Why am I passionate about this?

When I first visited Antarctica, I not only fell in love with penguins but saw firsthand how high the stakes are regarding climate change—not only for humans but especially for animals, who are suffering horribly due to our actions. Being in Antarctica, the most rapidly warming place on earth, highlighted how important it is to tackle climate change, which includes protecting animals. When we lose one species, the entire ecosystem changes. I’ve embraced protecting domestic animals as well, from companion animals to farmed animals, having learned just how much human and non-human animals have in common—so much more than you’d think! And I love reading and writing about the ways in which we’re all connected.


I wrote

Book cover of My Last Continent

What is my book about?

It is only at the end of the world—among the glacial mountains and icy waters of Antarctica—where Deb Gardner and…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Once There Were Wolves

Midge Raymond Why did I love this book?

I’ve been a fan of Australian author Charlotte McConaghy since reading her first novel, Migrations—and Once There Were Wolves is just as beautifully written and page-turning, with the same reverence for nature and its creatures. The novel is about biologist Inti Flynn, who leads a team in Scotland to reintroduce gray wolves to the Highlands, bringing along her identical twin, Aggie. Like the wolves, Inti and Aggie are closely bonded, instinctually and fiercely protective of each other. Aggie has suffered a trauma, and Inti herself lives with a condition called “mirror-touch synesthesia,” in which her brain causes her body to viscerally feel what she witnesses happening to any sentient being, human or animal. With these unforgettable characters, including the wolf families, Once There Were Wolves is sure to inspire readers to protect what we’re in danger of losing.

By Charlotte McConaghy,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Once There Were Wolves as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A wild and gripping novel about one woman's quest to reintroduce wolves to the Scottish Highlands at any cost.

Inti Flynn arrives in the Scottish Highlands with fourteen grey wolves, a traumatised sister and fierce tenacity.

As a biologist, she knows the animals are the best hope for rewilding the ruined landscape and she cares little for local opposition. As a sister, she hopes the remote project will offer her twin, Aggie, a chance to heal after the horrific events that drove them both out of Alaska.

But violence dogs their footsteps and one night Inti stumbles over the body…


Book cover of Three Ways to Disappear

Midge Raymond Why did I love this book?

Katy Yocom’s Three Ways to Disappear won the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature and was named a Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite—well-deserved recognition for this gorgeous debut novel. Three Ways to Disappear reveals the plight of the endangered Bengal tigers through the stories of two sisters who come together years after a family tragedy changes their lives—journalist Sarah, in India to help preserve the tigers, and Quinn, in Kentucky, dealing with family issues. The novel shows the complicated balance of tiger conservation among humans who themselves are struggling, and portrays the complexities of family bonds as well as the immense challenges facing the natural world. Both the human and tiger characters are beautifully rendered, empathetic, and unforgettable.

By Katy Yocom,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Three Ways to Disappear as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite Winner of the First Horizon Award and the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature
Leaving behind a nomadic and dangerous career as a journalist, Sarah DeVaughan returns to India, the country of her childhood and a place of unspeakable family tragedy, to help preserve the endangered Bengal tigers. Meanwhile, at home in Kentucky, her sister, Quinn--also deeply scarred by the past and herself a keeper of secrets--tries to support her sister, even as she fears that India will be Sarah's undoing.
As Sarah faces challenges in her new job--made complicated by complex local…


Book cover of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Midge Raymond Why did I love this book?

Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (published in the English language in 2019) is unique, atmospheric, and impossible to put down. The novel is narrated by Janina, a wonderfully quirky, smart, independent woman who stands up for animals in a small, remote Polish town of hunters and poachers. Most in the town don’t connect with her compassion for animals (to say the least), and when local hunters begin turning up dead, officials brush Janina off as she attempts to help them solve the crimes. This slender book is a treasure—a warm, witty, page-turning literary mystery with an incredibly satisfying ending.

By Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (translator),

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk returns with a subversive, entertaining noir novel. In a remote Polish village, Janina Duszejko, an eccentric woman in her sixties, recounts the events surrounding the disappearance of her two dogs. She is reclusive, preferring the company of animals to people; she's unconventional, believing in the stars; and she is fond of the poetry of William Blake, from whose work the title of the book is taken. When members of a local hunting club are found murdered, Duszejko becomes involved in the investigation. By…


Book cover of The Tourist Trail

Midge Raymond Why did I love this book?

