Secret Lives of Animals

Updated June 7, 2026
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Raising hare : a memoir
Dalton, Chloe
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * FINALIST FOR THE 2025 WOMEN'S PRIZE * A fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, loss, and our relationship with the natural world, explored through the story of one woman's unlikely friendship with a wild hare.
If Nietzsche were a narwhal : what animal intelligence reveals about human stupidity
Gregg, Justin
Paper Book
This funny, "extraordinary and thought-provoking" (The Wall Street Journal) book asks whether we are in fact the superior species. As it turns out, the truth is stranger--and far more interesting--than we have been led to believe. If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal...
We should all be birds : (a memoir)
Buckbee, Brian
Paper Book
Longlisted for the 2026 Reading the West Awards A charming and moving debut memoir about how a man with a mystery illness saves a pigeon, and how the pigeon saves the man. "I loved every page of this book: funny, sad, romantic, and full of pigeons."--Sy Montgomery
Becoming wild how animal cultures raise families, create beauty, and achieve peace
Safina, Carl
Paper Book
"Safina's lovely account of his travels with researchers . . . reveals majestic, closely knit communities. . . . And few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention. Enthralling." -- *KR
Meet the neighbors : animal minds and life in a more-than-human world
Keim, Brandon
Paper Book
Honeybees deliberate democratically. Rats reflect on the past. Snakes have friends. In recent decades, our understanding of animal cognition has exploded, making it indisputably clear that the cities and landscapes around us are filled with thinking, feeling individuals besides ourselves. But the...
The backyard bird chronicles
Tan, Amy
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of The Joy Luck Club comes a gorgeous and witty exploration of birding and nature. This inspiring work cultivates hope and connection, revealing the rhythms of our world and uncovering its beauty hidden in plain sight. * With a foreword...
The soul of an octopus : a surprising exploration into the wonder of consciousness
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller from the author of The Good Good Pig, this "fascinating...informative" (The Daily Beast) book dives into the intelligence, behavior, and emotional world of the octopus--one of the ocean's most complex and captivating creatures--and the...
Fuzz : when nature breaks the law
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are...
An immense world : how animal senses reveal the hidden realms around us
Yong, Ed
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A "thrilling" (The New York Times), "dazzling" (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize-winning science...
World of wonders : in praise of fireflies, whale sharks, and other astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Ebook
"A poet celebrates the wonders of nature in a collection of essays that could almost serve as a coming-of-age memoir." -- Kirkus Reviews As a child, Nezhukumatathil called many places home: the grounds of a Kansas mental institution, where her Filipina mother was a doctor;...
The elephant whisperer : my life with the herd in the African wild
Anthony, Lawrence.
Paper Book
Lawrence Anthony devoted his life to animal conservation, protecting the world's endangered species. Then he was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. His common sense told him to refuse, but he was the herd's last chance of survival: they...
How to be a good creature : a memoir in thirteen animals
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A New York Times bestseller! National Book Award finalist Sy Montgomery reflects on the personalities and quirks of 13 animals--her friends--who have profoundly affected her in this stunning, poetic, and life-affirming animal memoir featuring illustrations by Rebecca Green.<...
The genius of birds
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paper Book
"Lovely, celebratory. For all the belittling of 'bird brains,' [Ackerman] shows them to be uniquely impressive machines . . ." --New York Times Book Review "A lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence." --Scientific American An award...
Wild new world : the epic story of animals and people in America
Flores, Dan L.
Paper Book
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America's...
Inside of a dog : what dogs see, smell, and know
Horowitz, Alexandra.
Paper Book
The bestselling book that asks what dogs know and how they think. The answers will surprise and delight you as Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist, explains how dogs perceive their daily worlds, each other, and that other quirky animal, the human. Temple Grandin meets Stephen...
What an owl knows : the new science of the world's most enigmatic birds
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paper Book
An instant New York Times bestseller! A New York Times Notable Book of 2023 Named a Best Book of 2023 by Publishers Weekly From the author of The Genius of Birds and The Bird Way, a brilliant scientific investigation into...
Fox and I : an uncommon friendship
Raven, Catherine
Paper Book
Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * 2022 Nautilus Book Awards Gold Winner * Shortlisted for the John Burroughs Medal * Finalist for the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize * Shortlisted for a Reading the West Book Award Instant New York Times<...
Beaverland : how one weird rodent made America
Philip, Leila
Paper Book
An intimate and revelatory dive into the world of the beaver--the wonderfully weird rodent that has surprisingly shaped American history and may save its ecological future.  From award-winning writer Leila Philip, Beaverland is a masterful work of narrative science writing,...
How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
Imbler, Sabrina
Paper Book
A fascinating tour of creatures from the surface to the deepest ocean floor: this "miraculous, transcendental book" invites us to envision wilder, grander, and more abundant possibilities for the way we live (Ed Yong, author of An Immense World). A queer, mixed race...
