Dave Barry cracks me up and I adore canine companions, so this little memoir about the lessons Dave has learned from his darling dog, Lucy, moved quickly to the top of my list. It induced many chuckles and guffaws mingled with tears of laughter and some unexpected tears of sadness. I’m very happy to say that all of the members of Dave’s family, including Lucy, are all doing well now (so you don’t need to be afraid that this book ends on a sad note), but the last section was incredibly poignant as Dave poured out his feelings about a temporary tragic illness that his daughter suffered. It was filled with honest and raw emotion and I found it very touching.

Most of the book contains Dave Barry’s light and funny musings about life in general and about how to grow old joyfully, all inspired by Lucy. My only disappointment was that I wanted to hear a little more about Lucy and a little less about life. Can I just say: I love Lucy.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a digital advance review copy. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I love Dave Barry. This book is a wonderful read. He writes with humor and I try to read everything he writes. This was very enjoyable.

You'll Love Lucy...

...and you will laugh through tears.

Dave Barry's books are unfailingly humorous. This book, though, is full of wisdom earned through pain. Through poignant recollections, the author demonstrated how life lessons can be learned if you'd only listened to your dog.

As always, Dave Barry is out loud funny, regaling the reader with tales of his home life, and in this particular book, stories about his dog. I loved this book, in particular the part about the dogs and the screened door on the lanai; you will certainly understand the scenario if you've ever lived in Florida, but especially it shows just how bizarre dogs can be, while you are left shaking your head. Loved this book, Dave Barry is a classic, a class act, and beyond funny guy. Highly recommend. Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy.

Lessons learned from Lucy by Dave Berry is a very sweet an inspirational story about a middle aged man and his dog. One that shines a light on a :an and his best friend. Barry' has a way with words and the ability to keep your attention throughout the book. It is very touching and humorous but at points is rather slow. I would give it 5 stars but there were just a few parts that seemed like Barry was struggling to find just the right words.,overall though, I recommend this book to anyone who see the humor in an animal and the way they interact with the ones they love.


Thanks to netgalley as well as the publisher/author for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review..

A bit more of a slower, more contemplative read from Dave Barry than I am used to but a wonderful one. I particularly appreciated his sharing such a personal story in the final chapter.

Touching and funny, everything you expect from a Dave Barry book. Dogs, as we know, teach us how to be more human. Barry's Lucy is no different.

Podcast TK.

I thoroughly enjoyed most of "Lessons from Lucy." Dave Barry passes along his aging dog, Lucy's, pieces of wisdom with so much humor. Lucy sounds wonderful! I was disappointed that the final chapter deviated from this and focused instead on lessons he learned from his daughter.. Still, a 4 star book!

As a long-time fan of Dave Barry I was thrilled to get an advance copy of his latest book, Lessons from Lucy. It doesn't hurt that there was a wonderful photo of Lucy on the cover (and Dave, too). One expects lots of humor in this book, and it certainly doesn't disappoint on that front. But there are also some pretty good life lessons for us all here, although most of us won't fully appreciate them until we've reached a "certain age" - one of life's little jokes is that we seem to be wired to have to learn life lessons on our own. Still it doesn't hurt to have reminders of those lessons, lessons like making new friends and hanging on to the old ones, remember to have fun, looks aren't everything, and more. At the heart of it all is learning to age joyfully, certainly a theme that hits home with me these days. Lots of laughing out loud with this one, lots of touching moments as well. Lucy is a delight, and so is this book.
My thanks to Netgalley and to Simon & Schuster for providing a copy for an unbiased review.

Dave Barry never disappoints and the life lessons he shares from his canine companion are filled with love, caring, common sense, and Barry’s famous humor. Highly recommended for lovers of dogs and Barry.

Published by Simon & Schuster on April 2, 2019

Dogs are effortlessly happy. Joy is a default state. Humans too often ignore daily or even hourly opportunities to be happy, if only for a few moments. Humans should be more like dogs. And there you have one of the lessons Dave Barry offers, but with a lot more humor, in Lessons from Lucy.

Barry is 70; Lucy is 10; both are entering their senior years. Barry wrote the book, he says, to try to identify how his dog Lucy manages to be so happy and whether he can apply those techniques to his own life.

Barry meanders a bit, as is his style, before he gets around to imparting each lesson, some of which are only tangentially related to dogs, not that it matters. The funniest chapter (to me) explains why aging sucks, and the funniest line is that AARP is the last sound people make before they die. Barry also pokes fun at mindfulness, motivational events, scallops, the folly of outsourcing customer service to distant countries, people who don’t think about what they might want to order until they reach the front of a fast food line, and many other targets. For a bit of time in each of the seven chapters, he talks about Lucy, who sounds like a wonderful dog, much like all other dogs except possibly the little ones who need to be carried all the time (one of the many prejudices I have in common with Barry, whose books I like because he seems to be a lot like me, only funnier).

