310: Books about Animals
- unabridgedpod
- 20 minutes ago
- 19 min read
Have you ever been surprised by how powerful a story about an animal can be?
In this episode, we’re sharing book recommendations for the “books about animals” category of our 2026 Reading Challenge.
We start with a quick bookish check-in: Ashley is reading Pugs and Kisses by Farrah Rochon (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Jen is listening to With Love from Harlem by ReShonda Tate (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). Then we each share a featured recommendation: Ashley highlights Shelby
Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Jen recommends The Tusk That Did the Damage by Tania James (Bookshop.org), two very different but equally compelling stories where animals play a central role.
We wrap up with a Lit Chat about books that have inspired us in real life.
Whether you’re checking off a challenge category or just looking for a great read, we hope you’ll join us for the conversation!
Bookish Check-in
Main Discussion
Mentioned in Episode
Our interview with author Farrah Rochon: https://www.unabridgedpod.com/post/143-farrahrochon-theboyfriendproject
Unabridged Favorites / Lit Chat Game
Listen in to hear our responses to today’s lit chat game question.
(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)
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Full Transcript for Episode
[00:00:00] Ashley: Welcome to the Unabridged Podcast. I'm Ashley,
[00:00:05] Jen: And this is Jen.
[00:00:06] Ashley: Join us for bookish episodes and check out our website under bridgepod.com, where you can find lots of new bookish content to grow your TBR.
[00:00:13] Jen: Sign up for our newsletter to find out more about online book discussions and upcoming events.
[00:00:18] Find us on Patreon for extra Unabridged content. Join us on Instagram and Facebook @unabridgedpod and message us there or see our website to get plugged into the Unabridged community. You want opinions about books? We've got 'em.
[00:00:35] Hi everyone, and welcome to Unabridged. This is episode 310, books about animals. This is one of the categories in our Unabridged podcast Reading Challenge, or it could just be some fun book recommendations. Before we get started with that discussion, we're gonna do our bookish check-in. Ashley, what are you reading?
[00:00:52] Ashley: One of the things I'm reading right now is Farrah Rochon's Pugs and Kisses. I am loving this one, and in fact, this would work for this category as well, um, because there are dogs at the center of this story. But this is a really sweet one about veterinarian Evie Williams. First of all, I'm not gonna spoil the opening scene, but the opening scene, I think this is something Rochon does really well.
[00:01:16] The opening scene is just shocking and kind of horrific, but in a funny way, sort of, in the way that terrible things are also kind of funny. That happens right at the beginning. So there's this big drama right at the beginning of the story, and from there, things unfold.
[00:01:30] But that event precipitated some changes in her life that, you know, so things are kind of shaken up. And so she is trying to figure out some job things, after that. And so she is a vet, but she's also like the place that she's been working, she's thinking about leaving because of the big drama that happens at the beginning.
[00:01:46] In the midst of that goes back to this place that she had volunteered in the past, but hadn't been to in a long time. When she gets there to volunteer, she runs into Bryson Mitchell, who is somebody who has wound up being this nationally or internationally recognized vet, a surgeon.
[00:02:06] When they had met each other, it was back at the volunteering years ago. It was like eight years ago or something. They had been volunteering together, but he had been away. He does all these speaking gigs and everything. So he had been gone for a long time. They're in New Orleans. He'd been gone for a long time, and so she's like, shocked to see him, but when they parted, things had not parted well.
[00:02:23] And so she's quite ruffled to see him in this clinic. Well, it becomes apparent very quickly that the clinic where they had been volunteering is having a lot of trouble, and one of the things is that the program that they had volunteered with has fallen apart. A lot of the support that was coming in has collapsed.
[00:02:43] And so they're starting to discover both of them that, this place that they really both feel indebted to because it really helped them become vets, is having a lot of trouble. So things kind of evolve from there, but I mean, I am loving it. Lots of puppy love in this story and also second-chanceromance vibes, and so we'll see what happens.
[00:03:01] But yeah, so far, so good and a lot of fun. And again, it's Farrah Rochon's Pugs and Kisses.
