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On Animals
Susan Orlean gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals.
“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.
These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.
Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.
“How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career.
These stories consider a range of creatures—the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers—something none of her neighbors knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world’s most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world’s hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home.
Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.
10 pages, Audible Audio
First published October 12, 2021
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About the author
Susan Orlean
45 books4,376 followersI'm the product of a happy and uneventful childhood in the suburbs of Cleveland, followed by a happy and pretty eventful four years as a student at University of Michigan. From there, I wandered to the West Coast, landing in Portland, Oregon, where I managed (somehow) to get a job as a writer. This had been my dream, of course, but I had no experience and no credentials. What I did have, in spades, was an abiding passion for storytelling and sentence-making. I fell in love with the experience of writing, and I've never stopped. From Portland, I moved to Boston, where I wrote for the Phoenix and the Globe, and then to New York, where I began writing for magazines, and, in 1987, published my first piece in The New Yorker. I've been a staff writer there since 1992.
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October 10, 2021
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Though I never met her, Susan Orlean and I are exact contemporaries, and co-alums of the University of Michigan, 1976. We are both animal lovers. I settled in to this with some enjoyable anticipation. It didn’t last long.
Within a few pages, I was cocking an eyebrow with puzzlement: as a student, she spends an unexpected windfall on an Irish setter puppy, while living in a rented college-town apartment, with crazy hours and unsympathetic landlords (yes, I remember it well…). A few pages and years later, when she moves to Manhattan with her now-elderly setter, she worries because the dog had “never lived in an apartment.” A new boyfriend impresses her by bringing a friend with a fully-grown lion to her apartment. She decides she’d like to have only animals with red hair. And then she falls in love with chickens based on a Martha Stewart television show – whose chickens were always a marketing tool, and who sighs that she’ll “never get another Egyptian Fayoumi again” after the hen froze to death. Orlean seems oblivious to any problem with any of this. Throughout most of these essays, reprinted largely from The New Yorker and Smithsonian magazines, there is an unsettling sense of someone for whom animals are interesting and appealing, and some of whom she comes to be fond of, but who are more accoutrements, charming rural accessories, or colorful topics for an essay than individual, thinking, feeling, “complete” beings in their own right. She is frequently glib, surprisingly callous. There is an otherwise lovely vignette about the role of oxen in the agriculture of Cuba over the decades of pre- and post-Soviet dominion, and the character of these highly-valued animals – but she can’t resist a flippant comment about an ox who broke into a feed bin and “died happy of incurable colic.” Colic is a dreadful, painful way for an animal to die.
Then there’s the fact-checking… or lack thereof. There were statements of fact or incident that were questionable at best; wrong or outdated at worst. She mentions buying hay for her chickens nests; straw would be much more likely, preferred, and cheaper. Biff the show dog “beg[s] for chocolate”; I thought everyone knew chocolate is not a good treat for dogs, and the brand of dog food Biff shills for is lousy quality, mostly corn junk food. She blithely offers that knee-replacement surgery has boosted the market for riding mules because mules have a smoother gait and thus are easier on the knees; no substantiation is given, and most riders with replaced knees are fine in the saddle – it’s the mounting and dismounting that can be dicey. And perhaps this is old fake news, but she suggests there may be a connection between cellphone towers and disoriented homing pigeons – again, with no factual support, and which has been fairly well debunked by Audubon Society researchers. And really, Susan, lions don’t sweat.
The best essays are the ones in which Orlean herself features the least. The strange and awful Tiger Lady saga (pre-Tiger King!) is a disturbing portrait of the wild-animal-as-pet trade and obsession. The piece on rabbit-keeping in the U.S. is a clear-eyed look at the ambivalence of rabbit fanciers who can’t decide if their charges are much-loved pets or meat stock. Taxidermists come across as a pleasantly loony, obsessed, creative and artistic bunch – but she completely avoids the figurative (and maybe even literal) elephant in the room about where the “trophies” they create come from, how, and at whose hands. However, the piece on the Lion Guy forcefully depicts the tragic state of lions in the modern world, and the unconscionable horrors of canned safari hunts.
The final section outlines a year or so in the life of Orlean’s hobby farm in the Hudson Valley: dogs, cats, poultry, and even a few cattle occupy her (though the cattle are actually a tax-avoidance project, as is a casual and joking reference to raising puppies for profit). Still, there is a weird lack of emotional connection to these, her very own personal menagerie. They take in a stray cat, and she seems to be mystified by why her resident cat hates the newcomer, whose sex she can’t even identify correctly. I will agree whole-heartedly with her assessment of the evils of ticks, though. I’d also like to know how Helen, the Rhode Island Red hen, is the lowest chicken in the pecking order on one page, becomes the top-ranking alpha hen a few pages later.
And then, the family ups sticks and move to Los Angeles for a job opportunity. The animals have to be handed off, arranged for, and away they go. They spend a few more summers in New York, but it turns out to be too much trouble, so they sell up what we’ve been told is a much-loved, long-dreamed-for place, and that’s that.
Animal lovers, if you are looking for dedication, loyalty, intimacy, and a recognition of animals as, in the inimitable words of Henry Beston, “finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth,” don’t look here. To be fair, she is never mawkish or sentimental, she does not anthropomorphize, and her approach seems to be one clinging to objectivity (with some factual issues), an eye for detail, and respect for the attitudes the human subjects may have toward their animal charges. But her own humanity has gaps, and she lacks “another and a wiser…concept of animals,” (Beston again) that respects them as they deserve.
