What are your favorite books about animals, both fiction and nonfiction?
The Soul of an Octopus, a fascinating non-fiction read by Sy Montgomery. Loved it!
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I loved The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts. It’s about the main character, her horse, and her dog on a cross country trip.
Also The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski from a few years back.
I’m not specifically drawn to books about animals so there might be others I’m not remembering
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I often can’t read stories that feature animals. As I’ve said elsewhere, you can do anything you want to the people, but don’t hurt the dog!!! (or cat or what-have-you). I’ve never read Old Yeller or Call of the Wild and I never will.
That said, I did read Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton last year (after assurances by others here that Hare lives) and thoroughly enjoyed it.
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As a young adult I loved the Redwall series (Lord of the Rings but with woodland creatures), definitely still my favorite books about animals.
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That is an awesome one! Sy Montgomery does such a skilled job describing animals. Another good one of hers is The Good, Good Pig.
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My 2 favorites are The Art of Racing in the Rain and A Dog’s Purpose. Both made me cry.
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… and that’s why I can’t read animal books, @Judi_Ross! LOL.
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anything by sy montgomery! also (and in no particular order): the yearling, winnie the pooh, all creatures great and small, books by alexandra horowitz, good-bye my lady (omg, loved this book, but kleenex is mandatory), bad dog: a love story, american wolf: a true story of survival and obsession in the west. okay, that’s it for now. but if you want a series of cozy mysteries written by the dog, try spencer quinn’s books. they’re fun.
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Gosh, I have a bunch:
Nonfiction:
Running with Sherman: A Donkey with the Heart of a Hero by Chris McDougall
My Dog Skip by Willie Morris
Piglet: The Unexpected Story of a Blind, Deaf, Pink Puppy and His Family by Melissa Shapiro
Fiction:
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. This memoir taught me to try to pay attention to the small things in life. It is also shows introspections on how the author handles her illness . Snails are very interesting!
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the 2 that popped in my head were Watership Down and Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I read both at an early age and they have stayed with me ever since.
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I’ll give another shout out to Remarkably Bright Creatures. Another one, not recent at all, is The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Our book club loved Enzo, the philosophical dog living through and narrating the reader through a sad family drama while sharing his master’s thrill of race car driving: “faster, Denny, faster.”
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I loved McDougall’s Running with Sherman.
I really liked “An Immense World”, Ed Yong. Describes the ways animals and insects view the world that we can’t imagine, and continually points out that our senses fall short of an amazing variety.
Also: “The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating”. Short, with fascinating natural history information.
My hero was Leonard the Goat. He saw that Sherman was suffering and needed a friend.
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As a kid I loved the James Herriot books. While I can’t recall books specifically about animals off the top of my head, one of my favorites is the memoir Let’s Take the Long Way Home (both women have dogs they walk). Raising Hare was enjoyable. When the Cranes Fly South in which the dog was so many things to the man and it broke my heart. Loved it!
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My favorite book about an animal would have to be West With Giraffes. It was such a surprise.
I am currently reading Olive, Mabel & Me by Andrew Cotter. His description on the cover of the book states that it is about Life and Adventures with Two Very Good Dogs. I’m loving this book. When the news gets to be too much, which is pretty much everyday now, I pick up this book and it makes me smile. I’ve also read Remarkably Bright Creatures which I chose for book group. It made me want to learn more about octupuses and of course my reading about animals started long ago with Black Beauty, a classic.
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My favorite children’s animal book is Where the Red Fern Grows. Even now it brings tears to my eyes. When I was teaching library skills to my elementary students I often used it as an example of not to be missed books to entice them to read.
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