Best New Dr. Dolittle

"Lying at our feet, curled up at the foot of our beds, are beings capable of teaching us everything we are seeking. We have only to learn how to listen," writes Boulderite Kate Solisti-Mattelon in her book Conversations With Dog. Solisti-Mattelon, who has written or co-written several other books, including Conversations With Cat, is an animal communicator who claims to use telepathy to find out what our domesticated companions are thinking. Solisti-Mattelon says she was born with the gift of animal communication; it was not something she tried to acquire. But it is for the rest of us, who may not be as expert in the "generous language" of dogs or the "brutally honest" language of cats, that Solisti-Mattelon writes her books.