Penguins Book

I've been reading quite widely across the various shelves of contemporary "animal studies," and I've yet to come across any reference to this little book, which is a shame. SOLITARY GOOSE is gorgeous, a heartfelt, intimate story that grapples with some of the major philosophical inquiries of animal studies in a thoughtful and precise way without ever losing its focus or its personal touch.

What causes us to notice animals? What assumptions do we make about them? How can we compassionately coexist with them? How can we tell our own stories about them in a way that acknowledges they have subjectivity we can't quite fully understand? Sydney Landon Plum beautifully and provocatively explores all these questions. At one point she talks about how a bird is a surprisingly weightless thing--big, substantial, embodied, yet somehow light enough to float on the air. Her book is a lot like that--profound, incisive, well-researched, comprehensive, and yet somehow able to be easily read within a single afternoon.