I loved the book The Incredible Journey when I was little. Picked it up recently, and while it was good, it just didn’t move me as much as an adult. Could you all recommend some good stories or novels about animals. (I’m thinking “real” animals, though I loved Watership Down .
I’ll recommend James’ Herriot’s stuff. He’s a country vet in…mid 1900’s? Yeah, right around the war. They’re all true stories and quite good. There are several books.
I too recommend All Creatures Great and Small by Jame Harriott. I haven’t read them in 15 years, but still remember them fondly.
The Plague Dogs was written by Richard Adams, who wrote Watership Down. It is superb. Even someone who is not a dog-lover can enjoy this book.
One Day On Beetle Rock by Sally Carrighar is a nicely-written account of a community of animals living in the High Sierras. Each chapter describes how a different animal lives its day, and how its path intersects with the other chapter’s animals.
Really, anything by Sally Carrighar is a good choice. Her writing really puts the wild animal in question right before you, as well as describing perfectly the natural environment in which the book was set.
I also love Gerald Durrell’s books about animal collecting. His first book, The Overloaded Ark is my favorite. It’s about a trip he made to Africa in the 1940’s to collect animals for English zoos. His classic My Family And Other Animals is also a good read, although it’s just as much about his eccentric family in Corfu as it is about animals, as the title indicates.
Tarka the Otter, by Henry Williamson
White Fang and The Call of the Wild by Jack London. These two books are actually a very good pair of companion works, showing an everydog going into and out of the wild.
More odd is the book The Fool on the Hill, by Matt Ruff. It’s an ensemble novel with Fey, a magician, a Greek Original, and my favorite character - a dog searching for Heaven. It’s set at Cornell U during the late 80’s or early 90’s, and a good deal of fun.
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat is a good book, even if it is really propaganda. (Well researched and accurate, but still, propaganda. ;))
I’d also reccomend the following SF novels for their ways of looking at either animals, or other intelligent species rather obviously patterned on known animals:
Startide Rising by David Brin
Wolf and Iron by Gordon Dickson
A Fire in the Deep by Vernor Vinge
Just a few suggestions. I hope you find one you like.
I remember a book called Beautiful Joe being a pretty good read. It’s about a dog who starts out life with a cruel master, and ends up being saved and brought to a new and better home, after having his ears/tail cut off. That’s just the beginning part though.
[slight hijack] This thread brought me back many years.
I am now trying to remember the name of some of the short novels that I read as a child involving an Irish Setter. The author’s name was Jim Kjel-something-or-other. Maybe.
[/slight hijack]
Jim Kjelgaard wrote “Big Red,” “Irish Red,” etc.
Very enjoyable books. Sure made me want an Irish setter.
Thank you, pinkfreud.