Whitney Atkinson's Reviews > Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

this book didn't just eat, it devoured. another win for me finding a book i've never heard of for 50 cents at a used bookstore and giving it a shot because WOW

when i was a kid forced to go to the school library during one of my english periods in elementary school, i beelined toward the animals non-fiction section because at that age i couldn't be bothered with fiction. and reaching for a book like this really reminded me of that part of me that must still exist latent somewhere. this book really helped stoke my curiosity about animals, and it's crazy because carl is so right - we share our planet with SO much other life but are so concerned with ourselves that we hardly consider their thoughts and feelings (which science still insists do not exist)

this book is kind of like its own internal trilogy: there's three sections on elephants, wolves and whales. the selection felt random at first to me, but by finishing this, i totally get why the researchers cited in this book have been passionate watchers and lovers of those species all their lives. elephants, wolves and whales are SO cool!!!!

understanding how human-like animals can be and how we've absolutely destroyed their habitats and our world in general was devastating. but gaining the knowledge that we're not the only social animals that walk the earth (or swim the sea?) was so fascinating and this book rightfully changed my mind about how smart certain species are, even though they certainly can't talk or rule the world or anything the way men claim to.

anyway i've started waxing poetic but even though this book took me nearly half the year to read, it was soooo good. i tabbed so many quotes from this and said "WHEW! Carl has bars" so many times when he hit a certain section out of the park. although this book could be scientific, it was also written SO beautifully so you could picture yourself alongside the researchers, observing these animals.

i absolutely want to read more from carl in the future and had the best time reading this. highly recommend if you're at all interested in animal behavior or want to think about the world from less of a human perspective.