July NatureKIT: Inner Lives of Animals

This month's theme is about the inner lives of (non-human) animals: how they think, feel, sense, and socialise. It's a subject I'm rather fond of. You could read about animals in general or about one specific animal.

Here's a few nonfiction books pulled from my physical shelves and my wishlist:

Bats Sing, Mice Giggle: The Surprising Science of Animals' Inner Lives* (discusses more than just bats and mice)
Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe
When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (discusses more than elephants alone)
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness*
King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animals' Ways
Gifts of the Crow: How Perception, Emotion, and Thought Allow Smart Birds to Behave Like Humans
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behaviour*
Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

DDC 591.5 animal behaviour (and more specific numbers like 591.55 social behaviours, 591.51 instinct and reason, 591.513 intelligence) and DDC 156 comparative (animal) psychology may help you out in locating books to your interest. (For LCC users, that's QL750-795 animal behaviour and BF660-685 comparative psychology.)

If you are looking for fiction, I challenge you this month to read a book from the point-of-view of a (non-human) animal. It can be in third person, as long as the main character(s) are all non-human. Dragons, dolphins, dogs, assorted woodland creatures? You decide.

Here's a few adult fiction books from various genres and moods to get you inspired:

Hollow Kingdom: A pet crow navigates the apocalypse
I Am a Cat: A cat POV satire of upper-class society in Meiji-era Japan
Tooth and Claw: A regency-era comedy of manners — in a society of dragons
A Dog's Purpose: The many lives of a dog, in about as realistic a setting you can get with a reincarnating dog
Animal Farm: The classic satire of the Russian Revolution, set in the barnyard
Three Bags Full: Philosophical murder mystery with sheep as the detectives
Fox 8 (short story): A fox who has learned to speak 'Yuman' writes a letter to humanity
The Bees: Flora 717 is in the lowest caste of her dystopian society — which is a beehive

Of course, there is plethora of juvenile literature of the talking-animal or animal-societies type, and I can heartily endorse even the oldest among us reading children's books — they are good for the soul, and a quick read brings our yearly books-read total up. ;)

If you are looking for a book about a specific animal or topic or genre, let me know and I will do what I can to find something I think you'll like! I'm so excited for this theme.

*I have read and reviewed books with an asterisk beside them this year, and you can find my reviews on my thread if you are interested. I have not read any of the fiction I listed, although many titles are pulled from my TBR. Do let me know what you thought about any titles you read for this month's challenge!

I'd highly recommend The Soul of an Octopus to anyone on the fence--I adored that book.

For my part, I'm planning on reading Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb.

I have been a collector of hippos since I was a teenager. This includes books, toys, carvings, photos, figurines made of all sorts of materials. I plan to read Hugo the Hippo for this challenge.

I loved Hollow Kingdom. Looking now for what I have for this one.

I’ll planning to read one of these, depending on what’s available at the library or on Libby:

Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death by ‪Susana Monsó
Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses by Jackie Higgins
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal

>1 GraceCollection: I won't join this month as I don't have anything fitting on my shelves right now, but I love this introduction and I am sure I will add so many books to my wishlist! This is such a fascinating topic.

I have The Soul of an Octopus on my TBR already so I might try and read that although July is very busy for me.

>6 MissBrangwen: We'll miss you! If you discover some later, feel free to come back and let me know.

I will attempt to read What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe.

I'm planning on reading Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith.

I read What a Fish Knows, which I found anecdotal but interesting.

I finished Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal. The answer is yes, if we set aside our human chauvinism.

BTW, the wiki is here for those who care to update it: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2025_NatureKIT#July:_Inner_Lives_of_Anim....

I completed What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe meh

August thread is up! https://www.librarything.com/topic/372317#n8900739

I read Hugo the Hippo by Thomas Baum, which has been on my shelf for ages. It is a book for children, told from the aspect of Hugo.

I finished Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith. It was interesting, but probably more about the nuts and bolts of evolution and less than I was expecting about the differences in perception between humans and octopuses (octopi?) given our vastly different brains and nervous systems. I did enjoy his descriptions of his encounters with octopuses and cuttlefish though.

I recommend these novels -
PAX by Sara Pennypacker
or the classic
RABBIT HILL by Robert Lawson

Also THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN is wonderful.

And non-fiction
HIDDEN LIFE OF DOGS and
TRIBE OF TIGER: CATS AND THEIR CULTURE

Ew, It's Beautiful by Joshual Barkman is a collection of whimsical, wry, and occasionally hilarious comics from the POV of various birds and the occasional insect or small mammal.

Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

Discussing primarily elephants, wolves, and killer whales, with some investigation of dogs, parrots, corvids, dolphins, and primates, Safina examines what it means to be "intelligent", "self-aware", and "empathetic". There is, Safina observes, a bias present in the scientific community when it comes to animal psychology and behaviourism. Out of fear of committing the cardinal sin of anthropomorphism, much of animal science has lost objectivity and began to deny or obfuscate observable phenomena in some animals. It seems some of us have forgotten that humans are animals, too. There is family, politics, culture, hardship, and complex emotional lives in the animal communities investigated in this book, and there is a healthy (though not overwhelming nor distracting) level of snark regarding double-standards that are applied differently for non-human animals than they are for humans.

I've finished Of Time and Turtles by Sy Montgomery . I did not enjoy this one quite as much as The Soul of an Octopus, but it was still very good.