Though I never met her, Susan Orlean and I are exact contemporaries, and co-alums of the University of Michigan, 1976. We are both animal lovers. I settled in to this with some enjoyable anticipation. It didn’t last long.
Within a few pages, I was cocking an eyebrow with puzzlement: as a student, she spends an unexpected windfall on an Irish setter puppy, while living in a rented college-town apartment, with crazy hours and unsympathetic landlords (yes, I remember it well…). A few pages and years later, when she moves to Manhattan with her now-elderly setter, she worries because the dog had “never lived in an apartment.” A new boyfriend impresses her by bringing a friend with a fully-grown lion to her apartment. She decides she’d like to have only animals with red hair. And then she falls in love with chickens based on a Martha Stewart television show – whose chickens were always a marketing tool, and who sighs that she’ll “never get another Egyptian Fayoumi again” after the hen froze to death. Orlean seems oblivious to any problem with any of this. Throughout most of these essays, reprinted largely from The New Yorker and Smithsonian magazines, there is an unsettling sense of someone for whom animals are interesting and appealing, and some of whom she comes to be fond of, but who are more accoutrements, charming rural accessories, or colorful topics for an essay than individual, thinking, feeling, “complete” beings in their own right. She is frequently glib, surprisingly callous. There is an otherwise lovely vignette about the role of oxen in the agriculture of Cuba over the decades of pre- and post-Soviet dominion, and the character of these highly-valued animals – but she can’t resist a flippant comment about an ox who broke into a feed bin and “died happy of incurable colic.” Colic is a dreadful, painful way for an animal to die.
Then there’s the fact-checking… or lack thereof. There were statements of fact or incident that were questionable at best; wrong or outdated at worst. She mentions buying hay for her chickens nests; straw would be much more likely, preferred, and cheaper. Biff the show dog “beg[s] for chocolate”; I thought everyone knew chocolate is not a good treat for dogs, and the brand of dog food Biff shills for is lousy quality, mostly corn junk food. She blithely offers that knee-replacement surgery has boosted the market for riding mules because mules have a smoother gait and thus are easier on the knees; no substantiation is given, and most riders with replaced knees are fine in the saddle – it’s the mounting and dismounting that can be dicey. And perhaps this is old fake news, but she suggests there may be a connection between cellphone towers and disoriented homing pigeons – again, with no factual support, and which has been fairly well debunked by Audubon Society researchers. And really, Susan, lions don’t sweat.
The best essays are the ones in which Orlean herself features the least. The strange and awful Tiger Lady saga (pre-Tiger King!) is a disturbing portrait of the wild-animal-as-pet trade and obsession. The piece on rabbit-keeping in the U.S. is a clear-eyed look at the ambivalence of rabbit fanciers who can’t decide if their charges are much-loved pets or meat stock. Taxidermists come across as a pleasantly loony, obsessed, creative and artistic bunch – but she completely avoids the figurative (and maybe even literal) elephant in the room about where the “trophies” they create come from, how, and at whose hands. However, the piece on the Lion Guy forcefully depicts the tragic state of lions in the modern world, and the unconscionable horrors of canned safari hunts.
The final section outlines a year or so in the life of Orlean’s hobby farm in the Hudson Valley: dogs, cats, poultry, and even a few cattle occupy her (though the cattle are actually a tax-avoidance project, as is a casual and joking reference to raising puppies for profit). Still, there is a weird lack of emotional connection to these, her very own personal menagerie. They take in a stray cat, and she seems to be mystified by why her resident cat hates the newcomer, whose sex she can’t even identify correctly. I will agree whole-heartedly with her assessment of the evils of ticks, though. I’d also like to know how Helen, the Rhode Island Red hen, is the lowest chicken in the pecking order on one page, becomes the top-ranking alpha hen a few pages later.
And then, the family ups sticks and move to Los Angeles for a job opportunity. The animals have to be handed off, arranged for, and away they go. They spend a few more summers in New York, but it turns out to be too much trouble, so they sell up what we’ve been told is a much-loved, long-dreamed-for place, and that’s that.
Animal lovers, if you are looking for dedication, loyalty, intimacy, and a recognition of animals as, in the inimitable words of Henry Beston, “finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth,” don’t look here. To be fair, she is never mawkish or sentimental, she does not anthropomorphize, and her approach seems to be one clinging to objectivity (with some factual issues), an eye for detail, and respect for the attitudes the human subjects may have toward their animal charges. But her own humanity has gaps, and she lacks “another and a wiser…concept of animals,” (Beston again) that respects them as they deserve.
Currently reading
October 26, 2022Update A new 'video' game - shooting live animals by remote control.
There is no room in Africa for any more lions. They are almost all in managed parks, there is no wilderness left for them any more. The little there is only big enough for the lions that live there and so they go to raise money, up to $40,000 a hunt, by being shot by a rich American. I suppose it might even be the same ones that pay $40,000 to be roped to and hauled up Mt Everest. Thrill seekers who think you can buy everything if you have enough money and people always happy to give that idea credibility if they are on the receiving end.
__________
On Valentine's Day, especially the very first with a new boyfriend, most women like flowers, chocolates, maybe a meal out. But the author's boyfriend surprises her and delights her to the extent she says, 'The look on my face is a lot like what you see on people in those Publishers Clearing House ads who have just been told they've won $20 million." What had he given her? A visit from a real live lion who allowed her to stroke him and feed him two raw chickens.
Yes, she married him.