[00:03:07] Jen: Oh, that sounds so good. I love Rochon's work. I just feel like her romances never let me down. They're always just such a nice, not always easy, but yeah, just such a happy, happy book to pick up.
[00:03:21] Ashley: Yeah, really fun. And I didn't realize this one is part of a series. It's Doggone Delightful is the name of the series. This is number two. So I will go back, but I think it does not, I don't feel like I'm lost or anything. I imagine it's like, you know, touching characters, but very different storylines for each one.
[00:03:39] So I did not read book one, but I'm enjoying book two.
[00:03:42] Jen: Do you remember when we interviewed her and her little dog? So I'm like, this totally makes sense.
[00:03:47] Ashley: Oh, yes. I'll have to link to that. Yeah, we did get to talk to Farrah Rochon years ago, and she was lovely, a nd I forgot about her dog. That's so sweet. So yeah. What about you, Jen? What are you reading?
[00:03:59] Jen: I am in the middle of ReShonda Tate's With Love from Harlem. I am listening to this one, and it is great so far. It is historical fiction. So it is about a woman named Hazel Scott who lived in Harlem and was a renowned kind of pianist and jazz prodigy who made her way into a career playing the nightclub jazz club circuit. So Billie Holiday really took her under her wing and helped her to get her start and pushed her toward greater fame.
[00:04:33] And she is now an adult, and her focus is really on her career. She is black, so there are some barriers that she's facing, because it's really amenable to black musicians. Hazel has become quite famous, and she's performing one night, and she ends up meeting this politician, Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
[00:04:56] Who just sort of sweeps her off her feet. He is married, and so she does try to resist a pull toward him for a little while. She does not resist overly hard, and they begin having an affair,ir and I guess this is a slight spoiler, but not really. It's in the synopsis, so I'm just gonna go ahead and say they do end up getting married, and he is very pulled to civil rights issues as Hazel is.
[00:05:25] She had taken some stands to protect other black performers and to make sure that they were taken care of. She ended up doing a film at one point, and because of one of her stands that she took, other people are treated better than they would otherwise have been. So it's a cause she believes in, but it also becomes very clear, probably clear to the reader earlier than it is to her, that Adam expects her to sacrifice her career to support his, and he's really only interested in her career.
[00:05:58] As a way to further his own goals and ambition,s and to make use of her fame. So I'm doing this as a buddy read, and we're midway through the book, so that is where we left off, and I have a sense of dread. I have resisted Googling her because. I wanna know what the real story is, but I also assume that that is going to spoil things about her career, and why I had never heard of her before, even though she is pretty well-connected.
[00:06:23] So James Baldwin is in the book, Miles Davis is in the book, Billie Holiday, who I mentioned earlier. So she's definitely touching the lives of all of these names that I've heard of all of these people that I've heard of, and yet I'd never heard of her. So, we'll see what happens once I finish the book.
[00:06:39] I'm gonna hop on Google and find out. I'm assuming she actually knew all of these people. It seems to be very well researched, and Harlem of 1943, that's when it starts, is very well drawn out. So I'm thinking Tate has done a lot of research. So that is ReShonda Tate's With Love from Harlem.
[00:06:59] Ashley: Oh wow. That sounds great, Jen. And yes, I haven't heard of her either, so I think it's interesting to learn whose story endures and not, and I love it when we get books like this that uncover someone who's gotten missed over time.
[00:07:12] Jen: Yeah, I'll be really interested to see how the second half goes. So, alright, well, we are going to switch to our main discussion. Each of us is going to recommend a book about an animal that, if you're participating in the challenge, could help you to meet that category. So, Ashley, what would you like to recommend?
[00:07:27] Ashley: So I wanted to share Shelby Van Pelt's, Remarkably Bright Creatures. I hesitated a little bit to pick this one because I worry that everyone who's listening might have read it, but I also think it is a great choice for this category, and if you have missed it, I wanted to share it. What makes this so fascinating as a story is that there is an octopus Marcellus. Who has a narrative voice in the story, and I think that piece is just brilliant and really fascinating. Is so unique that it was really why it came to mind for me for this category, because there are lots of books that I have read that involve animals or animals and integral part, and I've read ones where, lik,e a dog has a perspective before, but I think seeing a creature like an octopus who we know that octopi are.
