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niecierpek's review against another edition
3.75
This wasn’t bad, but I probably wouldn’t have finished it if it wasn’t a bookclub read. It’s a collection of essays, and I have a feeling that some of them were rehashed pieces she published somewhere else beforehand.
Some chapters were better than others, but it was really uneven. I learned a few things, like the really surprising number of lions in captivity. I liked the chapters on chickens and donkeys best. But that’s three out of twenty…
lyriclorelei's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
These are definitely varying degrees of interesting, or maybe I'm not enough of an animal person.
waitwhathelp's review against another edition
informative
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
siobhanward's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Ever since I read Orlean's <i> The Library Book </i> I've been reading her stuff, trying to find something that compares. Unfortunately, this one didn't hold up great. Rather than being a book written intentionally, it's (I assume) a collection of her writings from other places, and it really feels like that. At least 20% of the book is devoted to Orlean's own feelings on animals, her relationships with them and her adventures in hobby farming. It felt like I was reading someone's blog, rather than a book. The essays in between just kind of felt flat. Some felt really dated (the essay about tiger keeping in the US seems kind of unnecessary after Tiger King), and honestly I just didn't vibe with how many of them were about captive animals.
I would have loved to have learned more about humans working in animal preservation and research, or more historical topics, but this just really didn't cover any of that. While I still appreciate the work that Orlean put into this, it just wasn't really for me.
I would have loved to have learned more about humans working in animal preservation and research, or more historical topics, but this just really didn't cover any of that. While I still appreciate the work that Orlean put into this, it just wasn't really for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
suebrownreads's review
4.0
At first I wasn't crazy about this book, but it grew on me. I didn't care for the reader which is the author, but then I came to understand her matter-of-fact, dry sense of humor. Since I love animals, I enjoyed hearing her stories, and about her travels!