Our Symphony with Animals by Aysha Akhtar

She muses on those lessons learned in kindergarten that every woman must unlearn, like not having to hold the hand of the person you're waking next to (especially if he's a bad boyfriend) or needing to have milk, cookies, and a nap every day at 3:00 PM (which tends to sap one's energy not to mention what it does to one's waistline). In her latest collection of essays, she turns her attention to subjects like bondage, which she notes now seems to come in fifty shades of grey and has been renamed Spanx. Gina Barreca is fed up with women who lean in, but don't open their mouths.

“If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse” Our Symphony with Animals is the definitive account for why our relationships with animals matter. Humanity’s compassion for animals is the next step in our species’ moral evolution and a vital component of our own health.

In equal measure, the love and friendship we give to other species biologically reverberates back to us. She demonstrates how humans are neurologically designed to empathize with animals, and how violence against them goes against our nature. Through storytelling that is entertaining, profound, and touching, Akhtar reveals what happens when we both break and forge bonds with animals. Feeling abandoned by humanity, it was only when she met Sylvester, a dog who had also been abused, that she found strength for both of them. Against the backdrop of her inspiring story, Akhtar asks, what do we gain when we recognize our kinship with animals? She travels around the country to tell the stories of a varied cast of characters―including a former mobster, an industrial chicken farmer, a Marine veteran―and comes face to face with a serial killer. Deftly combining medicine, social history and personal experience, Our Symphony with Animals is the first book by a physician to show how deeply the well-being of humans and animals are entwined. Interwoven throughout is Akhtar’s own story of being a young girl who was bullied in school and sexually abused by her uncle. A leader in the fields of animal ethics and neurology, Dr. Aysha Akhtar examines the rich human-animal connection and how interspecies empathy enriches our well-being.

Our Symphony with Animals by Aysha Akhtar