How to Be a Living Thing, Mari Andrew
How to Be a Living Thing, Mari Andrew
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How to Be a Living Thing
Meditations on Intuitive Oysters, Hopeful Doves, and Being Human in the World

Author: Mari Andrew

Narrator: Mari Andrew

Unabridged: 6 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 07/15/2025

Synopsis

A luminous collection of essays exploring the lessons we can incorporate from the animal world in order to live more fully as humans

A shelter cat teaches us that our damaged parts, too, are worthy of love... a captive orca shows us that inconvenience and difficulties are the blessing of a full life... a gorilla teaches the universal language of grief... a group of oysters who prove that magic and science can and do coexist… 

In How to Be a Living Thing, Mari Andrew reflects on the ways animals mirror, challenge, and deepen our experiences as living creatures in the world. Through her personal stories and explorations into the inner world of other creatures, Mari illuminates the opportunities and wonders of being a living thing. Highly-sensitive horses, overly-cautious donkeys, and silly social rats are just a few of the animal teachers who offer us glimpses of the glories and shortcomings of humanity.

Heartwarming, funny, and insightful, How to Be a Living Thing reminds us that we are perfectly imperfect beings, capable of profound connection with each other and with all other species of the remarkable natural world that surrounds us.

About The Author

Mari Andrew is a writer, artist, and speaker based in New York City. She is the author of Am I There Yet? and My Inner Sky and writes the newsletter Out of the Blue on Substack.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Sue on May 29, 2025

What a lovely, timely, calming book. Mari Andrew has managed to write essays, using the animal world to lead us along the way. The author actually loves humans, which isn't always the case with animal lovers. Right now, we can all use a bit of calm, insightful thoughts...and this book gives us that.......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on May 24, 2025

This is one of the best, more poignant and significant books I’ve ever read. Mari Andrew looks at the animal world for inspiration on her daily life and shares those teachings. This is not my kind of read, I am a cynical Gen-Xer who loathes hearing about people’s feelings. But I’m also an inveterate......more

Goodreads review by Mallory on July 22, 2025

Truly stunning. I managed to get a signed copy on the day it came out at a reading in D.C. (Thank you, Mari!) It was clear from the Q&A alone that many view Mari as a sage as they asked her a wide variety of life questions with tears in their eyes. This book is so good it was almost a one-day read f......more

Goodreads review by Caitlin on July 24, 2025

I adore Mari Andrew but this was a mixed bag. I found 1/2 of it profound and 1/2 of it an uncomfortable and voyeur-ish exploiting of certain NYC populations à la Mark Cohen in RENT all those years ago.......more

Goodreads review by Pepper on July 20, 2025

Phenomenal! Just the sparkling bandaid my heart needed.......more

Quotes

"A beautiful book on bringing out the better angels of our nature. By carefully observing the animal kingdom, Mari Andrew brilliantly illuminates how we can get in closer touch with our humanity."
--Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Potential and Think Again, and host of the podcast Re:Thinking

"A balm and a resource for anyone feeling disconnected."
--Katherine May, author of Wintering and Enchantment

"Oh, what a sensitive soul and keen intuition Mari Andrew has! It's no surprise her thoughtful insights extend beyond humanity to the whole living world."
--Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink and Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives

Strewn with surprisingly luminous pearls of wisdom…. An engaging book that offers life tips many readers will find inspirational.
--Kirkus

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