Book description
Frankie Conner, first-year graduate student at UC Berkeley, is finally getting her life together. After multiple failures and several false starts, she's found her calling: become a neuroscientist, discover the cause of her depression and anxiety, and hopefully find a cure for herself and everyone like her.
But her first…
Why read it?
2 authors picked This Animal Body as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
I loved the uniqueness of the story, and that it is so beautifully written. The (human) characters seemed so real that I kept forgetting I hadn’t met them in real life. And the animal characters seemed equally real. The story is captivating from so many angles at once, plus Meredith take on the highly relevant issues, including mental health, the role of science and ethics, and animal rights.
Going into it, I have to say that the cohort of talking animals was a bit much for a realist like me.
But I kept reading as the animals inhabit the dreams of a young neuroscientist who is dealing with personal issues while trying to complete her graduate studies. I realized that the animals became what people couldn’t be for her at this precise time. Maybe they were figments of her imagination. It doesn’t matter in the end. They enlightened her struggles and got her through.
By the time I finished reading the book, I looked at them the way…
From Ellen's list on magical books for realists.
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