[00:08:22] Brilliant creatures, and yet we also don't understand a lot about them. And so I think seeing someone take that and what we know about them and then run with it in a really interesting way is like really cool. So in this. We have Tova. And Tova is an older woman who has had a lot of loss in her life. And she works at the aquarium where Marcellus is, and she cleans at night. And the first thing that we kind of discover is that Marcellus is prone to escaping his container. And the problem with that, of course, is that octopi can be without water for a period of time.
[00:09:00] So like, they can actually get out of their containment if they're in aquariums. But of course, if he does that for very long, he's going to die, and so she will find him in all these places where he has gotten sort of stuck, and he is running out of oxygen, and then she will rescue him and get him back into the salt water where he needs to be to continue to live.
[00:09:22] And so through that arrangement, Tova and Marcellus developed this sort of understanding of each other. From there, the story really unfolds. But again, it's centered on grief. It's centered on Tova, who has carried grief. She lost her son many years prior, Eric. And that loss she has never healed from.
[00:09:44] And of course it stays with you, but it also has been like unprocessed in a lot of ways. And it is still not fully understood at this point in this story. And then also, she lost her husband, more recently, and that was where she started working at the aquarium. And so she has all of this grief that she is carrying, and then is navigating some changes that are coming in her life as well. And from there, there is an entire. Mystery kind of, I would say that unfolds, and it's a mystery about what happened with her son. It's a mystery about who our family is. And it is a mystery that also shows Marcellus' ability to understand the world around him in a way that is different than like human understanding and
[00:10:33] It shows his desire and motivation to solve this mystery for Tova, whom he has come to really care for and who he wants to help. And so it is just a brilliant story. It's sweet. I think that at the core, it is really about loss. It is about trying to heal. I mean, it's about processing in a lot of ways. It's about looking back and then finding a way forward by finally dealing with what's in the past. And so I just loved it. I don't wanna spoil anything. So I think there's a lot of layers that I'm not even bigge, like there's other characters involved that I think are really important to the story, but I think a lot of the joy for the reader is seeing all of it unfold and watching how at the center, there's this really tender and unusual relationship between an octopus and a person.
[00:11:25] And then like from there, all these ripples. Happen that are just really fascinating and really beautiful, and so again, that is Shelby Van Pelt's, Remarkably Bright Creatures. And if you have not had the pleasure of reading this, it is delightful. It is powerful, and I would highly recommend it. And again, I think it's a great one for this category because it's just so interesting.
[00:11:48] Of course, there is a lot of literary liberty taken with what Marcellus might be thinking and feeling, all of that, but it does make for such a rich and interesting story.
[00:11:58] Jen: Oh, I love that book so much. And I will say the audio is such a great experience because Michael Urie, who is an actor, if you're familiar with him, you're probably picturing him right now, reads Marcellus, and he, I think, captures his voice absolutely perfectly. So that's a really fun book on audio.
[00:12:17] Ashley: Oh, fun. I read that one on my Kindle, so that's good to know. I was just thinking when I was looking over it this morning, it's been a couple of years since I read this one, and I was like, " Oh, I should reread it. So yeah, maybe I'll listen to audio this time.
[00:12:27] Jen: Yeah. Oh, I think you would love it. Yeah, it's really
[00:12:29] Ashley: Very cool. What's your recommendation, Jen?
[00:12:32] Jen: So I'm recommending Tania James' is The Tusk That Did The Damage. And structurally, it's actually kind of like Remarkably Bright Creatures. This one alternates between different points of view. This book has three points of view. So one of them is the elephant who has many names, but the one that he's known by through most of the book is the Grave Digger, and then there is the poacher and the filmmaker.
[00:12:59] So it is set in South India, and this is an area where there is a flourishing. The poaching and smuggling industry for elephant ivory.
[00:13:14] And there are conservation efforts in play that you know, are political in some way, and so they are subject to some of the same manipulation and some of the same problems that many political efforts are. And what you see through these three different perspectives is it's kind of the complicated nature of this industry, but also the personal toll that it can take on people, and on these animals.
