You Can Have a Dog When I'm Dead: Essays on Life at an Angle

by Paul Benedetti

Hamilton Spectator columnist Paul Benedetti’s essays paint a wonderfully funny portrait of family life today.

Paul Benedetti has a good job, a great family, and successful neighbours ― but that doesn’t stop him from using it all as grist for a series of funny, real, and touching essays about a world he can’t quite navigate.

Benedetti misses his son, who is travelling in Europe, misplaces his groceries, and forgets to pick up his daughter at school. He endures a colonoscopy and vainly attempts to lower his Body Mass Index ― all with mixed results. He loves his long-suffering wife, worries about his aging parents and his three children, who seem to spend a lot of time battling online trolls, having crushes on vampires, and littering their rooms with enough junk to start a landfill.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Humor

256 pages, Paperback

Published March 14, 2017

Reviews

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lovely collection of essays covering several years in the life of Canadian journalist Paul Benedetti. He writes about "normal" family life, about raising kids, getting older and dealing with mortality, but not much about dogs. I missed a few of the Canadian references but learnt a bit more about life in Canada, which was great. Due to the short articles, the book is perfect for dipping in and out of, which was my intention, but I actually felt so engaged and entertained by this, I ended up flying through it, reading larger chunks.
Some of the essays were very funny, others made me tear up, all of them were very relatable and readable. The pieces about mortality were very touching and encouraged reflection.
Personal note to Paul Benedetti: You so need to get your wife a dog! It'd be awesome and I believe she deserves it!
I received an ARC via NetGalley. Thank you!

[Hristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession: I was looking for a book different from what I've been reading so far this year (which is mostly YA, roms that sometimes don't have the coms, and comics and graphic novels that have been the highlight). I am not the target age for this book, but I fell in love with the title. And this was the different I was looking for.
This was an entertaining read. It's a mixture of funny stories and essays that cogitate about both family life, and mortality, and it contains as many booze references as your heart would want. It isn't as humorous as I expected, it's more serious, but it's well written and it's engaging.


Thank to Dundurn for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Donna Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of funny stories and brief essays. It’s geared for the Boomer generation, and is billed basically as bathroom reading. Thank you to Net Galley and Dundurn Press for the DRC, which I received in exchange for this honest review. I rate this book with 3.5 stars and round it upward; it will be available to the Canadian public –and presumably anyone anywhere that wants to buy it digitally—February 17, 2017.

I confess I made an assumption when I saw the title. I was expecting jokes and essays dealing with man’s best friend; actually, I find very few stories related to dogs, but an unexpected number related to death. Of course, many of the essays are not humorous, but of a more reflective nature. This is all well and good, and the quality of the writing is worthy of such a sobering topic. But when I saw the book billed as being similar to the work of Dave Barry, I wasn’t anticipating reflections on my own mortality. I was expecting jokes.

That aside, there are indeed some very funny pieces here, and although I am on the borderline in terms of being in—or out—of the Boomer generation, a lot of the humor does resonate. I love seeing Benedetti try to explain a home phone to a young person:

“I should probably explain to anyone under thirty that a home phone is an actual device about the size of a toaster that remains in your house. The reason you cannot take it with you to the bar, to your class, and into the toilet, where I’m sure you’re receiving very important calls, is that it’s attached by wires directly to the wall in your house.”

I enjoy the piece on his garden, and about his elderly mother’s dance class. I am disquieted to learn that every person, real or imagined, in any of these stories is assumed by the writer to be Caucasian.

I also find myself wondering why every story has to have booze in it somewhere. Wine, beer, whiskey, Bailey’s, more beer, more wine, gin, Kahlua…what’s up with this?

Should you pick up a copy for yourself? I suppose that depends upon what the purchase price looks like and how much time you spend at home. If it’s affordable and you are retired, you might like to have it. If the price tag is hefty, you may want to wait.

But I imagine Mr. Benedetti would prefer you to purchase it before you get that dog. Because…yeah.

