The Dogs of Littlefield by Suzanne Berne

Life in Littlefield, Massachusetts is what you would expect in a small suburban town.  Children play soccer, wives cook dinner, and the community is proud of its various schools, parks and gardens.  When the town decides to create an off-leash dog park on a trial basis, the many dog-lovers of the town are thrilled.  Dogs frolic and people wonder why they hadn’t done this sooner.  Then the signs start popping up on park fences: Pick up after your dog.  Aren’t you ashamed that you don’t? And Leash your beast.  Or else. No one is particularly surprised by this turn of events.  Surely it’s just one of the folks at the nearby community garden, afraid that a dog will trash some freshly planted beds.  Until Feldman, a white bullmastiff, is discovered dead in the dog park by Margaret Downing.

In Berne's The Dogs of Littlefield, sociologist Dr. Clarice Watkins, newly arrived in town to study the elements of a “good life” and its effect on the suburban citizens of Littlefield, takes in the recent rash of dog poisonings.  What author Berne gives us is a funny, honest portrayal of life and the many people in it.  From the ups and downs of marriage, to affairs, dealing with ones children and work, Berne shows us the honest minds of people living their lives.  Lives that are sometimes small, ordinary and filled with minutiae or fear.  What appears on the surface to be a murder mystery involving the dogs of a small town, really becomes a story about people living their ordinary lives.

Look Who's Back by Timur Vermes

World War II has been over for 70 years. Adolf Hitler has been dead for 70 years. Vermes' Look Who's Back imagines what the world would be like if Hitler didn't die in 1945 like previously thought. The book starts with Hitler waking up in Berlin in 2011, and Hitler himself if shocked to see that Germany looks nothing like it did when he last saw it in 1945. There's no Ava Braun, no Nazi Party, and no World War II. Completely confused Hitler roams about Berlin until he stumbles across a newsstand, whose owner mistakes the real Adolf Hitler for a Hitler impersonator. The real Hitler takes offense that nobody takes him seriously as the Führer of Germany. Put to work as a "Hitler impersonator" (who refuses to break character) for a local TV station, this suddenly makes Hitler a sensation once again. Now it's his job to once again put Germany back on track and convince the world that he's the real Adolf Hitler.

Look Who's Back is an entertaining satire, imaging what life would be like if Hitler were alive today. With a focus on how technology has changed the face of politics, it's interesting to imagine what a modern world with Hitler would be like. This book is sure to provide a few laughs and question modern politics.