[00:13:40] So the Grave Digger was with his mother and his sister and had this wonderful flourishing life until his mother was killed, and then he was taken by a group of people who. Basically, rent out elephants for different things, for pulling carts, for transporting things,s just because people want to ride an elephant.
[00:14:04] And so there is one man who works for this group who really understands him and really understands elephants and what they need. And though it does not make up for the grief that the Grave Digger feels, he is at least well taken care of and feels a connection with this man. We shift over to the poacher, who is a teenager from a local village who has big dreams of going to college and making a difference for his family.
[00:14:36] But a series of tragedies within his family mean that he loses that opportunity, his older brother is a poacher and has been to prison because he was caught and the older brother has always been the impulsive one, and so the whole family is constantly just trying to keep him out of trouble and to give him the support that he needs so that he can make better choices.
[00:15:01] So the younger brother, who is labeled the poache,r is pulled into his older brother's orbit. Partly because he's trying to care for him, and he has to be around him to try to make a difference. The filmmaker is from America, and she and this guy she was in film school with have decided that they want to come and do a documentary about
[00:15:27] the ivory trade about the elephants, just to see, you know what everything is happening. So they talk to local officials. They talk to local veterinarians, and they are trying to film elephants to show what is happening. And she has very particular ideas about everything that she wants to show, but they aren't always.
[00:15:48] matching up with what her partner wants to show. And so she is constantly struggling to tell the best story and to hone in on the elephant stories in a way that will show kind of their complexity. like Marcellus and Remarkably Bright Creatures, they're very intelligent animals,s and in some ways that makes them harder to control because they're not just going to do, of course, they're huge, but also they're not just going to do what they're told to do, and
[00:16:16] There are periods of time when they are reacting because of hormones and because of emotions. It's called the must. I think you said it. I read this one, so I'm not sure about that pronunciation, but when they just sort of go wild, the trainer who works with the Grave Digger is aware of this and puts structures into place, but for other animals that don't have people who understand them as well, that doesn't happen. And so basically, you've set up this sort of inevitable conflict. We know the grave digger got his name for a reason. We know the animals can hurt other people. We know that poaching is a really big part of society, and so inevitably these three characters come into contact. I will say I thought I had figured out how everything was going to match up, and it did not match my expectations, which made me happy.
[00:17:05] So. I think it's a really strong novel. In addition, I think, to just a really great illuminating story of something that's still happening. And so I thought it was really well researched, but also a really captivating narrative. So that is Tania James', The Tusk that Did The Damage
[00:17:25] Ashley: Wow. I hadn't heard of that, Jen. It sounds really good.
[00:17:28] Jen: I forgot where I first saw it, and I picked it up on a Kindle deal, and I've had it on my Kindle forever, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to read it, and fortunately, it worked out really well. I really enjoyed it. It's devastating in parts, but I think it's really well told.
[00:17:43] Ashley: Yeah, that sounds really interesting. And I do think, I didn't say about Marcellus, but it is very much about Remarkably Bright Creatures, also. Grappling with what it means when humans interact with
[00:17:54] the natural world and what those parameters should look like. And when we first meet Marcellus, he's definitely counting days in his captivity.
[00:18:02] So there is this idea of how he very much feels imprisoned. And again, of course, that is a personification of an animal's perspective, but we also have evidence that. You know, a lot of animals do not like to be in captivity, and so there is that element that is questioning what that relationship should look like. That's interesting.
[00:18:22] Jen: Yeah. With this one, there are certain smells that the Grave Digger associates with his mother's murder. And so you see the way that his elephants have good memories. I know that's a cliche, but it's also true, and you see the way that it's a trauma response when he smells something related to that comes back, and then the way he reacts emotionally.
[00:18:46] You know, as people do as well. But then, of course, when you're a gigantic elephant, you can do a lot of damage. So anyway, yeah, it was really, it was a great read. I enjoyed it.
[00:18:57] All right, so we're going to round out today's episode with our Lit Chat game. Today's question, Ashley, is have you ever done something inspired by a book? What made you decide to do it? Did it live up to your expectations?
