I Have Heard You Calling in the Night or Hair Rules

I Have Heard You Calling in the Night

Author: Thomas Healy

It seems now like a different me, the years I spent with Martin, a Doberman dog, and before he came, another me; and it is a new me now, once again, writing this. I would have been dead long ago had I continued to live the way I had before he came.

I think someone would have murdered me, given how I drank and the dives that I drank in and that I was an aggressive, angry man. I had no money and no friends. I didn’t care, I couldn’t have.

Thomas Healy was a drunk, a fighter, sometimes a writer, often unemployed, no stranger to the police. His life was going nowhere but downhill. Then one day he bought a pup—a Doberman. He called him Martin. Gradually man and dog became unshakable allies, the closest of comrades, the best of friends. They took long walks together, they vacationed together, they even went to church together.

Martin, in more ways than one, saved Thomas Healy’s life.

Written with unadulterated candor and profound love, this soulful memoir gets at the heart of the intense bond between people and dogs.

Publishers Weekly

Novelist Healy was a raging, brawling drunk until, on a whim, he adopted a Doberman pinscher puppy he named Martin. He nursed Martin through illness and wounds; Martin in turn stood guard over him while he lay passed out in fields. Their bond, and the slight but persistent duty of caring for Martin enabled Healy to very fitfully begin to recover from his alcoholism and propensity to violence and gently nudged him toward an understanding of himself and God. Healy embeds the story in a memoir of his life in the slums of Glasgow, his relationship with his parents, his conflicted attitude toward the church and his many loves, from a youthful encounter with a whore with a heart of gold to a mature affair with a boss who fired him after he makes clear that Martin is more important to him than she is. "It was not right that a man should need a dog as much as I had needed him," Healy acknowledges, but he makes no apologies that "for whatever reason, my best pal possessed four legs instead of two." In Healy's heartfelt prose, this eccentric friendship becomes the core of a moving meditation on the mysterious nature of redemption. (Oct.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Part Angela's Ashes, part A Million Little Pieces, Healy's memoir of sin and redemption through dog companionship tells a story far larger than its 208 pages would indicate. As a young man, Scotsman Healy seems headed for prison or violent death owing to his drinking and brawling. But then he meets Martin, a Doberman Pinscher pup that he pays 50 pounds for on a whim. What Healy receives in return from this extraordinary dog is invaluable. Not only does Martin help Healy regain some dignity and regard for his own life, but he also helps guide him through a series of adventures and romances. Even in death Martin helps Healy grow to be a better person. Healy sometimes brags about the women he beds, but mercifully his tale is free of explicit sex or violence. And while his is not a humorous book, it offers some amusing moments. More important, Healy's memoir manages to do what all the best books do: leave you wanting more. Recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/06.]-Alicia Graybill, Southeast Lib. Syst., Lincoln, NB Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Glasgow-based novelist Healy makes his U.S. debut with an ode to his dog, "a gift from God, to keep me in the world."The author spent his early adult years roaming around Scotland, drinking, brawling, writing short stories, drinking, generally batching it, and, oh yes, drinking. Then, on a lark, he adopted a Doberman named Martin. This slender volume, marked by blunt, unadorned prose, is a paean to the dog whose devotion and dependence transformed his life. Healy got serious about earning money, so that he could pay Martin's veterinarian bills, and he gradually ditched the bottle. Though he wouldn't get sober until after Martin's death, Healy credits the dog with starting him on the path to sobriety: "I wanted to keep him and I could not have kept him had I continued to drink the way I had." The author and his elderly mother bonded over Martin. He began attending mass as a result of their more comfortable relationship and, over the years, gained strength from his Catholic faith. (The book takes its title from a Christian psalm.) Healy even embarked on a ten-day silent retreat at a monastery. The silence proved challenging only when he ran across a monk who used to tend bar at one of his hangouts. Dog-lovers who found Marley & Me too saccharine will welcome this darker-hued appreciation of a canine friend.

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Hair Rules!: The Ultimate Hair-Care Guide for Women with Kinky, Curly, or Wavy Hair

Author: Anthony Dickey

Kinky, curly, or wavy hair isn’t “problem” hair—it’s just hair with a different set of rules!

For too long, hairstylists and hair-care companies have ignored the needs of women with kinky, curly, or wavy hair, focusing on it as “problem” hair rather than celebrating its unique texture. But now hair-care and style expert A. Dickey, considered by top magazine beauty editors to be the foremost authority on caring for, cutting, and styling curly hair, has written Hair Rules! to end the frustration faced by women with curly hair every day.
Hair Rules! is chock-full of simple tips for all types of curly hair and covers everything from the best shampoos and conditioners to use, to damage-free hair-drying (dust off that hood dryer!), the use of natural oils, and the safest coloring, styling, and chemical relaxing techniques—as well as guidelines for maintaining healthy, gorgeous hair.
“My mission,” writes Dickey, “is simple: to advise and encourage all women with nonstraight hair to strive to attain their beauty, whatever their ethnicity, and whatever their tastes.”