The Tourist Trail is an eco-thriller featuring an unlikely but thoroughly entertaining cast of characters—among them a whale rescuer, a penguin researcher, an FBI agent, a computer tech, and an animal-rights activist—whose lives come together in the wild and dangerous waters of the Southern Ocean. All of these characters have secrets that are slowly revealed, and the alternating points of view pull readers toward a cinematic ending. The Tourist Trail is about endangered species and oceans at risk, but most of all, it’s about animals and the human heroes who devote their lives toward saving them—it’s not only an unputdownable mystery but a compassionate and heartfelt ode to our oceanic animals who need saving.

By John Yunker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Tourist Trail as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A literary thriller about endangered species in the world's most remote areas, and those who put their lives on the line to protect them.

Biologist Angela Haynes is accustomed to dark, lonely nights as one of the few humans at a penguin research station in Patagonia. She has grown used to the cries of penguins before dawn, to meager supplies and housing, to spending most of her days in one of the most remote regions on earth. What she isn't used to is strange men washing ashore, which happens one day on her watch.

The man won't tell her his…


Book cover of Barn 8

Midge Raymond Why did I love this book?

What I love about Barn 8 is that it focuses as much, if not more, on the animals as on their human rescuers. The novel’s portrayal of chickens—their history, heritage, tortured present, and imagined future—is a celebration of them as individual beings rather than merely egg makers (“Chickens gossip, summon, play, flirt, teach, warn, mourn, fight, praise, and promise”). And, along with the chicken characters—including the individual bird that inspired the rescue—the human characters are engaging and relatable, with their own complex stories. The myriad points of view (including interview-style chapters) keep the pages turning in a novel that is both edifying and inspiring.

By Deb Olin Unferth,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Barn 8 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One disaffected administrator, one disenchanted teenager, four hundred and twenty-one vegan extremists, sixty trucks, and nine hundred thousand grumpy layer hens awaiting liberation. In barns. Six barns. No, wait, seven. No, wait ...

Two auditors for the US egg industry conceive a plot to liberate an entire egg farm's worth of animals, with catastrophic results. This wildly inventive but utterly plausible novel about a heist of a very unusual kind swirls with a rich array of voices: a farmer's daughter, hundreds of activists, a forest ranger who stumbles upon forty thousand hens, and a security guard abandoned for years on…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of My Last Continent

What is my book about?

It is only at the end of the world—among the glacial mountains and icy waters of Antarctica—where Deb Gardner and Keller Sullivan feel at home. For the few weeks they spend each year studying penguins, Deb and Keller escape their separate lives and find solace in their work and in each other. As a new travel and research season begins, Deb prepares to play tour guide on the small expedition ship that ferries her to her research destinations—but Keller fails to appear on board. Then Deb’s ship receives an emergency signal from a ship that has hit desperate trouble in the ice-choked waters of the Southern Ocean—and among the crew of that sinking ship is Keller.

My Last Continent is a harrowing novel of love and loss in one of the most remote places on earth, a land of harsh beauty where even the smallest missteps have tragic consequences.

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Henderson House

By Caren Simpson McVicker,

Book cover of Henderson House

Caren Simpson McVicker Author Of Henderson House

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Optimist Community theater geek Sourdough baker Rescue dog mom

Caren's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

In May 1941, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, hums with talk of spring flowers, fishing derbies, and the growing war in Europe. And for the residents of a quiet neighborhood boarding house, the winds of change are blowing.

Self-proclaimed spinster, Bessie Blackwell, is the reluctant owner of a new pair of glasses. The landlady, Mrs. Henderson, senses that new tenant, Frank Davis, could throw Bessie's spinster status into question with his gentle eyes and ready smile. But the scar on his forehead and rumors of divorce speak of a troubled past. Bessie's sister, Florence, knows all about troubled pasts. In a desperate attempt…

Henderson House

By Caren Simpson McVicker,

What is this book about?

"Like a love song to my Oklahoma roots. Henderson House offers a sweet window into a past when lives and loves moved to the gentle rhythm of small-town cafes, front porch swings, and old two-lane highways." - Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

An enchanting boardinghouse tale of sisters, secrets, and later-in-life romance, Henderson House invites you to pull up a rocking chair and lose yourself in the heartaches and hopes of 1940s Oklahoma.

In May 1941, Bartlesville, Oklahoma, hums with talk of spring flowers, fishing derbies, and the growing war in Europe. And…


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Interested in sisters, endangered species, and wolves?

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Wolves 118 books