Taking the dog for a talk

A Sheltered Life: The Unexpected History of the Giant Tortoise, by Paul Chambers (John Murray, £8.99)

On the island of Pinta in the Pacific Ocean, a giant tortoise named Lonesome George has been waiting for 30 years for scientists to find him a mate to prevent his species dying out. Chambers's delightful tribute to these lumbering beasts charts their progress from their unlikely arrival on the uninhabited Pacific islands to their current state of near extinction. For centuries they thrived there, living a steady life until the 16th century brought passing mariners who found them slow, deaf, ugly and, unfortunately, surprisingly tasty as soup. They were killed in their hundreds. Early environmentalists did their best, but methods were eccentric. Chambers instils in the giant tortoise an air of mystery that makes one rather yearn for a land and a time when such a beast roamed freely, with the dodo and the sperm whale as brothers-in-arms. NB

A Brief History of the Smile, by Angus Trumble (Basic Books, £9.99)

Trumble's book grew from a talk he gave to a conference of dentists. It has now been used to promote toothpaste, but he frankly admits that he doesn't have a dentally flawless smile: "My own teeth are small and somewhat discoloured." As he says, the smile is "a fabulously versatile contortion, capable of many meanings, which we relish, weigh and constantly build on." In the 19th century, for instance, smiling meant to drink whisky. From the "contemplative smile of the Buddha to the chilly rictus of the news anchor", Trumble searches for the meaning of these enigmatic labial spasms. His jolly cornucopia draws on cosmetics, tooth mutilation, mouth decoration and the history of art, including an unmissable excursus on lewd smiles and chicken groping in 17th-century Dutch painting. Trumble's donnish style of humour makes for a fun read. Not quite laughter therapy, but it will put a smile on your face. PDS

How to Speak Dog: The Art of Dog-Human Communication, by Stanley Coren (Pocket Books, £7.99)

Such is the love and devotion between dog and owner that it is easy to thrust every human characteristic upon your pet and then fail to understand when commands are ignored. Coren, an animal psychologist, here cheerfully translates some dog-speak and debunks a few myths. Dogs undoubtedly understand a great deal of speech, can even detect subtle nuances - take the dogs of ethologist Victor Sarris who understood who was who despite being called Paris, Harris and Arris. And they can be all too human: male dogs will almost fall over in an attempt to urinate higher than their buddies. But do dog owners really want to know that we aren't having our faces licked out of love but in the hope that we will regurgitate some food? Or that that tail isn't pointed skywards out of excitement but better to expose anal glands and therefore scent to a grateful world? It's fascinating stuff, but sometimes ignorance is bliss. NB

Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence, by Ross King (Pimlico, £7.99)

Florence's cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore took 140 years to build. The dome itself took 16 years. For 15th-century visitors, the cathedral with its mountainous dome was little short of miraculous. In height and span the cupola has never been surpassed (St Paul's is smaller by 30 feet). Its builder was goldsmith and clockmaker Filippo Brunelleschi. As Ross King says in his excellent history, this capomaestro wasn't much to look at: a "short, bald and pugnacious-looking" man who sometimes didn't change his dog-skin breeches for weeks. But what he lacked in personal hygiene he made up for in divino ingenio - divine genius: from inventing perspective in painting to designing a revolutionary hoist that could raise 1,700lb blocks hundreds of feet into the air. Thanks to his engineering nous, the dome is still standing more than 500 years later, despite earthquakes and lightning strikes. PDS

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