Even worse are those hunting setups I recently learned of in which the hunter, miles or continents away, sits in front of a computer watching a livestream of the hunting area. When an animal strolls into view, the hunter fires a gun by pressing a button on a remote control. It’s like a video game or a sort of beastly snuff film, with a mounted trophy as the reward for leveling up.If these animals are lions, they are surplus to requirements and just there to be shot by rich people, often Americans who want to say they bagged a lion. In the lion reservations, they make money by having 'petting zoos' for those cute little lion cubs, up to about 6 months old. They are too dangerous after that.
There is no room in Africa for any more lions. They are almost all in managed parks, there is no wilderness left for them any more. The little there is only big enough for the lions that live there and so they go to raise money, up to $40,000 a hunt, by being shot by a rich American. I suppose it might even be the same ones that pay $40,000 to be roped to and hauled up Mt Everest. Thrill seekers who think you can buy everything if you have enough money and people always happy to give that idea credibility if they are on the receiving end.
__________
On Valentine's Day, especially the very first with a new boyfriend, most women like flowers, chocolates, maybe a meal out. But the author's boyfriend surprises her and delights her to the extent she says, 'The look on my face is a lot like what you see on people in those Publishers Clearing House ads who have just been told they've won $20 million." What had he given her? A visit from a real live lion who allowed her to stroke him and feed him two raw chickens.
Yes, she married him.
November 5, 2021
"Humankind has ended up mediating almost every aspect of the natural world, muddling the notion of what being truly wild can really mean anymore."
"Every corny thing that's said about living with nature--being in harmony with the earth, feeling the cycle of the seasons--happens to be true."
These essays are bookmarked by the experience of buying her own farm and the animals she shared this time with. Her love of animals, her curiosity, her enthusiasm is readily apparent, it draws the reader into her various subjects. From racing pigeons, to pandas, mules, a show dog and his life and a missing dog. Never knew there were dog detectives, agencies. I found the chapter on lions both embracing and sad. I always dispisedd big game hunting, but after reading this I absolutely hate them. The chapter on donkeys in Morocco was so interesting her the donkeys are essential because in the Fez medina the streets are too narrow for other forms of transportation.
A well researched book, she actually visited these places, met with the people within. It is at times humorous, sometimes despairing but always informative and interesting.
ARC from Edelweiss.
"Every corny thing that's said about living with nature--being in harmony with the earth, feeling the cycle of the seasons--happens to be true."
These essays are bookmarked by the experience of buying her own farm and the animals she shared this time with. Her love of animals, her curiosity, her enthusiasm is readily apparent, it draws the reader into her various subjects. From racing pigeons, to pandas, mules, a show dog and his life and a missing dog. Never knew there were dog detectives, agencies. I found the chapter on lions both embracing and sad. I always dispisedd big game hunting, but after reading this I absolutely hate them. The chapter on donkeys in Morocco was so interesting her the donkeys are essential because in the Fez medina the streets are too narrow for other forms of transportation.
A well researched book, she actually visited these places, met with the people within. It is at times humorous, sometimes despairing but always informative and interesting.
ARC from Edelweiss.
June 22, 2021
I think I’ll always have animals and I think I’ll always write about them. Their unknowability challenges me. Our affection for them intrigues me. I resist the urge to anthropomorphize them, but I do think they know something we don’t about living elementally. I’m happy to be in their company.
I really liked what I’ve previously read by Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief, The Library Book), but I guess what I liked most about those books were their format: the intertwined threads that weave together straight facts, singular events, and Orlean’s personal involvement with the material that synergise into something special. I came into On Animals expecting more of the same, and it’s not. Rather than plumbing the depths of one overarching story, this is a series of fifteen articles that Orlean published over the years (in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Smithsonian Magazine) which all feature a lightweight look at some “animalish” topic. And taken one after another, this became a little repetitive and dull. I appreciate that Orlean has had a greater than average fascination with animals throughout her life, and that she has had the good fortune to travel the world as a journalist to investigate animal-related stories, but this collection didn’t add up to a satisfying book. Low three stars. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)
As Orlean explains in her introduction, she and her husband eventually left their Manhattan apartment for an acreage in upstate New York, which they then populated with chickens, ducks, turkeys, guinea fowl, dogs, cats, and cattle. Despite having been raised in suburbia, Orlean took to farmlife and its duties, explaining that chicken-keeping seems to be enjoying a revival in the US:
Chickens seemed to go hand in glove with the postfeminist reclamation of other farmwife domestic arts — knitting, canning, quilting. Keeping chickens was a do-it-yourself hobby at a moment when doing things for yourself was newly appreciated as a declaration of self-sufficiency, a celebration of handwork, and a pushback from a numbing and disconnected big-box life.
And although she does reference the farm and her life there in some of the articles that follow, it doesn’t much serve as a true linking mechanism. The articles explore everything from show dogs to captive panda breeding, and most did have some interesting tidbits. In a story about a woman who hoarded tigers in deplorable conditions (long before anyone heard of the Tiger King), Orlean notes, “There are at least fifteen thousand pet tigers in the country — more than seven times the number of registered Irish setters or Dalmatians.” In an article on taxidermy — which didn’t much interest me overall — my attention was grabbed by, “One display, a coyote whose torso was split open to reveal a miniature scene of the destruction of the World Trade Center, complete with little firefighters and rubble piles, was surpassingly weird.” In an article on the historic treatment of animals used in Hollywood, Orlean quotes the (then) director of American Humane’s Film and Television Unit, Karen Rosa:
“If you show up on set with twenty-five thousand cockroaches, you better leave with twenty-five thousand cockroaches,” she said. I wondered if she extended the same welcome to cockroaches at home. She shook her head. “A cockroach in my kitchen is one thing,” she said. “A cockroach in a movie is an actor. Like any other actor, it deserves to go home at the end of the day.”
