Check the Insider each Tuesday for your weekly dose of reading recommendation excitement!

This week’s review:

How to be a Good Creature | Sy Montgomery | 2018, 200 pages | Nonfiction

Author, naturalist and adventurer Sy Montgomery explores her relationships with a variety of animal friends in this “memoir in thirteen animals”. Readers will briefly meet Christopher, her charismatic 750-pound pet pig; Octavia, a fascinating giant Pacific octopus she befriended at the New England Aquarium; Clarabelle, a tarantula found in her lodgings in French Guiana; as well as others that she has bonded with during her worldwide adventures.

Montgomery focuses on the lessons about love, aging, compassion and human-animal bonds that these 13 friends have taught her. Montgomery’s adventures and scientific insights add to the memoir, making this a thoughtful and satisfying read.

Anyone familiar with Montgomery’s work will enjoy learning more about her life and the subjects of her other books. For anyone that hasn’t read her other books, this introduction will surely lead to reading more of her work.

Mat Bose, Assistant Library Director