This engaging nature-centered narrative is infused with a bit of experiential memoir and storytelling. I look forward to recommending this book to many friends and perhaps also a bookclub read! Thanks to Bloomsbury and Netgalley I'm reading this as an ebook.

Wild Souls provides a deep look into the relationship between wild animals and the environment, and how humans not only impact this relationship but also struggle to protect and preserve it. These concepts that may seem to go hand in hand can end up at odds with each other, and there may not be a clear or easy answers to address both pressing issues.

Wild Souls is thought-provoking, well researched, and often an incredibly frustrating book to read. The author provides detailed and specific examples to examine the issues between conservation science and the protection of animals, all of which support the notion that these two important causes are finding themselves at odds with each other. The book is very well written, and brought me way back to my college environmental studies degree days. I found myself struggling as much now as I did then with the lack of solutions to the problems presented in this book, especially with the seemingly abrupt end to the final chapter. That said, it is definitely not an easy problem to solve. Readers passionate about animal rights, conversation science, and the environment will want to pick up a copy of this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury USA for this ARC; this is my honest and voluntary review.

I kind of want to burn down a zoo now. That is, of course, after freeing all the animals and relocating them to santuaries in appropriate areas.

To me this book is about the responsibility humans have to bear from both altering the world to suit our needs and being better positioned to interfere in the existence of other living things. To this end we are shown different situations nonhuman animals find themselves in, and the humans who care about them, or exploit them, or both.