The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke
The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Truth About Animals
Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife

Author: Lucy Cooke

Narrator: Lucy Cooke

Unabridged: 10 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 04/17/2018

Synopsis

Mary Roach meets Bill Bryson in this "surefire summer winner" (Janet Maslin, New York Times), an uproarious tour of the basest instincts and biggest mysteries of the animal world

Humans have gone to the Moon and discovered the Higgs boson, but when it comes to understanding animals, we've still got a long way to go. Whether we're seeing a viral video of romping baby pandas or a picture of penguins "holding hands," it's hard for us not to project our own values -- innocence, fidelity, temperance, hard work -- onto animals. So you've probably never considered if moose get drunk, penguins cheat on their mates, or worker ants lay about. They do -- and that's just for starters. In The Truth About Animals, Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret -- and often hilarious -- habits of the animal kingdom. Charming and at times downright weird, this modern bestiary is perfect for anyone who has ever suspected that virtue might be unnatural.

Reviews

Goodreads review by LIsa Noell "Rocking the chutzpah!" on December 15, 2023

Beware:After reading this book you may walk around spouting mostly useless but absofreakinglutely fascinating knowledge! Seriously, I believe my squat, hairy man was getting a wee bit sick of me! I adored this book. If it's an animal and its wild, then I'm gonna love it. From bats that are hung like......more

Goodreads review by Yun on August 10, 2019

In The Truth About Animals, Cooke takes us on a tour of the animal kingdom and peels back the layers of mystery surrounding all of these animals. She explores the history of our understanding (or misunderstanding) of each animal, along with the latest science on how they really are. Thirteen animals......more

Goodreads review by Bharath on August 01, 2018

This is a book filled with very interesting information about a select set of animals including sloths, bats, penguins, hippos, frogs, eels, pandas, chimpanzees, hyenas and others. Lot of the information is lesser known, and makes for engrossing reading. For instance, hippos genetic makeup shows a c......more

Goodreads review by Jim on November 26, 2020

The author has done a lot of documentaries on animals & studied them in their native habitat. She was also a student of Richard Dawkins, so it's not surprising that this book was so well done. She did a great job of narrating it, too. It took me a long time to read this, but it was more what else was......more

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on June 10, 2018

A book about animals and their odd behaviours? Count me in! "The Truth About Animals" by Lucy Cooke takes us on a worldwide journey to meet everyone from a Colombian hippo castrator to a Chinese panda porn peddler, all to lay bare the secret--and often hilarious--habits of the animal kingdom. Charmi......more

Quotes

On the New York Times Book Review's Paperback Row

One of the New York Times Book Review's "17 Refreshing Books to Read This Summer"

"Her pace is quick, her touch is light, and through her wealth of research we can reach new heights of wonder."—New York Times Book Review

"Funny and fascinating, this book will change the way you see wildlife."—Bustle

"A surefire summer winner...even Cooke's simple facts are funny."—New York Times Book Review

"Endlessly fascinating."—Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and In a Sunburned Country

"Lucy Cooke's modern bestiary is as well-informed as you'd expect from an Oxford zoologist. It's also downright funny."—Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, The Selfish Gene, and The Ancestor's Tale, and emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford

"Cooke, founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, raises the profile of many poorly understood animals, revealing surprising, and often hilarious, truths that are much better than the fictions."—Scientific American

"[A] deeply researched, sassily written history of 'the biggest misconceptions, mistakes and myths we've concocted about the animal kingdom,' spread by figures from Aristotle to Walt Disney." —Nature

"Cooke's extensive travels, research and delightful sense of humor make The Truth about Animals a fascinating modern bestiary."—Seattle Times

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