From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals
by Jonathan Balcombe
Palgrave MacMillan (175 5th Ave., New York, NY 10010),
2010. 242 pages, hardcover. $27.00.

Jonathan Balcombe, in Second Nature: The Inner Lives of
Animals, wrote the book that the long forgotten Royal Dixon tried to
write in The Human Side of Animals 90 years earlier.
Structurally, Second Nature and The Human Side of Animals are
so similar as to seem to have been written from the same outline.
This may be because any examination of animal sensitivity,
intelligence, emotions, awareness, communication, sociability,
and “virtue” might logically progress from looking at how animals
perceive the world and each other, to how they use their perceptions.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2010:

Made for Each Other:
The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond
by Meg Daley Olmert
Da Capo Press (11 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142),
2010. 291 pages, paperback. $26.00.

Made for Each Other is densely packed with scientific facts
and theories about the biology of the animal-human bond. Hundreds of
citations back up or question the evolution of the human relationship
with species including dogs, baboons, and horses.
So many intricate details are thrown at the reader, however,
that the pacing is sluggish and the material is hard to digest all at
once. Chapter one, for example, discusses the work of nine
researchers, including E.O. Wilson, Elizabeth Lawrence, and Stephen
Kellert. Ensuing chapters follow a similar pattern, as Olmert
condenses lifetimes of study to make her points, centering on her
idea that there is an inherent chemical attraction among living
beings.

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