BKMT READING GUIDES

The Dog Year
by Ann Wertz Garvin

Published: 2014-06-03
Paperback : 336 pages
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Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She’s not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught ...
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Introduction

Dr. Lucy Peterman was not built for a messy life. A well-respected surgeon whose patients rely on her warmth, compassion, and fierce support, Lucy has always worked hard and trusted in the system. She’s not the sort of person who ends up in a twelve-step program after being caught stealing supplies from her hospital.

But that was Lucy before the accident?before her husband and unborn baby were ripped away from her in an instant, before her future felt like a broken promise. Caught red-handed in a senseless act that kept her demons at bay, she’s faced with a choice: get some help or lose her medical license.

Now she’s reluctantly sharing her deepest fears with a bunch of strangers, avoiding her loneliness by befriending a troubled girl, pinning her hopes on her husband’s last gift, and getting involved with a rugged cop from her past. It’s only when she is adopted by a stray mutt and moves her group to the dog park that she begins to truly bond with the ragtag dog-loving addicts?and discovers that a chaotic, unplanned life might be the sweetest of all . . .

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Excerpt

It had been a full twenty-four hours since that last meeting and now Lucy waited, tapping her steering wheel while watching a group of dogs play in the side yard next to the South Central Wisconsin Humane Society. She checked her watch and fiddled with the clasp, unlocking the silver linking mechanism, locking it back, finally pinching the tender flesh of her wrist after the fourth time. It was as if the watch had slapped her and said, enough. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. The author uses humor to accent human frailties in the book. Why do you think the author makes this choice? Do you think it trivializes or deepens the way the themes and characters throughout the novel.

2. Lucy’s real name is “Luscious,” but she is embarrassed to admit it, let alone be called by it. How is her resistance to this name indicative of her major flaw and ultimately something that derails her.

3. The talented, well off Lucy Peterman turns to shoplifting as a way to fill the void in her life after the death of her husband. Have you ever considered an illegal or questionable behavior to help you cope with loss?

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