Animals Essays

For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our understanding. The rise of science and Descartes's division of mind from world made materialism our ruling paradigm, in the process asking whether our own consciousness—i.e., souls—might be illusions. Now the inexorable rise of technology, with artificial intelligences that surpass our comprehension and control, and the spread of digital metaphors for self-understanding, the core questions of existence urgently require rethinking.

Andrew Sean Greer can’t wait to get home to San Francisco after a writer’s residency in Kansas. But when his mother, Sandra, decides to come along for the ride, he has a new goal: get her to crack a smile at every stop, whether breathtaking or breathtakingly kitschy. He’s always known his mother to be as efficient and serious as a chemist (which she happens to be), always in gray, eyebrow cocked, and handling challenges with grace. To mix things up, Andrew develops an elaborate itinerary of planned chaos.

Good Dog offers memorable, beautifully written stories of dog ownership, companionship, friendship, and kinship. From the troublemakers who can't be fenced in to the lifelong companions who won't leave our sides, this poignant anthology showcases man's best friend through all of his most endearing--and sometimes maddening--attributes.

Critically acclaimed memoirist Wade Rouse has gathered some of America's best known humorists-authors, comedians, and actors-to offer biting commentary on what it means to share a life, and a heart, with a dog. From battling for bed space to trying to transform a pampered NYC pup into a Texas rawhide, and from helping a shelter rescue navigate through her new life to interpreting dog run dynamics (and politics), being a canine companion has challenges as tough as any agility course, but laughter is just a tail-wag away.

Laughter shakes us out of our deadness. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is an eruption from the unconscious that, like political resistance, poetry, or self-revelation, expresses a provocative, impish drive to burst free from external constraints. Taking laughter's revelatory capacity as a starting point, and rooted in Nuar Alsadir's experience as a poet and psychoanalyst, Animal Joy seeks to recover the sensation of being present and embodied.

“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.

When sporting events were put on hold in March 2020, commentator Andrew Cotter shifted to working from home. The one-on-one competitors? His two Labrador retrievers, Olive and Mabel. In the hilarious videos that ensued, the dogs engage in various contests, from bone-snatching and breakfast-eating to crushing it on the dog walk, while Cotter narrates to hilarious effect.

The life of a veterinarian is challenging: keeping up with advances in medical care, making difficult decisions about people's beloved companions, and, in Dr. Doug Mader's case, navigating the social unrest in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. The Vet at Noah's Ark follows Dr. Mader and his staff over the course of a year at Noah's Ark Veterinary Hospital, an inner-city LA area veterinary hospital where Dr. Mader treats not only dogs and cats, but also emus, skunks, snakes, foxes, monkeys, and a host of other exotic animals

From beloved family companions to therapy animals, search and rescue canines, and other animals who help their human partners heal, learn, and grow, there are compelling reasons to believe that animals and people are inextricably and deeply connected to one another. With stories and research about horses who heal, dogs who help children read, cats who save the lives of their owners, and pigs, sheep, ducks, and llamas who help reduce stress and lift the spirits of people, Beall shows how animals are in action across the United States at nursing homes, at hospitals, and at rehabilitation ...

Beginning with Yuka, a 39,000-year-old mummified woolly mammoth recently found in the Siberian permafrost, each of the 16 essays in Animals Strike Curious Poses investigates a different famous animal named and immortalized by humans. Modeled loosely after a medieval bestiary, these witty, playful, whip-smart essays traverse history, myth, science, and more, bringing each beast vibrantly to life.

This audiobook includes unabridged recordings of all George Orwell's greatest works: six novels, three books of non-fiction, a collection of his most well-renowned essays and the complete collection of his poetry.

Dogs have masters; cats have staff. That old saying reflects the conventional wisdom about our favorite pets. Cats are described as independent and aloof. But that stereotype clashes with the reality of untold cat companions, who know that their felines can be just as affectionate, devoted, and trainable as any dog. Like Henry who rescued lost cats. Or Basil, a licensed therapist who comforts hospital patients and staff, hospice-care residents, and trauma victims. Or Belle, who repaid being rescued from a sewer in Costa Rica by becoming a devoted nurse during his caretaker's lengthy illness...

Peter Singer is often described as the world's most influential philosopher. He is also one of its most controversial. The author of important books such as Animal Liberation and Practical Ethics, he helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words.

"Animal lovers, humanitarians, thinkers, and anyone who wants to become a better person and spread kindness, compassion, and decency around will find this a most enjoyable read." -Goodreads reviewer. Come Back is the story of significant past lifetimes of one woman with the animals in her life. Reincarnation, past lives, continuity of the soul, whatever you call it, all souls are eternal. Every living thing has a soul, including our animals. The proof is all around us, that feeling of having known someone before, that moment of recognition when you look into another's eyes. Have you ever ...

In 2018, boundary-breaking visual and sonic artist Cosey Fanni Tutti received a commission to write the soundtrack to a film about Delia Derbyshire, the pioneering electronic composer who influenced the likes of Aphex Twin and The Chemical Brothers. While researching Derbyshire's life, Tutti became immersed in her story and uncovered fascinating parallels with her own life. At the same time, Tutti began reading about Margery Kempe, the fifteenth-century mystic visionary who wrote the first English-language autobiography. The connections between the three women soon shifted into focus.

Bad Dogs Have More Fun is an unforgettable collection of more that 75 newspaper columns by John Grogan, the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Marley & Me. Combining humor, wit, poignancy and affection, these columns provide insight into the intriguing and wonderful world we live in.

Join Rachel Anne Ridge, author of the beloved memoir Flash, in a journey back to the pasture. As she adopts a second rescue donkey as a little brother for Flash - a miniature named Henry - she finds that walking with donkeys has surprising lessons to teach us about prayer, renewing our faith, and connecting to God in fresh ways.

Homer, the world-renowned Blind Wonder Cat, returns this holiday season with an ins-purr-ational tale filled with holiday cheer! Fifteen years earlier, doctors had warned that Homer - a tiny, sightless kitten - was unlikely to survive and probably wouldn't have much of a life even if he did. Miraculously and against all the odds, Homer grew into a feline dynamo who scaled seven-foot bookcases, saved his human mom's life when he chased a late-night burglar from their apartment, and rose to global fame-paving the way for other special-needs animals once considered "unadoptable".

We love animals! Maybe not so much feeder rats that are meant to be fed to snakes anyways, but we definitely love cats and dogs! This book, which contains some previously published material, has two parts. In Part One, Dustin offers up notes on pets he's had throughout his life. Kyan follows with her short biographies of her cats in Part Two. As Temple Grandin says in the title of one of her books, "Animals Make Us Human"!

As humankind moves deeper into the Anthropocene, a period marked by climate disruption, species extinction, and profound challenges to human and animal welfare, what and how we teach our children has never been of greater importance. In this passionate, incisive, and diverse collection of 13 interconnected essays, educators at every level of education and from four continents call for a re-imagined pedagogy that embeds respect for the other-than-human world, encourages imagination and resilience, and fosters open inquiry based on principles of justice, fairness, and equity.