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Paper Book
FINALIST FOR THE GOTHAM BOOK PRIZE * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * Eye-opening essays about searching for peace in the cacophony of birds and discovering a world of meaning in small moments--from award-winning actor Lili Taylor. "By turns introspective, inquisitive, and funny, the book is a...
Coyote America : a natural and supernatural history
Flores, Dan
Ebook
The inner life of animals : love, grief, and compassion : surprising observations of a hidden world
Wohlleben, Peter
Paper Book
"Like The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben's The Inner Life of Animals will rock your world. Surprising, humbling, and filled with delight, this book shows us that animals think, feel and know in much the same way as we do--and that their lives are, to them, as precious...
The Book of Eels
Svensson, Patrik
Paper Book
Part H Is for Hawk, part The Soul of an Octopus, The Book of Eels is both a meditation on the world's most elusive fish--the eel--and a reflection on the human condition Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that...
What the chicken knows : a new appreciation of the world's most familiar bird
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A charming and eye-opening exploration of the special relationship between humans and chickens from Sy Montgomery, "one of our finest chroniclers of the natural world" (The New York Times). For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery--whose The Soul of an...
Wesley the owl the remarkable love story of an owl and his girl
O'Brien, Stacey.
CD
On Valentine's Day 1985, biologist Stacey O'Brien met a four-day-old baby barn owl—a fateful encounter that would turn into an astonishing nineteen-year saga. With nerve damage in one wing, the owlet's ability to fly was forever compromised, and he had no hope of surviving on his own in the...
What it's like to be a bird : from flying to nesting, eating to singing -- what birds are doing, and why
Sibley, David
Paper Book
The bird book for birders and nonbirders alike that will excite and inspire by providing a new and deeper understanding of what common, mostly backyard, birds are doing-and why- "Can birds smell?"; "Is this the same cardinal that was at my feeder last year?"; "Do robins 'hear' worms?"
Of time and turtles : mending the world, shell by shattered shell
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * AMAZON EDITOR'S PICK and BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * INDIE BESTSELLER * A SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE'S BEST SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR * THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST NONFICTION OF THE YEAR PICK * A NEW SCIENTIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR *THE PERFECT...
Otherlands : a journey through Earth's extinct worlds
Halliday, Thomas (Paleobiologist)
Paper Book
"Immersive . . . bracingly ambitious . . . rewinds the story of life on Earth--from the mammoth steppe of the last Ice Age to the dawn of multicellular creatures over 500 million years ago."--The Economist LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE * "One of those rare...
On animals
Orlean, Susan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER "Magnificent." --The New York Times * "Beguiling, observant, and howlingly funny." --San Francisco Chronicle * "Spectacular." --Star Tribune (Minneapolis) * "Full of astonishments." --The Boston Globe
Secrets of the octopus
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
Take an illuminating journey into the life of the octopus, one of nature's most intelligent and complex animals. Come closer than ever to these elusive creatures, thanks to insights from an international bestselling author-working with the founder of Octonation and the world's top...
A most remarkable creature : the hidden life and epic journey of the world's smartest birds of prey
Meiburg, Jonathan
Paper Book
"Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind."--Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Bird Way "A fascinating, entertaining, and totally...
The mosquito : a human history of our deadliest predator
Winegard, Timothy C.
Ebook
**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* Finalist for the Lane Anderson Award Finalist for the RBC Taylor Award "Hugely impressive, a major work."--NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of...
Cat sense : how the new feline science can make you a better friend to your pet
Bradshaw, John
Paper Book
Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. Unlike dogs, cats evolved as solitary hunters, and, while many...
Voices in the ocean : a journey into the wild and haunting world of dolphins
Casey, Susan
Paper Book
From Susan Casey, the New York Times bestselling author of The Wave and The Devil's Teeth, a breathtaking journey through the extraordinary world of dolphins  Since the dawn of recorded history, humans have felt a kinship with the sleek and beautiful...
The mind of a bee
Chittka, Lars
Paper Book
A rich and surprising exploration of the intelligence of bees Most of us are aware of the hive mind--the power of bees as an amazing collective. But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In The Mind of a Bee, Lars Chittka draws from decades of...
Grizzly confidential : an astounding journey into the secret life of North America's most fearsome predator
Grange, Kevin
Paper Book
In Grizzly Confidential, author Kevin Grange--former paramedic and park ranger at Yellowstone and Grand Teton--comes face-to-face with North America's most fearsome predator, Ursus Arctos. His quest takes him from his home in the Tetons to an eerie, mist-shrouded island of gigantic bruins;...
The bird way : a new look at how birds talk, work, play, parent, and think
Ackerman, Jennifer
Paper Book
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds -- how they live and how they think. "There is the...
Alfie & me : what owls know, what humans believe
Safina, Carl
Paper Book
When ecologist Carl Safina and his wife, Patricia, took in a near-death baby owl, they expected that, like other wild orphans they'd rescued, she'd be a temporary presence. But Alfie's feathers were not growing correctly, requiring prolonged care. As Alfie grew and gained strength, she became a...