So, some of this was interesting and surprising, but as On Animals includes articles that go back to 1995, not all of the information is current. In an article on the use of oxen in Cuba, Orlean notes the friendship between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez that guaranteed Venezuelan oil would flow freely to supply the abundance of Soviet tractors employed by most Cuban farmers. And after relating the whole inspiring story of Keiko the killer whale (of Free Willy fame), Orlean notes that she was disappointed to have arrived in Iceland just a month after Keiko had been successfully released into the wild. Keiko had followed a wild pod of orcas to Norway and Orlean ends this article on swelling violins:
The children in Skaalvik Fjord who swam on his back and fed him fish reportedly found him delightful, as has everyone who has ever known Keiko. He played with them for a night and a day, the luckiest whale in the world, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago.
(It takes only a minute on a search engine to learn that Keiko didn’t thrive in the wild and his case makes the whole rewilding enterprise appear suspect; that seems the more interesting story, but it’s beyond the scope of this book.) So, there were some interesting nuggets along the way, but I had to slog through the dross to find them; I was never excited to make that effort.
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November 21, 2021Author and journalist Susan Orlean has always possessed an affinity for animals. More than that, as she asserts in the introduction to her new collection of previously published pieces “On Animals,” throughout her life, the non-human creatures have “always seemed to elbow their way onto center stage.” It makes sense, then, that within her new book, they easily and rightfully claim the starring role in these essays largely pulled from The New Yorker where Orlean has been a staff writer since the early 1990s.
Following up on the success of her 2018 bestseller “The Library Book,” “On Animals” begins on a pitch-perfect note with Orlean’s 2011 essay “Animalish,” a delightful piece about her gravitational pull toward animals serving as the book’s introduction.
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Following up on the success of her 2018 bestseller “The Library Book,” “On Animals” begins on a pitch-perfect note with Orlean’s 2011 essay “Animalish,” a delightful piece about her gravitational pull toward animals serving as the book’s introduction.
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
October 3, 2021
What animals have been a part of your life? If you grew up on a farm (like me) and have also raised three active boys (also me), then chances are you have observed and/or had ownership of a wide variety. There are animals who give us companionship, those who provide sustenance, those who provide services, some are just for looking at, and on and on. . . Susan Orlean has curated a collection of her own essays from over the years to gift animal lovers with the opportunity to read about her observations, investigations, and experiences. This is a book you can savor over a period of time, written with empathy, pithy observations, and humor. You will read about chickens, show dogs, tigers, mules, homing pigeons, animal actors, killer whales in activity (Free Willy!), oxen, taxidermy, lions, rabbits, pandas, donkeys, and the many varieties of animals on Susan Orlean's homestead in the Hudson Valley. Sounds like a great gift for that animal lover in your life. My only complaint: no pictures in the ARC. Will have to track down a physical copy once it is published.
Thank you to Avid Reader Press and Edelweiss+ for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Avid Reader Press and Edelweiss+ for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
January 15, 2022
" If therapists didn't charge you and were willing to chase sticks, they would be dogs. The kindly and receptive silences, the respect for secrets, the inexhaustible supply of attention-- these are a dog's and a therapist's finest qualities. Dogs, though, are more fun than therapists, more dear, and certainly more admiring." (page 220).
og
My dog, Sophie
Susan Orlean, author and staff writer at the New Yorker, refers to herself as animalish. I had never heard that term before. I am a dog person, and my neighbor is a cat person. I have another friend who adores parrots. But animalish means something more. For Orlean, animals are "her style" and have always played a central role in her life. In the mid-1990s, she moved with her family to a rural area in upstate New York, where she and her husband could have lots of animals.
Her book, On Animals, a collection of animal essays published in the New Yorker and the Smithsonian Magazine from 1995 -2011, reflects her passion. Orlean begins with the personal, her newfound fascination for chickens and includes many entertaining anecdotes of raising poultry on her farm. Next, she provides information on the history of chickens, including wry observations of the human chicken relationships amongst those who raise chickens as pets.
The subsequent 14 essays follow the same format: lively, finely tuned writing, humor, insight, history, and entre into worlds about which I previously knew little. Some of the essays are quirky yet endearing. I especially enjoyed the pieces on homing pigeons and Kevin Richardson, a lion whisperer in southern Africa. However, other articles were somewhat macabre: the essays on Taxidermy and the International Taxidermist's competition and a New Jersey woman who hoards tigers bordered on bizarre. Predictably, my favorite examined pet detectives who search for lost dogs and cats.
While I enjoyed the book, I was disturbed that none of the essays dealt with animal cruelty and abuse. Orleans mentions factory farming in passing and ignores the issue of animal testing. If being animalish means making animals central in our lives, then standing up against animal abuse must also be front and center.
ogMy dog, Sophie
Susan Orlean, author and staff writer at the New Yorker, refers to herself as animalish. I had never heard that term before. I am a dog person, and my neighbor is a cat person. I have another friend who adores parrots. But animalish means something more. For Orlean, animals are "her style" and have always played a central role in her life. In the mid-1990s, she moved with her family to a rural area in upstate New York, where she and her husband could have lots of animals.
Her book, On Animals, a collection of animal essays published in the New Yorker and the Smithsonian Magazine from 1995 -2011, reflects her passion. Orlean begins with the personal, her newfound fascination for chickens and includes many entertaining anecdotes of raising poultry on her farm. Next, she provides information on the history of chickens, including wry observations of the human chicken relationships amongst those who raise chickens as pets.
