So What Makes You So Special: What Other Animals Appear to Think

Other minds : the octopus, the sea, and the deep origins of consciousness

Godfrey-Smith, Peter.

From the Publisher

Peter Godfrey-Smith is a leading philosopher of science. He is also a scuba diver whose underwater videos of warring octopuses have attracted wide notice. In this book, he brings his parallel careers together to tell a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself.

My Thoughts

Godfrey-Smith gives examples from research and extrapolates the origins of consciousness and the implications of other creatures having similar and dissimilar consciousness in reference to humans.

The soul of an octopus : a surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness

Montgomery, Sy, author.

From the Publisher

"An investigation of the emotional and physical world of the octopus"-- Provided by publisher.

My Thoughts

Montgomery's scientific knowledge and personal experience make an already interesting creature mind-blowing.

Beyond words : what animals think and feel

Safina, Carl, 1955- author.

From the Publisher

Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and nonhuman animals.

My Thoughts

Through different mammals, Safina shows us how their lives can look just as socially complex as ours.

Gifts of the crow : how perception, emotion, and thought allow smart birds to behave like humans

Marzluff, John M.

From the Publisher

With his extraordinary research on the intelligence and startling abilities of crows, ravens, and jays, scientist John Marzluff teams up with artist-naturalist Tony Angell to tell stories of these birds in Gifts of the Crow. They offer an in-depth look at these complex creatures and our shared behaviors. The ongoing connection between humans and crows has shaped both species for millions of years. And the characteristics of crows that allow this symbiotic relationship are language,...

My Thoughts

"The Gifts of the Crow" uses funny and touching stories as well as interesting research to illustrate how crows and ravens exhibit eight intelligence traits: language, delinquency, insight, frolic, passion, wrath, risk-taking, and awareness. The writing makes this book move quickly, and the illustrations are peerless.

Mousy cats and sheepish coyotes : the science of animal personalities

Shivik, John A., author.

From the Publisher

A wildlife expert explores what science tells us about animals as unique individuals and why animal personality matters for the human-animal bond and for adaptation in nature. Why are some cats cuddly and others standoffish? Why are some dogs adventuresome, others homebodies? As any pet owner can attest, we feel that the animals we've formed bonds with are unique, as particular (and peculiar) as any human friend or loved one. Recent years have brought an increased understanding of animal...

My Thoughts

Shivik offers a brief history of the study of animal behavior, some current research, and an examination of how evolution selects for different personality traits. The examples illustrate how cooperating is something that all species do and how nature selects for diversity to perpetuate species.

H is for hawk

Macdonald, Helen, 1970- author.

From the Publisher

"As a child Helen Macdonald was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T.H. White's tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. When her father dies and she is knocked sideways by grief, she becomes obsessed with the idea of training her own goshawk. She buys Mabel ... on a Scottish quayside and takes her home to Cambridge. Then she fills the freezer with hawk...

My Thoughts

This book explores the relationship between the author and her hawk, English literature, and the current political landscape in Great Britain. Her writing elicits powerful images and questions.

Vesper flights : new and collected essays

Macdonald, Helen, 1970- author.

From the Publisher

"Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing songbirds from the Empire State Building as they migrate through the Tribute of Light, watching tens of thousands of...

My Thoughts

I was so taken by MacDonald's writing that I had to read this book which offers more insights into how humans are interacting with other creatures. She shows us how sometimes our imaginations get in the way of our seeing other animals.

An immense world : how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us

Yong, Ed, author.

From the Publisher

"The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every animal is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of an immense world. This book welcomes us into a previously unfathomable dimension: the world as it is truly perceived by other animals. We encounter beetles that are drawn to fires (and fireworks), songbirds that can see the Earth's magnetic fields, and brainless jellyfish that...

My Thoughts

Yong writes engagedly and presents many interesting animals as well as the researchers who study and even designed instruments to study animal senses. It is humbling.

The forest unseen : a year's watch in nature

Haskell, David George.

From the Publisher

In this wholly original book, biologist David Haskell uses a one- square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window onto the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life. Each of this book's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers. From these, Haskell spins a brilliant web of...

My Thoughts

Haskell's eloquent and penetrating observations offer a glimpse into how such a small space can contain so much life. His words mirror the forest's beauty, and the science reveals our dependence on our ecosystems.

The songs of trees : stories from nature's great connectors

Haskell, David George, author.

From the Publisher

In The Song of Trees, award-winning nature writer David Haskell repeatedly visits a dozen trees around the world, exploring the trees' connections with webs of fungi, bacterial communities, cooperative and destructive animals, and other plants. In doing this he shows that every living being is not only sustained by biological connections, but is made from these relationships, and that holding a networked view of life enriches our understanding of biology, human nature, and ethics.

My Thoughts

Haskell's poetic language gives us insight into the unique beauty of particular trees, and the science and sociology reveal the importance of those trees to their locations.

Finding the mother tree : discovering the wisdom of the forest

Simard, S. (Suzanne), author.

From the Publisher

"A personal and scientific work on trees, forests, and the author's profound discoveries of tree communication"-- Provided by publisher.

My Thoughts

Simard presents how she pursued studying trees, the setbacks she faced, and the astonishing and influential results of her research. Her work demonstrates how trees communicate with each other and assist other creatures.

To speak for the trees : my life's journey from ancient Celtic wisdom to a healing vision of the forest

Beresford-Kroeger, Diana, 1944- author.

From the Publisher

Diana Beresford-Kroeger—a world-recognized botanist and medical biochemist—has revolutionized our understanding of the natural world with her startling insights into the hidden life of trees. In this riveting memoir, she uncovers the roots of her discoveries in her extraordinary childhood in Ireland. Soon after, her brilliant mind bloomed into an illustrious scientific career that melds the intricacies of the natural world with the truths of traditional Celtic wisdom. To Speak for the...

My Thoughts

Beresford-Kroeger's personal history, intellectual development, and eventual influence on boreal forests make a fascinating and surprisingly quick read. Her call to her fellow humans to work with the trees around us is profound.