[00:19:11] Ashley: That is a great question. One that comes up for me, this was a favorite of mine the year that I read it.
[00:19:16] A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing, and this one. I think it just really helped me see the approach toward what can be very overwhelming, as far as chores and like household management, in a different light. And I think it really had an impact on me in the sense of like. I just took a lot away from it, about like, there's nothing morally attached to cleaning.
[00:19:43] And I think I hadn't really realized how much, particularly women,n I think are like, deeply conditioned that if we're not good at it, then like that's shameful ad, and that there's some kind of right and wrong involved. And she really dispels all of that and just gives really practical approaches. There's like a whole section about ode to baskets. Um, and it's like baskets are your best friend. You know what I mean? A lot of times, people who are talking about house organization might say, don't get any more baskets. It's just making more mess. But you know, her approach is very much not like how to be perfect, but instead how to live your real life, and also find a way to do these things that have to be done all the time.
[00:20:20] And she talks a lot about like. You know, if we reset every day, then like the resetting is helping your future self, and you're gonna be grateful the next day that you've done this, and this. There were some parts that I felt didn't apply, but I also thought that just this entire attitude really shifted the way I saw household management, especially post having kids,s and like my kids were pretty small still when I was reading this.
[00:20:43] And I'm trying to figure out not just my own management of stuff, but also like. How to help them develop good habits around that. And so I really love that.
[00:20:51] And the reason it came to my mind is that I, right now, I'm listening to K.C. Davis's new book, Who Deserves Your Love, How To Create Boundaries To Start, strengthen, Or End Any relationship. And again, a very different topic, but a very similar approach of just practical de-stigmatizing, getting away from morally right and wrong.
[00:21:12] but instead just saying like, okay, this is how relationships work, and these are things you can do within those confines to like, make things work. So yeah, I would say yes, I have implemented things, and yes, they have been helpful. So maybe that's a weird choice, but that's what came to mind.
[00:21:26] Jen: No, I think that sounds great. I remember when you talked about that the first time. I guess in that post on the blog, adding it to my list, but you know, my list is long, so maybe I need to like circle it back up to the top.
[00:21:39] Ashley: There you go. I mean, again, I listened to both. And I feel like the audiobook accommodates it being an audiobook. So, you know, there's like a if this is relevant, then great, and if not, skip ahead to, blah, blah, blah. You know, so it's very accessible, and they're short.
[00:21:53] But yeah, I just like her, I like her approach, and I think she's got some great tips. What about you, Jen? What's, what is your thought on this?
[00:21:59] Jen: So the one that pops into my head is also nonfiction. It is Shonda Rhimes who says, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person. And I am a risk-averse person. Change is really challenging for me, and I read this book at a time when a career opportunity opened up for me, and normally I would not have taken it, but because I was reading this book and because of my good friends like Ashley, I ended up taking it, and it turned out to be a really positive change.
[00:22:32] I was getting pretty burned out at my current position, and I just kept getting pulled back into these patterns, and I needed to make a definitive change to make my work-life balance, while never, ever perfect. And so, yeah, I think that Year Of Yes is just about embracing opportunities that come your way.
[00:22:51] And while you certainly still have to consider their potential negative ramifications, it is worth it to. To say yes and to see what happens. And Rhimes talks about some really big choices she makes, but she also talks about little choices. Like she's on her way to, I think, an award show, and one of her children asks her to play with her and
[00:23:14] she said, normally I would say no because I was busy and I was on the way and I was in my big, fancy clothes. But she said yes. And she said it didn't have to be yes for the rest of the evening, but that small yeses make a difference too. And so I just thought her approach took on those big yeses, but also small yeses that sometimes we don't make time for.
[00:23:32] So. Yeah, I really enjoyed that one. I listened to that one as well, which she reads, and that, of course, she's such a dynamic person, and so it was a great reading experience. So that is what Shonda Rhimes says, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person.
[00:23:47] Ashley: I love that, and I love that book.
[00:23:49] Jen: Yeah. It's such a good one.
[00:23:50] All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening. We hope that the Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge is going well for you. If you wanna find out more, you can look at our website, unabridgepod.com, and we'll talk to you soon.
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