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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A BOOK OF MAGIC, BEAUTY AND WONDER!, June 1, 2001
This review is from: Beauty in the Beasts: True Stories of Animals Who Choose to Do Good (Hardcover)
This book is one of my absolutely, all-time favourites books. I loved each and every page and to me the book will forever remain one of life's greatest treasures. It is one of the most sensitive and touching books ever written. For animal lovers around the world, "Beauty in the Beasts" will evoke wonder, awe, saddness, compassion, love and a bundle of other emotions all merged into one. Bring out the tissues before you begin; for all that it is a beautiful book, the tears will silently flow. The stories of each of these beautiful, magnificent animals will touch you to the centre of your soul and remain with you forever. Stories of courage, compassion, love, devotion and faith will leave you with the feeling that these intelligent beings are really no different from us. They love, feed, protect and nurture their families, they feel all the emotions that humans are capable of feeling, and they ask for so little in return. There is no price that could ever be too high for this memorable, extremely sensitive and deeply moving book. Buy one for every animal lover you know, and if you have a special animal companion of your own, love himher with all your heart....while he or she is still here to enjoy.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice stories, but not what it claims to be, February 11, 2004
I had high hopes for this book, but found it didn't live up to the book jacket. It claims to establish that animals choose to do good, and I expected some in depth stories about various animals. Instead, the author seems to include very very very short stories (some only one sentence long) about animals, largely gathered from correspondence she received in response to her first book, the Compassion of Animals. She spends time arguing that animals have feelings - first of all, I'm willing to bet most people who choose to read this book already agree with that, so she's preaching to the choir, and it gets patronizing and old fast. Secondly, as near as I can tell, she has no particular credentials or studies or background she is drawing from to make the statements she does. I wasn't looking for "proof," since I already agree with her outlook on animals, but all the same I was annoyed at her apparant belief that all that is necessary to "prove" something is to make an assertion and then point to a number of anecdotal stories to make her point. If you take the book for what it is, rather than what it purports to be, it's a nice, easy read - one filled with stories about animals which do good things. It's similar to sitting in a coffee shop listening to people talk about things they've seen or heard about animals, like "I heard of a dog once who saved someone from a fire by dragging them out of bed by an ankle!" In all seriousness, that's what most of the book contains, sentences or paragraphs of things the author has heard about animals or experienced. Every now and then one animals' story is covered in more depth, but not a lot of depth. She seems to be desperately trying to argue that animals have emotions and morals without doing it well - instead she should just tell the stories and say "Here are some nice animal stories about animals being kind to people and other animals; I think they demonstrate morality and experience emotion" and leave it at that, then tell the stories. Instead you have to endure what appear to be some very poor attempts to make this book into a serious work rather than a light read for animal lovers. All in all, still worthwhile, just go into it knowing what the book really is so you aren't disappointed. If you love animals, you'll probably still love all the stories and just skip the author's rants.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Heartfelt and Inspiring, June 8, 2001
This review is from: Beauty in the Beasts: True Stories of Animals Who Choose to Do Good (Hardcover)
I loved reading this intelligent, beautifully written book. Kristin von Kreisler takes the reader through eight important virtues: sensitivity, compassion, courage, loyalty, fortitude, cooperation, resourcefulness and generosity, all the while drawing on extensive research to demonstrate that animals are totally capable of choosing to act in ways that exemplify these virtues. She backs up her case with interviews with an astounding number of scientists, most of whom supported her ideas about "the beauty in the beasts" with their own research. Von Kreisler also describes meetings with other, less enlightened scientists who disparage animals, stating that what appears to be virtue on the part of animals is only self-interest in disguise. I can almost hear her standing up to these scientists with her own research and personal experience and making a very effective case. I would like to make one addition to the discussion. Yes, very often there is some possible advantage to the animal for acting in a virtuous way. In my opinion, that does not make the animal less virtuous! It simply demonstrates the wise and good provision of Mother Nature that when we do something for others, we also help ourselves. All life is, after all, ultimately one. Virtue, far from being only its own reward, rebounds to the benefit of all life. If animals realize this as much or more than we do, so much the better! Thank you, Kristin, for this lovely book.
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