Lucy’s lessons are things like Make Friends Easily, Never Stop Having Fun, Be a Good Companion to the People You Love, Let Go of Your Anger, and You Do Not Need More Stuff to Be Happy. All of those lessons (and more) are illustrated with amusing examples of the ways in which Barry could make his life better, as well as amusing examples of how Lucy lives those lessons effortlessly. So this is sort of a self-help book (although Barry makes fun of self-help authors in an epilog), but it is really a light examination of how someone who is getting older might not be too old to think about how to live a better life. And who can teach better lessons about living a good life than an aging dog?

RECOMMENDED

Lessons from Lucy is a story that only Dave Barry could possibly tell. Lucy teaches Dave about mindfulness, anger management, altogether 7 lessons to help anyone be happier in their lives.

Dave Barry always makes me laugh out loud, even in a "self-help" book. And this one came with a surprise ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy to read in exchange for my review.

Five stars.

I have long been a fan of this author's columns and would catch it in whatever vehicle I could. His columns never failed to provide a knowing nod, a chuckle, or laugh out loud moments. And while I don't agree with all of Mr. Barry's philosophy, I certainly agree that the man can find humor in just about anything and therefore brighten your day with his acerbic thoughts.

While the narrative doesn't open new doors in wisdom, create new cosmic thought on life with dogs (or life itself), it is certainly written in an entertaining and satisfying manner. The author points out seven major lessons bestowed on Dave and his family by Lucy, their ten-year-old mixed-breed rescue. Dave's keen wit, inspired observations of human behavior and metaphors for dog behavior, generally hit just where you've been. He sums up each lesson with his own experiences and examples that bear out his points.

This is a pseudo-self-help book from a skeptical self-help book hypocrite. He doesn't ascribe to self-help books or their authors. Even he can't believe he wrote it. Normally, he is a snarky, cynical Pulitzer-prize-winning columnist and bestselling author. It was intended to be a book about dogs. But there were so many parallels he could draw from his reflections.

It's honest, sincere, and authentic. Also humorous, appealing, and a feel-good novel. And a great read that I wholeheartedly recommend. I received the ebook download from the publisher and NetGalley. I so appreciated the opportunity to read and review. Thank you!

Dave Barry reveals his softer side in this charming collection of anecdotes about his dog, his family, his friends, and his personal foibles. This is a sweet, funny, and very relatable feel-good read. The audiobook would also be a great listen when you want something light and entertaining.

The lessons Dave learned from Lucy aren’t going to surprise anyone. The author himself admits that these are obvious, common sense lessons we all know already. But as he says, we often do a lousy job of using what we know. If reading this encourages you to implement some of these lessons more consistently, I’m sure you will start to feel happier.

This is even somewhat educational. I will never look at scallops the same again!

I highly recommend this book to anyone with a heart and a sense of humor.

Simon & Schuster provided me with an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

3.5 rounded up; thanks go to Net Galley and Simon and Schuster for the review copy. This memoir will be available to the public April 2, 2019.

Dave is seventy, and his dog Lucy is up there in years as well. Unlike most of Barry’s essays and books, this one has a reflective aspect and a bit of advice for those nearing or entering their senior years. There’s still a great deal of humor, but there’s a gently philosophical self-help thrust not present in his earlier work. As a 60-year-old retired reader that loves her dog, I represent his target demographic. And I also have to say—his demographic is clearly Caucasian, and this made me a mite uncomfortable. I’ll get back to that in a minute. I have to, since apparently no other reviewer anywhere is going to address it. *

Dave breaks his advice down into seven suggestions, all of which are in some way inspired by Lucy. None of his points are especially new or profound, but because he is so capable in describing and explaining them, he makes old tired advice seem worthy of my attention. A number of his observations left me nodding my head, and he includes liberal humorous anecdotes that in some cases, made me laugh out loud. And here I will put on my teacher hat and tell you that brain studies reveal that learning is easier when there is positive emotion that goes with it.

Dave wants senior citizens to stop merely being content—which is exactly what I am—and take the occasional trip out of our comfort zones. He describes a family trip to a wildlife preserve in Africa to illustrate his point, and his story is so hysterical that it leaves me gasping for air. I can never imagine myself participating, as Dave has, in a parade involving decorated lawnmowers, but I love reading about it. And he reminds senior men to find their friends and tell them how important they are. A great many men have friends that are very important, and that they haven’t talked to in person or even by phone for years. What are you waiting for? At some point, one of you will be dead, and then the survivor will realize his mistake. Barry argues for seizing the moment. (He also makes me glad I am female. My friends hear from me all the damn time, and when I leave the planet, they will know what they meant to me.)

I began reading Barry’s work in the 1980s, and during the ‘90s and ‘00s, I used one of his columns, “How to Play with a Dog,” to teach middle school students expository writing. Step by step, he told us how to do it, and in the most enjoyable way; and that’s what expository writing is. Kids that didn’t like to write sat up and listened to this. It is a genius piece of work, and because of this, and because of the long period during which I loved each and every thing he wrote, this book receives a favorable rating from me. Because there’s also a big problem with it. Keep reading.

