A book for the deeply feeling animal lovers, a reminder that we’re more like our beloved pets like dogs and cats, as well as wild animals like snow leopards and pigeons, than we often remember. Mari Andrews mixes in personal anecdotes about her life and beliefs while helping us relate those experiences to the animal world. The book has whimsical drawings of animals made by the author between each chapter, which you’ll recognize as her own if you’ve read any of her other books or followed her on social media. Some of the chapters resonated more than others but overall it was an enjoyable book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

What a lovely, timely, calming book. Mari Andrew has managed to write essays, using the animal world to lead us along the way. The author actually loves humans, which isn't always the case with animal lovers. Right now, we can all use a bit of calm, insightful thoughts...and this book gives us that.

Thank you to Penguin Life and Net Galley for a digital ARC of this title in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

#HowToBeALivingThing #MariAndrew #PenguinLife #NetGalley

This is one of the best, more poignant and significant books I’ve ever read. Mari Andrew looks at the animal world for inspiration on her daily life and shares those teachings. This is not my kind of read, I am a cynical Gen-Xer who loathes hearing about people’s feelings. But I’m also an inveterate animal lover and I read anything and everything about them. This is not a scientific volume, Mari (I usually use author’s last names but I feel like she and I could be friends so I’m going with her first) doesn’t share hard data and her information about behavioral and other type of experiments comes from what she’s read, sometimes even from the internet, or from what people have told her. And anecdotal information is my favorite. She even mentions Frans de Waal, probably my favorite ethologist. But she also states right from the beginning how she’s not like those people who love all animals, except for humans. Well, I am that type of person and Mari opened my eyes to her way of thinking. I always thought that moving the homeless to shelters was a good thing but, through this book, I saw this from a different perspective that horrified me. Mari doesn’t preach, never tries to impose her way of thinking on her readers, she just talks about what she thinks and how arrived to that conclusion, without acting like she’s better than anybody (including non-human animals). Who would think to compare our lockdown situation of a few years ago to orcas in captivity? It’s an eye-opening, amazing book and I will recommend it to everyone, regardless of age, political opinion or religious beliefs. Wow! Just wow!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Penguin Life.