The subsequent 14 essays follow the same format: lively, finely tuned writing, humor, insight, history, and entre into worlds about which I previously knew little. Some of the essays are quirky yet endearing. I especially enjoyed the pieces on homing pigeons and Kevin Richardson, a lion whisperer in southern Africa. However, other articles were somewhat macabre: the essays on Taxidermy and the International Taxidermist's competition and a New Jersey woman who hoards tigers bordered on bizarre. Predictably, my favorite examined pet detectives who search for lost dogs and cats.
While I enjoyed the book, I was disturbed that none of the essays dealt with animal cruelty and abuse. Orleans mentions factory farming in passing and ignores the issue of animal testing. If being animalish means making animals central in our lives, then standing up against animal abuse must also be front and center.
February 18, 2023
A collection of essays by Susan Orlean, most of which appeared in "The New Yorker" between 2002 and 2020. They all include stories about animals and our interactions--good and bad--with them. We have stories about orcas, pigeons, tigers, donkeys, pandas, rabbits, and, of course, dogs--and more.
A most affecting story for me was her story about donkeys in Fez, Morocco. The donkeys have always been very hard-working and patient animals, treated as machines, often overworked. Orlean writes about the American Fondouk ( Arabic for "inn") outside Fez, which is a free veterinary clinic for the working animals. I guess I just like donkeys, animals that have served humanity for centuries and have been given very little respect--compared to horses.
I give this collection of essays only 3 stars because it was not outstanding ( I feel I give too many 4 stars; anyone else feel that way?) but a worthwhile read for animal lovers, especially donkey fans.
A most affecting story for me was her story about donkeys in Fez, Morocco. The donkeys have always been very hard-working and patient animals, treated as machines, often overworked. Orlean writes about the American Fondouk ( Arabic for "inn") outside Fez, which is a free veterinary clinic for the working animals. I guess I just like donkeys, animals that have served humanity for centuries and have been given very little respect--compared to horses.
I give this collection of essays only 3 stars because it was not outstanding ( I feel I give too many 4 stars; anyone else feel that way?) but a worthwhile read for animal lovers, especially donkey fans.
December 7, 2021
As another reviewer stated, I thought the author would be an animal lover, but I only read the first three chapters and she proved me wrong. Her cavalier attitude about how she kept her chickens (as a new chicken owner) and the eventual death of one because it froze to death rubbed me the wrong way. She seems to be intrigued by animals, but not someone who cares for them or is dedicated to those she chose to make part of her life.
November 1, 2021
Thoughts soon.
February 3, 2022
DNF @20%
If I read another sentence of this author talking about animals like they are objects to collect, or buy, or receive as a present, I'm going to explode.
This book title should be different, so animal lovers do not go into it thinking they are going to get something different from it. If you are looking for animals to be treated as living beings, skip this one.
If I read another sentence of this author talking about animals like they are objects to collect, or buy, or receive as a present, I'm going to explode.
This book title should be different, so animal lovers do not go into it thinking they are going to get something different from it. If you are looking for animals to be treated as living beings, skip this one.
April 15, 2022
Ignorance and an ivory tower perspective pervades this collection of essays. The interspersed stories set around the U.S. and the world were interesting but flawed by the surfacial points of view. However, the author's impulsivity in acquiring animals, and the impractical approach to her own animal stewardship is irritating, often enraging, and never acknowledged. Orlean's starry-eyed depiction of hobby farming had me shaking my head, especially in contrast to my own knowledge of the challenges that real working farmers and growers face. Her rationale for the growth of urban chicken-keeping as a feminist reclamation of skills is laughable, as well as insulting to those for whom it is a long time source of income, and to those for whom it is a cultural practice to maintain small stock. Congratulations to Ms. Orlean and her spouse on career successes that generate enough disposable income to allow the east coast-west coast lifestyle that leaves reality and a whole bunch of animals behind to be rehomed...at least until the whim to have them again asserts itself. When Orlean blithely schemes about ways to qualify for a farm tax credit, I felt a strong urge to contact my senators and representative to close this idiotic loophole. Ms. Orlean's family income and survival do not rely upon her farm's profitability - she can damn well pay for her own hobbies without a tax break. I credit her accountant, who gets a couple of mentions, for not throttling her because so many of her pursuits seem like a series of money pits driven by magazine images of aspirational lifestyle trends.
Another example of the author giving short shrift to potentially grave animal welfare and economic consequences is the smirky intimation about the questionable legality of the importation of Swedish Flower hens. The one sentence about them being secreted in someone's bra is appalling. If Ms. Orlean was an ethical and educated farmer, she'd know about the seriousness of abiding by biosecurity protocols, and not treat this sensible and science-based FDA and USDA procedure with a wink and a nod. This is the type of selfish ignorance displayed when international travelers returning to the U.S. scoff at the declaration and/or confiscation of non-native animals and plant material, or complain about having to sanitize shoes when disembarking. You may not live on a farm but, frankly, anthrax and avian influenza don't care who you are. I guess so long as Ms. Orlean gets the boutique breed of hen that she wants, all's good, right?
Lest anyone think that my disgust is reserved for the author, the tale of the Lost Dog is a timeline depicting jaw-dropping stupidity by purportedly intelligent people; yet the author doesn't seem to recognize that's what she's written, and she becomes sort of an advocate for the couple's irresponsibility. Just now, having typed the words "advocate for irresponsibility," I think I have landed on Ms. Orlean's unintended theme for this tin-eared and tone deaf assortment of essays - irresponsibility is the thread that links most of them.
