Selected by the Allnonfiction Reading Group for our May read,  I figured I would enjoy this tremendously because of The Hidden Life of Trees (link to my review) –   Ah well – it isn’t quite as good,  but it’s very interesting and nicely written.  It’s really just an anecdote filled memoir than a serious exploration of what science is finding out these days –

*******
The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion — Surprising Observations of a Hidden World
by Peter Wohlleben /  translated by Jane Billinghurst
2017/ 272 pages
rating:  7  / science
*******

The author,  his wife and sons went to live in a cabin near the German forests where they kept chickens and goats and horses and so on.   Wohlleben is a very careful observer and so when he feeds the animals he doesn’t just put the grub out there – he watches it get eaten.

And he tells us of about what he has seen in his world of animals and what he thinks about and some of what researchers have found to this point.  As the subtitle says,  it’s a book of observations.

The chapters include

Selfless Mother Love
Instinct
Loving People
Anybody Home
Pig Smarts
Gratitude
Lies and Deception
Stop, Thief

It’s an interesting book,  lightish, chatty, engaging but not terribly compelling for me for some reason – it took me a few days to finish because I found myself reading other stuff or doing other things.   It’s kind of fun though.