Customer Reviews

Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond (Merloyd Lawrence Books)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The evidence and arguments presented in places in this book are definitely worth being aware of, but there is a great deal of rambling and repetition. The book jacket mentions the author's "lack of formal scientific training," and the book is not really the work of a scholar. It reads much like a long newspaper or magazine article that throws together data from somewhat related scientific studies. The author does not spend much time acknowledging alternative explanations for complex phenomena, and the attribution of virtually all human mental well-being to oxytocin may be overdone. Nevertheless, the book is worth looking through, especially for anyone who does not have a pet and might be considering getting one. If you don't have a pet, the information here may be sufficient to convince you to get one, and if you have one you'll find here biological data confirming what you already know about how good your pet is for your mental health.

MADE FOR EACH OTHER is the most fascinating and important book I've read in a long time. Meg Olmert's thesis--that our natural bond with our fellow animals has a basis in our brain chemistry--explains a great deal, not only about our relationship with pets, livestock and wildlife but also about human evolution.
The book is a fun, fast read, too, studded with gems of facts: the Egyptians seem to have tamed hyenas and giraffes. Plants recognize other plants that are related to them, and refrain from competing with relatives. When foxes are bred for docility of temperament, within a few generations their markings begin to look like those of border collies. Wow!
I learned a great deal from this book, and much of it was very good news indeed: that our very biochemistry weds us, and our happiness, to the rest of animate creation.
--Sy Montgomery
author of The Good Good Pig
and other books

My wife and absolutely loved reading it and couldn't put it down. Best thing we've read since Michael Pollan's Botany of Desire! (a paradigm changing book about how plants have used US in their successful evolution). We zipped through Made for each other Sunday and Monday and were sorry at the end of it that there wasn't more to read. We tried to even read the footnotes. We're afraid we had to settle for your cover's quotes plus the acknowledgements and about the writer sections.

We found it very easy to read, enlightening, scholarly but not pedantic, believable but not full of excessive hype. We wish that more scientific theory and data were so readable. It's way better than those academic articles and scientific descriptions we usually plod through to find out what we want to know. Those articles reward us, but we wish they didn't make obfuscating the goal.

When my wife worked on Wall St, everyone tried to make financial data seem obtuse too. They like those smoke and mirror effects. It hides the very scant amount of clothes the emperor is wearing.

We love how Meg Olmert de-mystifies the mysterious!

This book is not a touchy-feely story of how much humans love their pets. No anecdotes about how Spot saved my life. Instead, this is a thoroughly researched, readable explanation of how humans evolved alongside of animals...watching them, then catching and using them, domesticating them. How our evolution was impacted by them. And how our biological systems are effected by them and vice versa. Completely compelling. I've given it as a gift to several friends with dogs.Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond (Merloyd Lawrence Books)

I have read a number of books on human/animal relationships, none of them match the scope and clarity of Olmert's MADE FOR EACHOTHER. The book's lighthearted cover art betrays it's vast contents. This is not a cutesy,nostalgic tribute to pets; this is a serious scholarly inquiry that breaks down the human/animal bond on a molecular level. This book also presents a fascinating history of the domestication of mammals. What you are in for is a engaging history that shows how oxytocin has shaped interspecies relationships. If you like science writers like E.O. Wilson, then you will be sure to appreciate Olmert's MADE FOR EACHOTHER.

I am an animal lover, have been around them most of my life -- cats, dogs, horses --and have found, during the rare periods when I didn't have at least one of the above, that my life was curiously empty and sort of gray. And now, I understand why. This is a compelling account of the history of animal/human interdependence, gracefully written, with lots of insights into both sides of the equation. Olmert writes very clearly, with plenty of detail, but is not forbiddingly technical. Lots and lots of insights, great stories -- just a wonderful book! It's a keeper!!

This book is a must read for animal lovers everywhere. It's helpful and interesting to know why we love our pets ... and our kids .... so much! I read it on my kindle and so was able to easily highlight interesting items, and found myself doing that often. Since becoming a kindle reader, that's how I judge how important I've found my latest read.

Meg Daley Olmert's book is by turns fascinating, funny, dazzling, thought-provoking. She's a wizard at combining scientific information with personal anecdotes with speculative history, and the book not only makes you feel smarter when you're done, but more human and more appreciative of the animal beings in your life. I've been touting this book to everyone I know who's a dog lover and who loves to read intelligent prose aimed at an intelligent audience. If you loved The Hidden Life of Dogs this is a must, taking that book's observations into new, exciting realms.

Meg Olmert's wise and witty account of human/animal bonding proves, once
and for all, that the dog at your feet or the cat on your lap is a key link to our civility. In a word, Made for Each Other is a triumph.


Drew Sparks
Calistoga, CA

It's not often that we find a book that combines hard science with readability and charm. Meg Daley Olmert deftly manages both in a book which teaches us the importance of the links that bind all living creatures. As we have participated in the evolution (and extinction) of animals, so have they participated in ours. The illustrations add to the charm. For example, one shows a dwelling made of mammoth tusks and bones. Canine paw prints lead into it.