Another example of the author giving short shrift to potentially grave animal welfare and economic consequences is the smirky intimation about the questionable legality of the importation of Swedish Flower hens. The one sentence about them being secreted in someone's bra is appalling. If Ms. Orlean was an ethical and educated farmer, she'd know about the seriousness of abiding by biosecurity protocols, and not treat this sensible and science-based FDA and USDA procedure with a wink and a nod. This is the type of selfish ignorance displayed when international travelers returning to the U.S. scoff at the declaration and/or confiscation of non-native animals and plant material, or complain about having to sanitize shoes when disembarking. You may not live on a farm but, frankly, anthrax and avian influenza don't care who you are. I guess so long as Ms. Orlean gets the boutique breed of hen that she wants, all's good, right?
Lest anyone think that my disgust is reserved for the author, the tale of the Lost Dog is a timeline depicting jaw-dropping stupidity by purportedly intelligent people; yet the author doesn't seem to recognize that's what she's written, and she becomes sort of an advocate for the couple's irresponsibility. Just now, having typed the words "advocate for irresponsibility," I think I have landed on Ms. Orlean's unintended theme for this tin-eared and tone deaf assortment of essays - irresponsibility is the thread that links most of them.
April 9, 2022
Booktube prize 2022 read--review in April
really not a favorite. This is a collection of previous essays that appeared in the New Yorker. I did love her book about the L.A library so I know Orlean can write but frankly I found this mostly boring through there is an interesting memoir quality to it which pulled it back from being a terrible read. I think I would have liked the essays in the magazine (one at a time, maybe 2 a year) but all at once it was too much of the same for me.
really not a favorite. This is a collection of previous essays that appeared in the New Yorker. I did love her book about the L.A library so I know Orlean can write but frankly I found this mostly boring through there is an interesting memoir quality to it which pulled it back from being a terrible read. I think I would have liked the essays in the magazine (one at a time, maybe 2 a year) but all at once it was too much of the same for me.
December 10, 2021
The introduction of this book begins promisingly: “…I was always a little animalish” and ends even more so: “I think I’ll always have animals and I think I’ll always write about them. Their unknowability challenges me. Our affection for them intrigues me. I resist the urge to anthropomorphize them, but I do think they know something we don’t about living elementally. I’m happy to be in their company.” Because I couldn’t agree more with these statements, I was intrigued by the promise of the book and couldn’t wait to start reading it. I’m sorry to say that by the time I had finished it, I was disappointed that the promise of the introduction didn’t materialize by the last chapter. While Susan Orlean writes intriguingly about diverse animals such as chickens, tigers, lions, panda bears, dogs and donkeys, many of the stories seem disjointed and lacking a conclusion. There was no thread tying them all together, and I really can’t say that I sensed any kind of “animalish” attraction to any of them aside from Orlean’s affection for her chickens. Happy endings are replaced by Hollywood imagery as, for example, in the story of Keiko the killer whale star of Free Willy. While Orlean claims he was successfully reintroduced into the wild, internet research shows that he actually succumbed to pneumonia in Norway not long after he left captivity.
Sadly, this book, while still readable, left me cold and unconvinced of the author’s “animalishness”.
Sadly, this book, while still readable, left me cold and unconvinced of the author’s “animalishness”.
November 9, 2021
First and foremost, Susan Orleans is an incredible writer and an Indefatigable researcher. Her THE LIBRARY BOOK was simply riveting. This book collected her articles published over the years that focused on animals combined with ones about her personal experiences as an animal lover and caretaker of chickens, guinea hens, turkeys along with dogs and cats. Wide-ranging from rabbits to panda bears to donkeys to the lion whisperer to taxidermy, each article is personal and jam-packed with fascinating facts and tales. Highly recommended! Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
November 15, 2021
This book suffered from being a cobbled-together collection of essays about animals from as long ago as 1995. From what I can tell, none of the essays have been updated in any way, which makes me wonder about some of the information in them. One of the essays, The Rabbit Outbreak, is from 2020, so I assume what she wrote about the virus raging through rabbits in the US is still mostly correct, but her essay on Keiko (Free Willy) was not updated to talk about his death. It just makes me wonder what is no longer up to date in other essays.
That said, some of the essays are really interesting. Highlights were the essays about taxidermy, the woman and her tigers, and animals in movies and television. Be aware that animal abuse is written about and is hard to read.
That said, some of the essays are really interesting. Highlights were the essays about taxidermy, the woman and her tigers, and animals in movies and television. Be aware that animal abuse is written about and is hard to read.
December 15, 2021
What a nice break from the currently weary world to just listen to tales (or tails?) of the animals that Susan Orlean has come across. From lions to racing pigeons to mules and a barnyard full of other animals, both wild and domestic, these amusing anecdotes should bring happiness to all animal lovers!
July 3, 2023
Orlean has assembled a collection of her published works from The New Yorker, The Atlantic, etc, all featuring unusual, funny or shocking animal situations from around the globe.
From pandas in captivity, to Free Willy's Keiko being freed; from lion cub petting zoos in Africa to the tens of thousands of privately owned tigers in the USA, there are some amazing and sometimes unbelievable stories of animal husbandry, abuse and love.
Orlean writes her articles in an approachable and relatable manner, focussing more on the "Hey Martha" aspect than on the science, research or fact-checking of non-fiction. These are amusing and thought-provoking articles, not research papers, and should be read for that.
I picked this book up because of the awesome chicken on the cover. Being a steadfast chicken enthusiast, I really enjoyed her stories of her own farm animals. It struck me that Orlean is more interested in observing animals than in actually taking care of them and I was saddened to read about the neglect(?) of her flocks that lead to deaths by coyote and freezing.
