98 Books Like Merle's Door

This account of a stroke took me from seeing thinking as one complex mystery to seeing two styles of thinking in me. This was life-changing. Taylor’s stroke left her stuck in one mode or the other, and as a neuroscientist, she had the language to describe each mode. How rare is that! 

She first cared deeply about the present moment and wholeness. Feeling connected to her body and the energy in everything around her, she was flooded with feelings of curiosity and love. Then, perception shifted, and Taylor focused on finding details to categorize and organize, with a focus on the past as predictors of the future. The world was there for her to use as she achieved her goals. As Taylor described these two states, I could feel and relate to the differences. I started to consciously separate them out in my mind, feeling suddenly awake.

Russell, who died far too young, talks, in particular, about a bear in a remote mountain area of Russia (the Kamtchatka Peninsula) who had young by her side when she came upon Charlie. Convinced he was going to die (who is more protective of their young than a mother bear?), he was surprised, shocked, then delighted when she left her two cubs in his care while she foraged for food nearby. Explanation: She had observed him taking care of orphaned cubs and releasing them in the wild and realized he would make a good babysitter.

This book changed the way people think about bears. It also created a whole new genre: authors who had not been to university, who had no academic credentials, could yet write compelling books about animals because they had first-hand experience with them. Revolutionary. You will come away with a whole new understanding of the… show more.

Like every reader who picks up this book, I was astounded to read about how Joe lived on intimate terms with a brood of young turkeys and learned to behave as they did. Best moment in the book: When he sees a rattlesnake and makes the call he learned in "Turkey" to say: "dangerous animals, stay alert."  They looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Reason: They recognized it was a baby snake, of no danger to them!

I am not even sure the author understood the enormity of what he did. He actually lived with wild turkeys (very different from the domesticated bird you, unfortunately, find on your plate for dinner) and could see things about them that nobody else had even suspected. I like to think it changed his life (e.g., he would never eat turkeys, or any bird, ever again) but I am not… show more.

The renowned primatologist sums up his views, which I share, about how similar to us are the great apes. The book begins with a story that nobody who reads it will ever forget. I will not spoil it for you, but read the first few pages and see if you come away with dry eyes.

Frans de Waal is rightly considered the world expert on primates. And reading this book will show you why and what he has learned. Actually, it’s not that hard to summarize: they are very similar to us. But if that is so, what are the implications? Here I think the author could have gone further. Because one thing I believe is undeniable: if they really are like us, what gives us the right to put them in zoos, or really in any kind of confinement, no matter how much we learn from doing so? I… show more.

Normally the word "spirituality" in a book title would have me running for the door. Dr. Pribac is so smart, so insightful, and so different in her way of approaching everything, that I was struck with wonder. Warning: A full-throated endorsement of veganism (to my delight).

Normally I do not like academic books about animals. But this book is an exception. The author is different than ordinary academics. For one thing, she really adores her subject. For another, she writes with heart. She is also whip-smart, so just about every sentence is worth reading twice or even three times. I truly believe she will revolutionize the field with her next books. Anyone interested in animals should keep an eye on for this author.  

I love the perspective of a philosopher on the profound love between a wolf and a man.

It includes the funny details about what it’s like to live with a destructive wolf in a home! The author’s lessons about love, death, and the meaning of life resonated with me. I love that they taught each other, and they respected each other.

This book opened my eyes as to how intelligent and communicative an owl could be with the biologist who adopted him as an injured baby.

The author’s way of describing their developing relationship and the challenge of building trust creates a new understanding of what it means to be patient with another being from another species. They ultimately save each other when the biologist falls ill, and the remarkable nature of the love between bird and woman changed my perspective forever; I will always love this book.

This book parallels my own journey of leaving a spiritual group, which is no doubt why this memoir is so precious to me. I’ve probably read this book six times. The author writes with confidence, humility, and humor that I find both deeply touching and inspirational.

Beck grew up in a family where her father was an apologist for the Latter Day Saints (Mormons). Her personal reckoning with that religion and her journey to finding her own version of faith is one that everyone with an interest in the human experience will be able to relate to.

The curiosities we have about life can be deeply mysterious, and I’ve learned to love that about it. So, it seems, has Jane Christmas; her memoir recounts her exploration of the possibility of living a cloistered life. She feels compelled to take this journey and is willing to follow her instincts even if they lead to some unusual places.

I loved that this writer and human were open to exploring a deeply spiritual existence and then sharing what that experience was like. It’s not every day we get to go behind the scenes on what may be one of the most personal journeys of a human life.

Grief and loss will touch us all; there’s no escaping it. How we deal with those experiences can inform how we live the rest of our lives. After my own experience of tremendous loss and resultant grief, I turned to books like this one to understand what I was going through. Author Neil Peart, from the Canadian band Rush, encounters losses no one should ever have to experience.

He deals with that by taking to the road on his motorcycle. I didn’t choose to deal with grief that way, but I deeply appreciate Peart’s honesty and vulnerability in this memoir about his epic journey around North America and through the dark valleys of his grief.