Fifty Impressive Nonfiction Books About Animals: Another Menagerie*
(alphabetically by animal)
apes: Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas by Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks
bats and gulls: I’ve Heard the Vultures Singing: Field Notes on Poetry, Illness and Nature by Lucia Perillo
bears: In the Eye of the Wild by Nastassja Martin
bees: Where Honeybees Thrive: Stories from the Field by Heather Swan
bigfeet: Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide by Robert Michael Pyle
birds, plus pigs and raccoons: Essays of E. B. White by E. B. White
butterflies: Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
camels: Never in a Hurry: Essays on People and Places by Naomi Shihab Nye
cats, mainly house: On Cats by Doris Lessing
cats, plus deer: Somehow Form a Family: Stories That Are Mostly True by Tony Earley
cats, semi-domesticated: All My Cats by Bohumil Hrabal
cats, stray: Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill
chickens: Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen
coyotes: Sick of Nature by David Gessner
dogs, chihuahua: Can Everybody Swim? A Survival Story from Katrina’s Superdome by Bruce S. Snow
dogs, German shepherd: My Dog Tulip by J. R. Ackerley
dogs, mutt: Travels with Lizbeth: Three Years on the Road and on the Streets by Lars Eighner
dogs, standard poodle: Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
elephants, Indian: A Collection of Essays by George Orwell
elephants, plus moose and turtles: The Courage of Turtles by Edward Hoagland
elephants, plus whales and wolves: Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina
foxes and starfish: The Unexpected Universe by Loren Eiseley
frogs, raining from the sky: The Damned Universe of Charles Fort, edited by Louis Kaplan
giraffes: Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris by Michael Allin
lobsters: Consider the Lobster and Other Essays by David Foster Wallace
octopus, actual: The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
octopus, metaphorical: Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh by Thomas Glave
owls: The Paradise of Bombs by Scott Russell Sanders
penguins: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
pigs: The Pig, in Poetic, Mythological, and Historical Perspective by Oskar Panizza
raptors: Proxies: Essays Near Knowing by Brian Blanchfield
sheep: Broken Vessels by Andre Dubus
tigers, but also bears, cougars, elephants, lions, and timber wolves: The Lady and the Tiger by Pat Derby with Peter S. Beagle
various, Argentine: Animals by Hebe Uhart
various, as subjects of moral regard: Animal Liberation by Peter Singer
various, doomed: The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals: The Lost History of Europe’s Animal Trials by E. P. Evans
various, engineered: Frankenstein’s Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts by Emily Anthes
various, famous: Animals Strike Curious Poses by Elena Passarello
various, French: Nature Stories by Jules Renard
various, global: Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit by Alison Hawthorne Deming
various, Greek: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
various, including sea cucumbers!: Things That Are by Amy Leach
various, livestock: The Horizontal World: Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart
various, notional: Can Animals and Machines Be Persons? A Dialogue by Justin Leiber
various, philosophical: What Would Animals Say If We Asked the Right Questions? by Vinciane Despret
various, post-apocalyptic: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
various, ranch: The Meadow by James Galvin
various, toy, wild, and zoo: Why Look at Animals? by John Berger
various, violent: Pulphead: Essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan
whales: Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D’Ambrosio
* To see my first such menagerie, of fifty novels with prominent animal characters, click here.
— September 8, 2022