You don't have to live with animals to be moved by stories about them, but those who do might especially appreciate these. For dog lovers there's Rescued: What Second-Chance Dogs Teach Us About Living With Purpose, Loving With Abandon, and Finding Joy in the Little Things, which does exactly what its subtitle promises but, be warned, will inspire any reader to immediately go out and adopt as many dogs as possible. (Check out a preview here.)

Ditto Eric O' Grey's Walking With Peety, the tearjerker true story of a man whose doctor recommends a shelter dog, Peety, when he's diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes — and how Eric and Peety go on to save each other's lives.



Total Cat Mojo by Jackson Galaxy is "the ultimate guide to life with your cat" but the life-long cat mom or dad will find it as valuable as the first-timer. It won't just teach you how to care for your cats — it will teach you how to understand them.

The Inner Life of Animals — Peter Wohlleben's follow-up to his charming The Hidden Life of Trees — is a delightful, fascinating look at the emotions exhibited by different breeds. Nate Blakeslee's American Wolf reads like a novel, following the life of O-Six, the legendary alpha female Yellowstone wolf.

And though Eileen Myles' Afterglow will especially resonate with a reader who knows what it's like to love a pet like family, this memoir is for anyone open to abstract, big-question thinking about consciousness, life, and whatever comes next. Myles' "dog memoir" — at its core, an autobiography about Myles and her beloved, late dog Rosie — is groundbreaking in its form and is most likely best for someone comfortable with experimental literature.

