Curl up with your pet — and a good book: 12 great new pet reads
For every cat lover there is a cat book lover; for every good doggo, a good dog story. Right now, there are pages and pages devoted to puppies and kitties and other critters too. Take a look for beautiful books, silly interludes and animal stories that will break your heart.
“The Animals Among Us: How Pets Make Us Human” by John Bradshaw (Basic Books, $28). For more than two decades, Bradshaw, a scientist, has been studying the human-animal bond. The book, which will be released in October, is his effort as a scientist and animal lover to answer the question, “Why keep pets?”
“Chancer: How One Good Boy Saved Another” by Donnie Kanter Winokur (Grand Harbor Press, $10.99 paper). This is a memoir of adoption — of two children and one dog. After Winokur and her husband learned that one of their children would face severe ongoing challenges, it put a tremendous strain on their family. Their service dog, a golden retriever named Chancer, arrived just in time to restore hope.
“The Dogist: Puppies” by Elias Weiss Friedman (Artisan, $24.95). Friedman travels the world photographing dogs as the Dogist, with 2.5 million Instagram followers. This book, which hits shelves in September, includes 800 puppies in its 300 pages of cuteness.
“Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home” by Nicole J. Georges (Mariner Books, $17.95 paper). Georges, an artist, adopted a half-dachshund, half-Shar-Pei when she was still in high school. This graphic memoir tells the tale of her dogged devotion through punk-rock youth and into adulthood.
“Happy Little Goats” by Soraya Hirth (Chronicle Books, $12.95). Adorable goat pictures and funny captions from Hirth’s farm in Australia, photos that haven’t been seen on her popular Instagram account, @itsagoatlife.
“Hero: Hurricane Rescue” by Jennifer Li Shotz (Alloy Entertainment, $17.99). The follow-up to her YA novel “Hero” sees the retired black Lab rescue dog back in action — with his human, Ben — when a hurricane leaves dogs and their people in danger. For ages 8-12.
“Inside Animal Hearts and Minds” by Belinda Recio (Skyhorse Publishing, $24.99). Photographs and amazing anecdotes — like the group of female humpback whales that meets up once a year to eat, sing and swim together — that show the emotional and intellectual side of animals.
“Laugh Out Loud: More Kitten Around” (Little Simon, $6.99 paper) Silly animal memes — with cats, dogs and a couple of monkeys — jump off the Internet and into the pages of this book for the age 5-7 set.
“Men & Dogs” by Marie-Eva Chopin and Alice Chaygneaud (TarcherPerigee, $15). From the creators of the popular French blog and book “Men & Cats” comes this follow-up, which pairs photos of strikingly handsome dogs with men in the same poses: toweling off, staring soulfully and lolling in the grass.
“Philomena’s New Glasses” by Brenna Maloney (Viking, $16.99). In this photo picture book for kids ages 2 and up, Philomena the guinea pig and her sisters shop for glasses, purses and just the right dress.
“The Right Side” by Spencer Quinn (Atria, $26). Known for the Chet and Bernie (dog and private detective) mystery series, Quinn takes a new turn in this novel of a wounded female veteran of the war in Afghanistan who, returning home, takes on the task of finding a missing girl, accompanied by a lost, damaged dog.
“William Wegman: Being Human” by William Wegman and William A. Ewing (Chronicle Books, $24.95 paper). Coming in October, this book has more than 300 photographs, some never before seen, by the legendary photographer who looked at his Weimaraner dogs and saw amazingly expressive, artistic creatures.
Pet videos
In goat yoga, the point isn't to sweat. It's to have a baby goat climb on your shoulders during your plank
Pearl the tortoise
Hanging out with Instagram's famous cats Nala, Coffee and Luna
Poolside with Kaley Cuoco, Norman, Shirley, Rose and friends
Watch a pet therapy dog at work
Visit the Pug Nation Rescue
Visiting the dog beach with Shari Sandberg
Sign up for our L.A. Times Plants newsletter
At the start of each month, get a roundup of upcoming plant-related activities and events in Southern California, along with links to tips and articles you may have missed.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
