Are you working on your Tails & Tales grand prize bingo card? Need some ideas for books to fulfill the animal friendship reading prompts? Below, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite titles that we’ve discovered!
- Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley (FIC Smi)
“A captivating, brilliantly imaginative story of three extraordinary animals–and a young boy–whose lives intersect in Paris.” - The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (FIC Ari)
“With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru’s longtime friends. Or so Nana is led to believe…” - Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton (FIC Bux)
“”The Secret Life of Pets meets The Walking Dead” in this big-hearted, boundlessly beautiful romp through the Apocalypse, where a foul-mouthed crow is humanity’s only chance to survive Seattle’s zombie problem.” - Fifteen Dogs by Andre Alexis (FIC Ale)
“A bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the old ‘dog’ ways, and those who embrace the change. “ - We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler (FIC Fow)
“As a girl in Indiana, Rosemary, Fowler’s breathtakingly droll 22-year-old narrator, felt that she and Fern were not only sisters but also twins. So she was devastated when Fern disappeared. Then her older brother, Lowell, also vanished.” - Sight Hound by Pam Houston (FIC Hou)
“This is the story of a woman, Rae, and her dog, Dante, a wolfhound who teaches “his human” that love is stronger than fear (the dog has always known this).
- Unlikely Loves by Jennifer S Holland (591.5 Hol)
“An exploration of animal attachments that, in human terms, can only be called love.”
- Mozart’s Starling by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (780.92 Hau)
“On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and took him home to be a family pet.” - A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen (636.8 Bow)
“Books abound on the subject of how a dog or a cat can rehabilitate a person’s life, but this account of such an event is stellar. Only a heart of stone will not be moved even to tears in bearing witness to the love of a London street musician for the gorgeous ginger tomcat he found one day in his apartment building hallway…” - H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald (598.9 Mac)
“When Helen Macdonald’s father died suddenly on a London street, she was devastated. An experienced falconer, Helen had never before been tempted to train one of the most vicious predators, the goshawk, but in her grief, she saw that the goshawk’s fierce and feral temperament mirrored her own…” - The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery (594.56 Mon)
“In this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir The Good Good Pig, Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus–a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature–and the remarkable connections it makes with humans…” - Oogy by Larry Levin (636.7 Lev)
“The story of a friendly, severely injured puppy who had been used as a bait dog in dog fights, and the family who adopted him.”
