Book Talk

Humans and animals

John Grogan, author of Marley and Me, has written Life is like a Sailboat. A collection of articles written when he was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, he examines the human condition, Grogan style. Life, because of its fragility, is to celebrate.  Mr. Grogan is also responsible for starting the current spate of dog (and other friendly animal) stories we are blessed with.

Mornings with Barney: the true Story of an Extraordinary Beagle, by Dick Wolfsie, details his ill-advised adoption of a beagle he found on his doormat one morning. When his family could no longer stand the little chewing machine (he started with the couch), they told Wolfsie he would have to take the dog to work with him. That began the career of Barney, on-air co-host to his television reporter owner.

Made for each Other, the Biology of the Human-Animal Bond, by Meg Daley Olmert, explores the chemistry of attraction between mammals.  She also examines what happens when these biochemical and historical bonds are severed.

There are those who wouldn’t limit this bonding to mammals. Corvus, a Life with the Birds, by Esther Woolfson, began when her daughter rescued a fledgling rook. Named Chicken, it soon became the first bird in the family. Chicken had many human-like qualities, including a dislike for computers!

When Suzie Gilbert started working at an animal hospital she knew she had found her calling. She began bringing abused and unwanted parrots home and volunteering for a raptor rehabilitation center. Eventually, she turned her home into a non-profit wild bird rehabilitation center, raising her family with a parrot who sang Motown and a heron in the spare bathroom! Read Flyaway: how a Wild Bird Rehabber Sought Adventure and Found her Wings.

Well, birds are very necessary to the homesteader, even if they are just chickens, and Michael Perry and family certainly planned to include them when they assumed ownership of the family farm. They figured on some degree of self-sufficiency, with firewood, chickens and a couple of pigs. Reality is never quite so simple and much funnier in Coop: a Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting.

Enjoy your non-human friends!

Virginia Cooper
Adult Services Librarian