But overall this was a fun read. Some key takeaways for me:
I really want a donkey now.
I can't wait to try riding a mule.
I will never see movie animals the same way again (imagine having to account for every fly used in a film!!)
I appreciate every wild rabbit I have around our farm since I have a new appreciation for how devastating the RHS virus is, especially after 2020.
From pandas in captivity, to Free Willy's Keiko being freed; from lion cub petting zoos in Africa to the tens of thousands of privately owned tigers in the USA, there are some amazing and sometimes unbelievable stories of animal husbandry, abuse and love.
Orlean writes her articles in an approachable and relatable manner, focussing more on the "Hey Martha" aspect than on the science, research or fact-checking of non-fiction. These are amusing and thought-provoking articles, not research papers, and should be read for that.
I picked this book up because of the awesome chicken on the cover. Being a steadfast chicken enthusiast, I really enjoyed her stories of her own farm animals. It struck me that Orlean is more interested in observing animals than in actually taking care of them and I was saddened to read about the neglect(?) of her flocks that lead to deaths by coyote and freezing.
But overall this was a fun read. Some key takeaways for me:
I really want a donkey now.
I can't wait to try riding a mule.
I will never see movie animals the same way again (imagine having to account for every fly used in a film!!)
I appreciate every wild rabbit I have around our farm since I have a new appreciation for how devastating the RHS virus is, especially after 2020.
January 26, 2022
I stopped reading on page 31. This is not a book for true animal lovers. The author seems to view them not as individuals but as playthings or accessories for her and others amusement and benefit. In the chicken chapter I was expecting accounts of chickens being individuals with real personalities, however what I was faced with was page after page of the egg industry, and I finally realised it wasn’t going to get any better when she drones about how she cried when her chicken died yet eats them every day!? The level of cognitive dissonance here is astounding. If you really want to read a book by a genuine animal lover I would recommend ‘This is Vegan Propaganda’ by Ed Winters.
I will be donating my copy of this to a charity shop where it can be sold for £1.99, which is still more than what it is worth.
I will be donating my copy of this to a charity shop where it can be sold for £1.99, which is still more than what it is worth.
June 3, 2021
Thank you Edelweiss Treeline for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
I love Susan Orlean’s writing and this collection did not disappoint. If you’re an animal lover, and/or if you enjoy beautifully crafted essays, you need to read this book. Simply wonderful from the first page to the last.
I love Susan Orlean’s writing and this collection did not disappoint. If you’re an animal lover, and/or if you enjoy beautifully crafted essays, you need to read this book. Simply wonderful from the first page to the last.
November 10, 2021
I found all the essays in this book delightful. I enjoy Orlean’s writing style, especially her warm but slightly off-kilter humor. And I, like her, love animals and also find them amusing, so I guess this book was perfect for me.
November 21, 2021
This book is a delightful and well-written escape into the world of animals. Each chapter is written in investigative journalism style, and covers animals as various as killer whales, pandas, a lost dog, chickens, mules… all set against the backdrop of the author’s Hudson Valley farm, which sounds like the most peaceful place in the world as well as the place of my dreams that can be filled up with all the animals you could possibly want. Susan Orlean is one of my favorite writers, and animals are high on my list of favorite things to read about, so really it would have been surprising if I didn’t love this book.
October 18, 2021
These are all reprints, but they were a delight to reread. Please note: Orlean is a meat eater, so while she admires and respects animals, she writes about them in a traditional way rather than advocating for their freedom. That didn't bother me, but I know it has bothered some readers and reviewers.
March 9, 2023
Susan Orlean writing on animals combines two personal loves . There are some hilarious chuckle out loud stories . Susan’s wit and dry sense of humor is a much needed balm . Listening to her book “ The Library “ a few years ago really made me a fan.
This book is so heart felt and if you are an animal person you will really enjoy !
This book is so heart felt and if you are an animal person you will really enjoy !
September 9, 2023
第一次聽到蘇珊歐琳是《蘭花賊》，後來發現這本《不想回家的鯨魚》也是他的作品
雖然書名看起來很像是小說，但其實這是一本關於動物的散文集，書名則是來自於其中的一篇文章
從書裡可以看出，作者是個很愛動物的人，書裡的最後一章更提到他曾經擁有一座農場的有趣經歷
《不想回家的鯨魚》一書總共收錄十五篇散文，其中我最喜歡《威利在哪裡》和《栩栩如生》
🐋《威利在哪裡》也是書名的來源，描述1993年電影裡裡那隻虎鯨惠子被野放的故事
雖然我沒看過這部電影，但文章裡仔細描述了惠子從電影爆紅、到最終被帶到北歐野放的故事。
看完這篇文章後，我的心裡暖暖的，讓人不禁思考起動物與人之間的關係
🪶《栩栩如生》則是在說一群熱衷於動物標本的人，為讀者介紹標本世界的奇聞，這篇文章像是知識型小科普，讓我覺得超酷的，原來標本比賽的種類五花八門，還可以拿熊當熊貓，我只能說真是大開眼界
後記心得｜
雖然原文書出版的出版日期應該是很久以前了，即使有改版過，書裡的某些文章資訊也顯得有些過時
但是作者的寫作功力還是可圈可點，在他筆下的動物感覺都很有趣，讓人想要深入去認識，同時也能學到一些關於動物的新知
最後，想推薦這本有趣的散文集給喜歡動物的讀者們
雖然書名看起來很像是小說，但其實這是一本關於動物的散文集，書名則是來自於其中的一篇文章
從書裡可以看出，作者是個很愛動物的人，書裡的最後一章更提到他曾經擁有一座農場的有趣經歷
《不想回家的鯨魚》一書總共收錄十五篇散文，其中我最喜歡《威利在哪裡》和《栩栩如生》
🐋《威利在哪裡》也是書名的來源，描述1993年電影裡裡那隻虎鯨惠子被野放的故事
雖然我沒看過這部電影，但文章裡仔細描述了惠子從電影爆紅、到最終被帶到北歐野放的故事。
看完這篇文章後，我的心裡暖暖的，讓人不禁思考起動物與人之間的關係
🪶《栩栩如生》則是在說一群熱衷於動物標本的人，為讀者介紹標本世界的奇聞，這篇文章像是知識型小科普，讓我覺得超酷的，原來標本比賽的種類五花八門，還可以拿熊當熊貓，我只能說真是大開眼界
後記心得｜
雖然原文書出版的出版日期應該是很久以前了，即使有改版過，書裡的某些文章資訊也顯得有些過時
但是作者的寫作功力還是可圈可點，在他筆下的動物感覺都很有趣，讓人想要深入去認識，同時也能學到一些關於動物的新知
最後，想推薦這本有趣的散文集給喜歡動物的讀者們
July 21, 2022
loved this one! an intriguing book on animals of all kinds and the ways that humans form relationships with animals. Each chapter was like a unique little short story and contained so many interesting facts. I definitely learned a few new things and enjoyed getting to read another one of Orlean’s books.
