In 2018,  we started a series called ‘Read With Me’ where we are sharing all most of what we’ve read each month in hopes you’ll follow suit and dust off that book you’ve been meaning to devour! Here are all the previous Read With Me posts.

There’s no denying that I’m on a non-fiction kick! It started with The Beast in the Garden, continued with The Soul of an Octopus, and there’s no end in sight as the two books I’m working on now are both non-fiction.

The Soul of an Octopus takes us into the intimate relationship that the author and other employees at the Boston Aquarium develop with the resident octopuses. In researching this book, Ms. Montgomery begins to make weekly trips from her home to the aquarium to visit the octopuses.

As you learn, the specific octopuses she visits change throughout the book due to a number of different circumstances. And through her writing, we learn about the unique personalities of these octopuses and of many others as she passes along stories told to her by scientists, divers, and other octopus enthusiasts.

It becomes clear early on in the book that octopuses are amazing creatures, and that we still have a lot to learn about them.

• We already know that octopuses are masters of disguise, but the more we study them, the more we understand that this is a learned ability and can vary greatly from one individual to the next.
• Octopuses have the ability to taste and pick up the faintest of chemical signals with the suckers along the length of their arms. They can identify individual humans based upon how the person “tastes”, and so, it’s believed that it’s likely that they can likely taste if a person’s emotions change. The book goes into detail on these points and so many others.
• Rather than one brain, octopuses have nine! A central brain and eight smaller brains in each of their arms. They seem to be extremely clever and can get bored in tanks with sparse environments. There are a number of stories about octopuses escaping their tanks, without bones, they’re able to squeeze through the smallest of holes. Sadly, these escapades don’t all end well.

I thought that this was a particularly great book for readers that enjoy learning about animals, but may not want the density of a typical scientific article. I think of it as the Discovery Channel version of book, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. This is non-fiction beach reading at its finest!

Sy Montgomery also has an octopus book for kids! Inky’s Amazing Escape is the true story about an octopus’ amazing escape from an aquarium in New Zealand.

Books I’m reading now :

The Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley

The Day the Earth Caved In by Joan Quigley

Winter World by Bernd Heinrich