Flight paths : how a passionate and quirky group of pioneering scientists solved the mystery of bird migration
Heisman, Rebecca
Paper Book
"Illuminating. . . . Flight Paths does what only the best science books do: It adds to our knowledge of the world without diminishing its wonder."--Wall Street Journal The captivating, little-known true story of a group of scientists and the methods and technology they developed to...
Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?
Waal, F. B. M. de
Paper Book
A New York Times Bestseller From world-renowned biologist and primatologist Frans de Waal, a groundbreaking work on animal intelligence destined to become a classic. What separates your mind from an animal's? Maybe you think it's your ability to design tools, your...
Sentient : how animals illuminate the wonder of our human senses
Higgins, Jackie
Paper Book
Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus and The Genius of Birds, this "masterpiece of science and nature writing" (The Washington Post) explores how we process the world around us through the lens of the incredible sensory capabilities of thirteen...
A world on the wing : the global odyssey of migratory birds
Weidensaul, Scott
Paper Book
In the past two decades, our understanding of the navigational and physiological feats that enable birds to cross immense oceans, fly above the highest mountains, or remain in unbroken flight for months at a stretch has exploded. What we've learned of these key migrations--how billions of birds...
Slither : how nature's most maligned creatures illuminate our world
Hall, Stephen S.
Paper Book
In this "wise and wondrous" (David Quammen) exploration, a science writer reintroduces readers to The Snake, encouraging our initial reaction to the slithery creature to be one of awe rather than disgust. For millennia, depictions of snakes as...
Fathoms : the world in the whale
Giggs, Rebecca
Paper Book
Winner of the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction * Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction * Finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award A "delving, haunted, and poetic debut" (The New York Times Book Review) about the...
The secret lives of bats : my adventures with the world's most misunderstood mammals
Tuttle, Merlin
Paper Book
Few people realize how sophisticated and intelligent bats are. Merlin Tuttle knows, and he has stopped at nothing to find and protect them on every continent they inhabit. Sharing highlights from a lifetime of adventure and discovery, Tuttle takes us to the frontiers of bat research to show that...
Conversations with birds
Kumar, Priyanka
Paper Book
"How grateful I am for the chance to join this generous author's lyrical, intimate, and revelatory conversations with birds!" --Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus "Birds are...
The hawk's way : encounters with fierce beauty
Montgomery, Sy
Paper Book
A splendid and luminous celebration of one of nature's most perfect and mysterious creatures--the hawk--from the New York Times bestselling author of the "astoundingly beautiful" (NPR) The Soul of an Octopus. When Sy Montgomery went to spend a day at falconer Nancy...
How to speak whale : a voyage into the future of animal communication
Mustill, Tom
Paper Book
What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill--the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breached onto his kayak--asks this question in his thrilling investigation into whale science and animal communication. ...
Why animals talk : the new science of animal communication
Kershenbaum, Arik
Paper Book
"Animal communication doesn't need to resemble human language to be full of meaning and nuance. Arik Kershenbaum delivers an expert overview of the astonishing discoveries made in the last few decades" --Frans de Waal From leading zoologist Arik Kershenbaum, a delightful and...
Dog sense : how the new science of dog behavior can make you a better friend to your pet
Bradshaw, John
Paper Book
Dogs have been mankind's faithful companions for tens of thousands of years, yet today they are regularly treated as either pack-following wolves or furry humans. The truth is, dogs are neither--and our misunderstanding has put them in serious crisis. What dogs really need is a spokesperson,...
The wise hours : a journey into the wild and secret world of owls
Darlington, Miriam
Paper Book
A People Pick of the Week "Unfailingly precise and lovingly poetic. . . . Nature writing of the first order." ―The Wall Street Journal "A beautiful book; wise and sharp-eared as its subject." ―Robert Macfarlane One minute I was...
The social lives of animals
Ward, Ashley
Paper Book
A rat will go out of its way to help a stranger in need. Lions have adopted the calves of their prey. Ants farm fungus in cooperatives. Why do we continue to believe that life in the animal kingdom is ruled by competition?    In The Social...
Birdgirl : looking to the skies in search of a better future
Craig, Mya-Rose
Paper Book
British-Bangladeshi birder, environmentalist and activist Mya-Rose Craig is an international force. In her moving memoir, Birdgirl, she chronicles her mother's struggle with mental illness, and shares her passion for social justice and fierce dedication to preserving our planet.
Koala : a natural history and an uncertain future
Clode, Danielle
Paper Book
Koalas regularly appeared in Australian biologist Danielle Clode's backyard, but it was only when a bushfire threatened that she truly paid them attention. She soon realized how much she had to learn about these complex and mysterious animals. In vivid, descriptive prose, Clode embarks on...
The Ravenmaster : my life with the ravens at the Tower of London
Skaife, Christopher
CD
"[Christopher Skaife's] natural storyteller's charm results in a performance that is conversational, funny, and self-deprecating...Ravenmaster is a joyful listening experience." -- AudioFile Magazine This program is read by the author. The first behind...

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