Fall Back in Love with Reading: 14 Animal-Featuring Books this Autumn

I spend my days with animals, and I still love reading about them in the evenings. Fall is the perfect time for it: longer nights, a warm drink, and a dog snoring at your feet.

Here are fourteen animal books, one for each week of fall, from the week of September 22 through the week of December 22. You’ll find dog and cat stories, cozy fiction, true stories, family read-alouds and a handful of Post family favorites, ordered to follow the season. A professional warning: a few of these will make you cry. I’ve marked the tearjerkers and spaced them out so you never cry two weeks in a row.

September

Week of September 22: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Cozy fiction. A widow who cleans a small-town aquarium befriends Marcellus, a brilliant and very grumpy giant Pacific octopus who narrates some chapters himself.
Best for: Easing into fall with something warm and funny.

Week of September 29: Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz
True story. A dog cognition researcher explains how dogs actually experience the world, from what their noses tell them to how they read us. This is the one I’d hand to clients.
Best for: Owners who want to understand their pup better.

October

Week of October 6: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (tearjerker)
Post family favorite. Young Billy saves for two years to buy two coonhound pups and trains them in the Ozarks during autumn hunting season. The ending is famously emotional, and it earns every tear.
Best for: A nostalgic reread, or sharing with older kids.

Week of October 13: Dewey by Vicki Myron
For cat lovers. A small-town Iowa library finds a kitten in its book-return slot one freezing morning, and he becomes the heart of the whole town.
Best for: A feel-good true story after last week’s tissues.

Week of October 20: Marley & Me by John Grogan (tearjerker)
For dog lovers. This memoir follows a young family and their gloriously badly behaved Labrador. I’ve met a few Marleys in my exam room.
Best for: Anyone who has ever loved a dog who chewed the couch.

Week of October 27: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Post family favorite. Christopher, a brilliant 15-year-old who sees the world differently, sets out to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor’s poodle. What begins as a detective story becomes something much bigger about family and truth.
Best for: Halloween week, when a nighttime mystery feels just right.

November

Week of November 3: The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
Read it with your kids. Roz, a robot stranded on a remote island, learns to survive among the animals and becomes mother to an orphaned gosling. The story moves through the seasons, just as we are.
Best for: Reading aloud together, then watching the 2024 movie.

Week of November 10: H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
True story. After her father’s sudden death, Macdonald trains a goshawk named Mabel. This award-winning memoir weaves together grief, falconry and nature writing.
Best for: Quiet, reflective evenings as the days get shorter.

Week of November 17: The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (tearjerker)
For cat lovers. Nana, a sharp-tongued former stray, narrates a road trip across Japan with his devoted owner, Satoru. It’s funny, tender and quietly devastating.
Best for: Anyone who has ever been chosen by a cat.

Week of November 24: The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford
Read it with your kids. Two dogs and a Siamese cat cross the Canadian wilderness to get home to their family. It’s short, gripping and all about loyalty.
Best for: Thanksgiving week, when everyone is finding their way home.

December

Week of December 1: Watership Down by Richard Adams
Post family favorite. A band of rabbits flees danger to find a new home. Adams gives them their own language, myths and politics, and the result is a true epic.
Best for: Settling in with a big story as the weather turns.

Week of December 8: Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
Cozy fiction. Two Greek gods make a bet and give fifteen dogs at a Toronto veterinary clinic human intelligence. Naturally, the clinic setting caught my attention. The book won Canada’s Giller Prize.
Best for: Book clubs that like a good debate.

Week of December 15: The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (tearjerker)
For dog lovers. Enzo, a wise and funny dog, narrates the life of his owner Denny, an aspiring race car driver in Seattle, through love, loss and a painful family battle.
Best for: Readers who want to laugh and cry in the same chapter.

Week of December 22: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton
Post family favorite. Stuck in the English countryside during the pandemic lockdown, Dalton finds a tiny newborn hare alone on a path. She raises it while working hard to keep it wild, in a quiet, closely observed memoir about trust, patience and letting an animal stay true to its nature.
Best for: A gentle, tissue-free close to the season during the holidays.

A few reading tips

Try audiobooks: Remarkably Bright Creatures and The Art of Racing in the Rain make great company on fall walks with your dog. Check your local library, which likely has most of these in print, ebook and audio. And if a week gets away from you, no guilt. Your dog won’t judge, though your cat might.

The bottom line

Fourteen weeks, fourteen animals worth meeting, from an octopus and a goshawk to a road-tripping cat and a race-loving dog. Grab a blanket, call your dog (or cat) over and start reading.

What’s your favorite book featuring an animal? Tell us in the comments. We’re always looking for our next read.