Welcome to Litsy!

Charming anecdotes, mostly based on observations of domestic animals. There are also brief descriptions of scientific studies on such topics as squirrels who use names for each other, fish feeling joyful, & what fruit flies dream about. Nothing is particularly new, but the #audiobook narrated by Mike Grady is soothing entertainment. The pitch of Grady‘s voice, unfortunately, wasn‘t distinct enough from a car‘s motor for road trip listening.

I disturbed a hare while I was out walking today. He stretched luxuriously before slowly hopping away. The tagged #audiobook that I was listening to made me wonder about this hare‘s inner life. (Does he not worry about being late?)

I really liked some of this book and the stories were fascinating and I don‘t mind that it‘s not rooted in science but it just flowed awkwardly (which might be a translation thing) so it was hard to get SUPER into.

I really liked Wohlleben‘s previous book, The Hidden Life of Trees, and had high hopes for this one. This particular book is mostly anecdotal, with a few references to actual studies. If you‘re looking for hard science, this isn‘t it. But if you‘re looking for an engaging read about animals, and how they show emotions, this doesn‘t disappoint.

For some reason this didn‘t work. It was good and interesting, but it being overly anecdotal threw me off. I was expecting more science, and maybe that was the reason I just couldn‘t get into it. ☹️

Great book for animal rights and for insight into why humans treat animals differently.

#TBRtemptation post 5! Recently released. We humans assume various things about our species that other species don't possess, like intense emotions. What goes on in an animals' heads though? From micro-levels of observation to big ethical and philosophical questions, we'll learn about grateful whales, a hedgehog who has nightmares, bees who plan for the future, tobogganing crows, and grieving animal parents. #blameLitsy #blameMrBook 😎

I saw this book translated into Slovak when I was in Slovakia in June. I‘m happy to see that it‘s now available in English.