Animals is a natural follow-on to Trees and just as beautifully questions human assumptions about nature. As he turns from plants to animals, Wohlleben again shares relevant science plus his own carefully honed insights on his subjects...a tidy, polite little book. Each quick chapter is a sweet rush, a palm full of candy that makes you crave just a little bit more ...packs each chapter with stories and, where it exists, scientific evidence, so the reader feels nearly sated ...doesn’t proselytize as much as nudge readers to look not just at the evidence of animals’ complex lives but at what’s in our hearts about right and wrong ...Wohlleben’s words are bound to touch even the animal-emotion skeptic.
The book is laid out as a series of short chapters, each focusing on a different emotional state and how it relates to animals ...lays out his opinions and reasoning of his belief that animals are similar to people in the way they interact with their surroundings. For animal lovers, his fascinating, enjoyable prose serves as affirmation that their furry friends are complex beings ...scientifically minded might be a little more skeptical, since it is commonly thought that animal behavior is instinctive ... Wohlleben raises other interesting connections, resulting in a narrative that is both entertaining and provocative ...insightful observations will hopefully help build a better understanding of animals and their emotional world.
...The Inner Life of Animals does not have quite the power to surprise that the tree book did. And there is not quite the same atmosphere of place ...stories are more dispersed than in the tree book, more loosely related. There is not the same concentration of light and colour. But the book is always fascinating ... Voice more than place holds the stories together. Wry, avuncular, careful and kind, Wohlleben guides us from one creature to the next ... Each story adds to a widening vision of intelligence, emotion and relationship ... The book’s impulse throughout is a willingness to value all forms of life quite as far as is humanly possible.
He [Wohlleben] has a conversational writing style, which is comparable to that of the chatty and accessible ecstatic saint, Teresa of Avila... Wohlleben presents short chapters in bite-sized portions, so the reader has a constant sense of learning something new almost with every page, and he employs this same model with The Inner Life of Animals ...formula is provably winning ...felt I was on a robust learning curve as subjects as diverse as motherly love, gratitude, deception, desire, shame and knowledge of good and evil were explored one by one. Many of his stories are fascinating ...there is also a slight 'two-book deal' feel here, and the manner in which Wohlleben attributes human feelings and morality to animals is spurious ...a lot of anecdote, not quite enough scientific rigour, and one too many references to YouTube for The Inner Life of Animals to be entirely satisfying.
Writing nontechnically but with obvious depth of knowledge, the author invites readers to imagine that animals have many of the same feelings we do. His argument might not pass the most rigorous of scientific challenges, but it makes good sense ...the author observes, the driving force may not be anything quite so immutable but instead a more variable quality: the ability to have curiosity about the world ... Indeed, on reading this gently learned book, readers will pay more attention to animals generally and learn how to be better neighbors to them ... A treat for animal lovers of all stripes.