I loved the way Barry skewers the whole ‘mindfulness’ shtick even as he also advocates for some of its better aspects. When he digs into the topic of the diversity workshop, I feel a little hitch in my breathing, a twinge of anxiety. I read Dave Barry Does Japan, and the things he said about the Japanese demonstrated that his understanding of other races and cultures needs an upgrade. Here he tells us that his wife is half Cuban, half Jewish, so we know he’s probably not an alt-right white supremacist, but at the same time, some of the jokes he makes are cringe-worthy at best. When he tells us that if he was ever forced to sit through another diversity workshop (as was required by the Miami Herald,) he would join the Klan and the Black staff members would go with him, I slumped. Aw, shit. Dave, statements like this are why diversity training even exists. If there’s a training and you are invited, run there and get you a real good seat. In fact, there’s a chance that other staffers had to go to a workshop that was mostly aimed at you!

I have had a similar experience with 3 or 4 other books I’ve reviewed, and there’s always someone out there that will leave a comment saying it’s ridiculous to fuss over one little sentence in the book. In anticipation, I have an analogy just for those people, and here it is:

imagine you have been invited to a potluck supper. You hand your contribution, maybe a bowl of potato salad to the host to add to the collection of food, and you grab a plate. There are three long tables, and you move down the row selecting from among the crispy fried chicken, the smoky ribs, watermelon, three-alarm chili, coleslaw, nachos, garden salad, pasta salad, fruit salad, a bowl of human excrement, baked squash with cinnamon, homemade cherry pie, key lime pie, shrimp salad, pesto salad, deviled eggs, and of course, your own contribution, the potato salad. But once you sit down, your appetite has fled, hasn’t it? You came in feeling hungry. You skipped a meal before this thing, cause you knew there’d be a lot of good things to eat. And of course, when you passed that bowl of human poo, you didn’t take any of it, and like everyone else, you politely diverted your eyes away from it once you were satisfied that it was exactly what it looked like. What the hell…? After a glance around the room to see whether a joke is about to be sprung, or at least a conversation had about this inappropriate addition, you edge toward the garbage, where you quietly deposit your uneaten meal, and then you edge toward the door…all because of that one thing.

Why would you toss a plateful of delicious food merely because there was one distasteful thing on the table? Because neither you nor your food could be close to that mess for even a minute.

So that’s how I see the Klan reference. It’s hard to chuckle after a bomb like that has been included, and he even includes a snarky remark after it about the fact that some will be offended, which comes off like an extended middle finger to anyone that doesn’t like a Klan-friendly joke.

And maybe that’s how it rolls with him; he has all the money he needs, and he doesn’t care if there are people that don’t like what he wrote. But I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would write a memoir like this, one intended to provide an excellent philosophy for his aging readers, one which will also be a part of his legacy after he’s gone, and then include something that will hurt some of the people that read it. I just don’t get it.

Do I recommend this book to you? From where I sit, if you want it, don’t pay full price for it. I wouldn’t buy it for anyone I like, but now you have my take on it, so the as always, the decision rests with you.


*Sigh!

Rating: 4.5

This was my first Dave Barry book. I know he has a reputation of being a wonderful humorist and his books line the shelves of our 800s section in the library. So my expectations were set pretty high comparatively to other humorists I have read; Mindy Kaling, Jenny Lawson, B. J. Novak. I also knew that he was especially popular for the baby boomer generation. As a millennial myself, I was curious if his humor would be too specific for a different generation than myself. I was delighted to find that his humor was accessible to all ages (well maybe PG-13).

"Lessons from Lucy" was not the traditional humorist essay book. It was more aligned with the self-help genre but from the viewpoint of a beloved humorist. Dave Barry begins his book explaining his love for the dog species and the dogs he has "owned" in the past. Lucy, his current dog, spurred this book being she inspired him to be better in his life. Each lesson, as common sense as they might be, caused Barry to analyze his own life and ways he could improve. These lessons are ones that everyone could use reminding themselves from time to time. Filled with the many hijinks of Lucy and the dogs of Barry's past, any dog owner could relate to these scenarios and laugh out loud in agreement of just how wonderful and special these animals are in our lives.

Recommended for fans of Dave Barry (obviously), all dog lovers, fans of the self-help genre and really anyone looking for a feel good book. A fast and enjoyable read.

Also posted on my Goodreads page and my blog.

Whenever I visited my family in Florida I enjoyed Mr Barry’s column.

This book was not up to the standards that I have come to expect when I read one of his books. It’s not bad but for me it was not funny.

is anecdotes were touching.

I received a copy from Netgalley.

Dave Barry is exploring how to be a happier person by taking cues (lessons) from his frequently happy dog Lucy. He also talks about people, aging and life in general. This story is insightful, uplifting, entertaining and laugh out loud funny. You do not need to be a dog lover to enjoy this book but if you are put it on your must read list.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for an ARC of this story. The opinions expressed are my own.

I’ve been a huge fan of Dave Barry forever, and I enjoyed this book. Other fans should note, however, that this book is a bit of a departure for him. It is more a self-help book than his usual, more exaggerated, humor style.