Reviews and Endorsements For "Our Wild Calling"
“Louv deftly brings together cutting-edge science, longstanding wisdom and recent discoveries, along with wonder and humor, while never losing sight of the magic that’s possible when humans and nonhumans connect….This is a book that offers hope.”
—New York Times Book Review
“We need community with nature and communication with animals more than ever now that so many of us live in urban environments. Through fascinating stories of human-animal interaction, Richard Louv urges us to be open-minded about animals and reposition our species inside the natural world.”
—Frans de Waal, author of Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves
“Richard Louv has done it again. A remarkable book that will help everyone break away from their fixed gaze at the screens that dominate our lives and remember instead that we are animals in a world of animals.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
“These pages weave a wondrous tapestry in which we all are crucial threads. It’s a picture of our own creation, about a future we will share, a future we can strive to make worth living for.”
—Carl Safina, author of the New York Times bestseller Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
“I wish I had written this book! In this deep exploration, Louv celebrates our essential connections to animals—in the wild, in the city, in our dreams, in our hearts.”
—Jennifer S. Holland, author of the New York Times bestselling Unlikely Friendships series
“Not just a brilliant, wise, and eloquent book, but a powerful summons to reconnect with the life all around us. Reconnecting with animals is a remedy for much of what ails modern life including loneliness and boredom.”
—David W. Orr, Paul Sears Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Oberlin College
“Powerful. A must-read for everyone who is concerned with the ways in which human animals are becoming increasingly alienated from nonhuman animals, with devastating results for all involved.”
—Marc Bekoff, author of Rewilding Our Hearts
“The timing for Our Wild Calling could not be better. Louv suggests that humans who have strong relationships with animals help their own mental health as well as possibly saving life on earth. This book is incredibly important to our future on this planet.”
—Robert Bateman, artist, naturalist, and author of Robert Bateman’s Canada
“Richard Louv continues to connect all of us to nature through his new book ... A great read for all”
—Fran P. Mainella, 16th Director of the U.S. National Park Service
“A manifesto for a new way of living in the world, the book reveals a natural tapestry too often ignored.”
—Christian Science Monitor, 10 Best Books List
"Impassioned and compelling... A thoughtfully researched, poetically inspiring call to action that will resonate with a broad range of readers."
—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Louv writes of our need for immersion in nature and of how our interactions with animals can help us to save not only ourselves, but also the planet. In lyrical, sometimes mystical prose, he challenges our assumptions about how we relate to other species."
—Booklist, starred review
“(An) intriguing and poetic treatise... Thoughtful and hopeful, Louv's work is a stirring look at 'the blurred lines that have always existed between wild and domestic, human and other than human.'”
—Publishers Weekly
“Looking at scientific research from a variety of experts, this is a compelling call to reestablish ties with the animal world. Strongly recommended for anyone feeling overwhelmed or spiritually bereft in today's society.”
—Library Journal
“The author of the classic Last Child in the Woods returns with a howling-good new book about the scientific, moral, ethical and spiritual need for human-animal coexistence. (Hint: It will help the animals, too.)”
—EcoWatch
“This impassioned book is well-researched and written for a range of readers. In beautiful prose, Louv tells us that we need to love and care for nature and animals in order to save ourselves and our planet. This thoughtful book is packed with new knowledge and fresh perspectives. Louv removes the mystery from the relationship between the nature and human kind if there was any. Our Wild Calling is about all of us. It was never more needed than now. It is strongly recommended for all those who care for the planet and life.”
—The Washington Book Review
"Our Wild Calling is a thoughtful, calm, reasoned book, best read at a chapter-a-day pace, allowing time to think and digest what the author has presented."
—The Associated Press
" A persuasive, timely reminder that humans and non-humans are all in this thing together."
—The Independent
" A game-changer."
—Psychology Today
“What happens when a person starts to imagine her life within a network of emotional species; a world not centered around human goals or careers, but part of a tapestry of beings all going about their interconnected lives? What happens when one starts to think about the commute to work in terms of the impact it might have on the songbirds who might nest by the traffic light?….….'Our Wild Calling' makes one see the world differently; as a place more interconnected, personal, and full.”
—Christian Science Monitor
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