[Sharon M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this great book!

In the same vein as Lisa Scottoline, this is a book of newspaper columns about life from a Canadian journalist. I'm sure I missed lots of the Canadian references, but any book that makes me laugh and cry, often at the same time, is a worthy read. When it's about those life experiences that we all go through, even better. If you are a boomer, you'll appreciate all the milestones experienced in this book through laughter - the colonoscopy, kids moving out, caring for parents, summer vacations...it's all here to relate to.

This is one of those books that's easy to just pick up, read a quick passage and go about your day with a little bit brighter smile.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Totally relatable! Laughing one minute, in tears the next. Had me chuckling out loud and my husband asking me what I was reading, I'd then reread what I'd read and we'd both have a good laugh! There were times however that after reading some of Paul's stories, I'd take a few minutes and reflect on my own life. I was pleasantly surprised at how much depth there is in this book. Totally unexpected, but very pleased.
P.s Paul get your wife a dog, I think she deserves one!

[Stephanie Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

A mixture of whimsical, philosophical and just plain funny. I'm just surprised his friend Dave is still his friend! I noticed he acknowledged him!


Very readable, short essays that can be dipped into. Not to be read all at one go.

[Toyin Spades · Rating 4 out of 5]

​
This is such a humorously written book full of stories about different aspects of Paul’s life. These stories span from events that occurred in 1999 to 2016.

Through these stories, he takes the reader through a timeline of events that make you realise that life is full of good times (if we are patient enough to notice them), bad times we can learn from and just random moments to share with those around us.

Rating: 4/5

Favourite Quote: “…I am shaken, reminded that we are fragile things and that our hold on life is gossamer thin. How do you live when you can, in the briefest moment, disappear.

[Susan Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Princess Fuzzypants here:
If you enjoy gentle humour based on real life situation, you will enjoy this collection of pieces by Paul Benedetto. He is a Canadian columnist in the style of Dave Barry. Some essays are filled with pathos but never without an affirmation of hope and love.
He comments on things that happen to him, his family and his friends. They are there with those glorious warts that make humans human. It is the kind of book that allows the reader to dip in and out. It would make a great gift for someone who revels in the absurdities of the world and laughs at them anyway.
I give this book four purrs and two paws up.

[Heena Rathore Rathore-Pardeshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal read! If you can get your hands on this one, then do read it. It's an incredibly well-written book and I had a remarkably good time reading it. It is a collection of really short essays by a Canadian journalist, Paul Benedetti, and he talks about his own life in all of them with cracking-my-butt-off humour about little things from his everyday life.

This was my first time reading a book full of essays and I was quite sceptical before starting it, but right after the very first essay, I knew I was hooked for good. I now feel like Paul is an old friend and I know more about his life than my own mother's, so that's something. DO READ IT, it's a classy humour book!

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining, laugh out loud funny and touching anecdotes about life. Loved reading some parts out loud to my spouse for a good chuckle.

[Melissa Kayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paul Benedetti was self-deprecating and funny and even though I might be younger than him, his stories about kids and parenting and mortgages and vacations and parents getting older were all something I could easily relate to. Each story was a column that he wrote for the newspaper and my only complaint is that I would have liked to read them weekly as opposed to all in one book because a lot of common themes are covered several times. This would be a good bedside book, read one or two each night or when you have a couple minutes instead of trying to digest them all at once.

Thank you to Netgalley, Dundurn and Paul Benedetti for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

[Justkeepreading · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, Dundurn and Paul Beneditti for the opportunity to read this book for an honest review.

You will find my review on Goodreads from today under Karen whittard and on Amazon under k.e.whittard on publication date.

If you don't have a lot of time to read and you want something you can dip in and out of an that won't take up too much time. Which is funny, whimsical, and philosophical then this book is for you.

This is a collection of esseys that are really interesting and easy to read. I throughly enjoyed them.

I hope you do too.

Happy reading everyone

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here: http://wp.me/p36jwx-1bX