » (Unabridged, 8 CDs, 10 hours)

A versatile, modern writer about life at the turn of the century, Jon Katz has gone from "suburban mysteries" to cultural criticism to personal memoir. His spirited, often humorous musings have earned him both fans and critics; as he wrote in his last column for the web site HotWired: "If the quality of my work was sometimes uneven, my determination to rant was unwavering."

Best-selling author Jon Katz, often called the heir to James Herriot, has earned a devoted following for his heartwarming tales of the dogs in his life. In this book Katz learns that living with four dogs on a rural New York farm is one thing. But what happens when you add a couple cows, four donkeys, a growing flock of sheep, a few hens, a temperamental rooster, and even Mother (a barn cat) to the mix?

The New York Times - David Updike

Though not a religious man, [Katz] reads St. Augustine to the dogs on Easter morning, and is on a quest for a kind of wholeness he no longer felt back in his former life. In late middle age, he has had the conviction to do what many of us have imagined but will never do: sell the suburban cash cows we live in, and buy some real ones, way up north.