December 14, 2021
Susan Orlean loves nature and particularly the animals that reside there, both in the wild and domestically. In these entertaining essays, she shares her thoughts on these various critters, like donkeys, killer whales, chickens, big cats and pigeons. All told in an informative manner, tinged with the right amount of humor. Fans of Mary Roach would like this approach.
February 17, 2022
The essays that comprise Susan Orlean's latest book were written over a period of more than twenty-five years. They all appeared first in The New Yorker and those who have been readers of that magazine over that time may recognize some of them. My memory in its present state is such that even if I had read them before, I likely would not have recognized them. And some of them are pretty memorable.
For example, there is the one about Keiko, the captive killer whale who starred in the movie "Free Willy." The essay is about efforts to free Keiko and it begins like this: "It was a hell of a time to be in Iceland, where the wind never huffs or puffs but simply blows your house down." How can you not be captivated by such a beginning?
This book isn't only about big and famous animals, however. There are chickens here, and rabbits, pigeons, pandas, tigers, lions, donkeys, mules, and oxen. And that's probably not a complete list.
One of my personal favorites was the essay about keeping backyard chickens. I was especially delighted to learn that this famous writer for an urban publication did this for I am not unfamiliar with the pleasure of having chickens around. Those who think of them as stupid, ditzy creatures have never spent much time with them. They each have their own unique personalities and they arrange themselves in definitive social structures. The chicken yard is not all that dissimilar to human society.
Another of the essays deals with a backyard in New Jersey where a woman kept twenty-three - twenty-three! - pet tigers. The remarkable thing (in addition to all those tigers) is that her neighbors had no idea they were there until one of them escaped.
There is not a dull essay in this collection. I read straight through rather than skipping around because the clever arrangement of the pieces helped to lead the reader from each essay into the next one.
Orlean has a knack for pulling the reader in with her first sentence. It's a knack honed over all those years of writing for The New Yorker. She also has a gift for exploring the human connection to all of the animals about which she writes. She makes clear that it is false to think of these as human-animal relationships; in fact, we are all animals and we are all in this together. One planet for all of us and what we do to that planet affects all.
For example, there is the one about Keiko, the captive killer whale who starred in the movie "Free Willy." The essay is about efforts to free Keiko and it begins like this: "It was a hell of a time to be in Iceland, where the wind never huffs or puffs but simply blows your house down." How can you not be captivated by such a beginning?
This book isn't only about big and famous animals, however. There are chickens here, and rabbits, pigeons, pandas, tigers, lions, donkeys, mules, and oxen. And that's probably not a complete list.
One of my personal favorites was the essay about keeping backyard chickens. I was especially delighted to learn that this famous writer for an urban publication did this for I am not unfamiliar with the pleasure of having chickens around. Those who think of them as stupid, ditzy creatures have never spent much time with them. They each have their own unique personalities and they arrange themselves in definitive social structures. The chicken yard is not all that dissimilar to human society.
Another of the essays deals with a backyard in New Jersey where a woman kept twenty-three - twenty-three! - pet tigers. The remarkable thing (in addition to all those tigers) is that her neighbors had no idea they were there until one of them escaped.
There is not a dull essay in this collection. I read straight through rather than skipping around because the clever arrangement of the pieces helped to lead the reader from each essay into the next one.
Orlean has a knack for pulling the reader in with her first sentence. It's a knack honed over all those years of writing for The New Yorker. She also has a gift for exploring the human connection to all of the animals about which she writes. She makes clear that it is false to think of these as human-animal relationships; in fact, we are all animals and we are all in this together. One planet for all of us and what we do to that planet affects all.
January 26, 2022
I somehow hadn’t realised that this was a collection of pieces Orlean had published over recent years in The New Yorker or The Atlantic so I had basically already read most of them. That’s on me. Reading them back-to-back like this though shows how drawn to animal stories she has been over the last 20 years. Her prose is always warm and delightful. Nobody researches like Orlean and nobody is as deeply curious as she is.
October 27, 2021
I did not get far in this book. In an early essay, she claims how much she loves chickens, and how she sobbed in the vet when she had to put down one of her beloved chickens. Yet, she eats chicken. Perhaps a silly detail but I totally lost interest in reading further.
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