On the New York Times Book Review's Paperback Row
One of the New York Times Book Review's "17 Refreshing Books to Read This Summer"
"Her pace is quick, her touch is light, and through her wealth of research we can reach new heights of wonder."—New York Times Book Review
"Funny and fascinating, this book will change the way you see wildlife."—Bustle
"A surefire summer winner...even Cooke's simple facts are funny."—New York Times Book Review
"Endlessly fascinating."—Bill Bryson, author of A Walk in the Woods, A Short History of Nearly Everything, and In a Sunburned Country
"Lucy Cooke's modern bestiary is as well-informed as you'd expect from an Oxford zoologist. It's also downright funny."—Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, The Selfish Gene, and The Ancestor's Tale, and emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford
"Cooke, founder of the Sloth Appreciation Society, raises the profile of many poorly understood animals, revealing surprising, and often hilarious, truths that are much better than the fictions."—Scientific American
"[A] deeply researched, sassily written history of 'the biggest misconceptions, mistakes and myths we've concocted about the animal kingdom,' spread by figures from Aristotle to Walt Disney." —Nature
"Cooke's extensive travels, research and delightful sense of humor make The Truth about Animals a fascinating modern bestiary."—Seattle Times
"In the end, the history of zoology reveals as much about our human foibles as about the animals we study. And this book will leave readers more enlightened about both."—Science News
"Lucy Cooke's new book makes Playboy seem as tedious and tame as a phone book...In her delightful reading of natural history, [Cooke] is both scientist and standup comic...Trained as an academic, Cooke's writing style is anything but—rather, it's bawdy, irreverent, guiltless, sometimes locker-room-ish and comedic. She makes you feel she's having fun as she pounds out the words...The Truth About Animals is a great read and fascinating fun."—Winnipeg Free Press
"Lucy Cooke takes equal delight in natural oddities and in people's long struggles to understand them. Part history, part biology, and wholly entertaining, The Truth About Animals is a quirky and edifying romp."—Thor Hanson, author of Buzz, Feathers, and The Triumph of Seeds
"[An] intriguing and amusing survey of some unusual facets of animal behavior...Cooke puts scientific errors, some of them hilarious, into historical context."—Booklist
"[A] lighthearted but scientifically rigorous exploration...A pleasure for the budding naturalist in the family—or fans of Gerald Durrell and other animals."—Kirkus Reviews
"Readers keen on animals and natural history in general should find Cooke's discussion fascinating and educational."—Publishers Weekly
"Lucy Cooke's [The Truth About Animals] was a joy from beginning to end. Who could resist a writer who argues that penguins have been pulling the wool over our eyes for years, and that, far from being cute and gregarious, they are actually pathologically unpleasant necrophiliacs?"—The Guardian (UK)
"Each of Cooke's thirteen breezy yet fact-stuffed chapters traces the origins of a long-standing myth about a species or class of animal."—Times Literary Supplement (UK)
"The eclectic stories come thick and fast, with an equally varied human cast dedicated to uncovering the truth, scientifically or otherwise. Cooke illuminates and mickey-takes in equal measure, and the truth as she tells it is not only unexpected but often bizarre, bawdy and very, very funny. "—BBC Wildlife (UK)
"As surprising as it is diverse. Consummate natural history writing: illuminating, remarkable - and very, very funny."
—Alice Roberts, author of The Complete Human Body and The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being
"The rising star of natural history ... is she the new David Attenborough?"—The Times (UK)
"TOP AUTUMN BOOK PICKS: Lucy Cooke's fascinating book is full of mind-boggling stuff. Cooke takes much pleasure in throwing in all manner of amazing facts."—Reader's Digest (UK)
"A riot of facts....Cooke scores a series of goals with style and panache."—The Times (UK)
"Beautifully written, meticulously researched, with the science often couched in outrageous asides, this is a splendid read. In fact, I cannot remember when I last enjoyed a non-fiction work so much."—Daily Express (UK)
"Lucy Cooke unravels myths that will make you laugh out loud. Her knowledge of all things, furry, slimy and scaly is jaw-dropping."—The Sun (UK)
"BOOK OF THE WEEK: Highly amusing and enlightening new book [from] brilliant zoologist Lucy Cooke."—The Idler (UK)
2018-02-20
Charming forays into the world of natural history and the ways of animal behavior."Much of zoology is little more than educated guesswork," writes Cooke (A Little Bit of Sloth, 2013), a London-based filmmaker and former student of biologist Richard Dawkins. Thus, even in the recent past, well-meaning people could aver that eels spontaneously generate out of mud and hyenas change sexes at will, and we imagine today that animals lack consciousness or emotion. All of this, writes the author, traces back to our "habit of viewing the animal kingdom through our own, rather narrow, existence." Is the sloth lazy? Through that narrow lens, yes, but the sloth moves at a speed that evolution has suggested is most appropriate to it. Does the beaver gnaw off its testicles and hurl them at would-be attackers, stunning them so that it can escape? We laugh at the thought; however, as Cooke's lighthearted but scientifically rigorous exploration reveals, there is a biological basis for the myth, and it is instructive as to the nature of the "cognitive toolbox" the beaver employs. The cognitive and biological toolboxes of the animal kingdom are overstuffed and full of surprises—e.g., one reason we find vultures to be unpleasant is that they practice urohidrosis, "a scientific euphemism for crapping on your legs to keep cool." That's the kind of behavior that can get a bird a dodgy reputation, but the resulting ammoniac tang bespeaks a solution to a problem that definitely needed one. Along the way, Cooke touches on theories about bird migration (Aristotle conjectured that some species might transmute into others and thus disappear seasonally), the habit of some animals of dipping into fermented fruit for a little recreation, and our misguided efforts at species-driven animal conservation rather than the preservation of whole habitats.A pleasure for the budding naturalist in the family—or fans of Gerald Durrell and other animals.
