Reviews
Before I realized Frans de Waal's connection to Mama's actual last hug, I sent the online video link to a large group of scientists saying, 'I believe it is possible to view this interaction and be changed forever.' Likewise, I believe that anyone reading this book will be changed forever. De Waal has spent so many decades watching intently and thinking deeply that he sees a planet that is deeper and more beautiful than almost anyone realizes. In these pages, you can acquire and share his beautiful, shockingly insightful view of life on Earth., Illuminating--and remarkably moving....De Waal's masterful work of evolutionary psychology will leave both fellow academics and intellectually curious layreaders with much food for thought., Another fascinating book from Frans de Waal. Once again, he makes us think long and hard about the true nature of animal emotions., After you've read Mama's Last Hug, it becomes obvious that animals have emotions. Learn how they resemble us in many ways., De Waal's eye-opening observations argue for better treatment and greater appreciation of animals, even as he ensures that you'll never look at them--or yourself--the same way again., I doubt that I've ever read a book as good as Mama's Last Hug: Animal and Human Emotions, because it presents in irrefutable scientific detail the very important fact that animals do have these emotions as well as the other mental features we once attributed only to people. Not only is the book exceedingly important, it's also fun to read, a real page-turner. I can't say enough good things about it except it's utterly splendid., I doubt that I've ever read a book as good as Mama's Last Hug, because it presents in irrefutable scientific detail the very important fact that animals do have these emotions as well as the other mental features we once attributed only to people. Not only is the book exceedingly important, it's also fun to read, a real page-turner. I can't say enough good things about it except it's utterly splendid., In Mama's Last Hug, Frans de Waal marshals his wealth of knowledge and experience, toggling expertly between rigorous science and captivating anecdote to explain animal behavior--humans included. While doing so, he rebukes the common conceit that we are necessarily better, or smarter, than our closest relatives., De Waal is a skilled storyteller, and his love for animals always shines through....[He] turns his years of research into a delightful and illuminating read for nonscientists, a book that will surely make readers want to grab someone's arm and exclaim, 'Listen to this!', A captivating and big-hearted book, full of compassion and brimming with insights about the lives of animals, including human ones., De Waal is a skilled storyteller, and his love for animals always shines through...[He] turns his years of research into a delightful and illuminating read for nonscientists, a book that will surely make readers want to grab someone's arm and exclaim, 'Listen to this!', Through colorful stories and riveting prose, de Waal firmly puts to rest the stubborn notion that humans alone in the animal kingdom experience a broad array of emotions....De Waal contributes immensely to an ethical sea change for animals., Frans de Waal is one of the most influential primatologists to ever walk the earth, changing the way we think of human nature by exploring its continuity with other species. He does this again in the wonderful Mama's Last Hug, an examination of the continuum between emotion in humans and other animals. This subject is rife with groundless speculation, ideology, and badly misplaced folk intuition, and de Waal ably navigates it with deep insight, showing the ways in which our emotional lives are shared with other primates. This is an important book, wise and accessible., After you've read Mama's Last Hug it becomes obvious that animals have emotions. Learn how they resemble us in many ways., An original thinker, [de Waal] seems to invite us to his front-row seats, sharing the popcorn as he gets us up to speed on the plot of how life works, through deeply affecting stories of primates and other animals, all dramas with great lessons for our own species., De Waal's conversational writing is at times moving, often funny and almost always eye-opening....It's hard to walk away from Mama's Last Hug without a deeper understanding of our fellow animals and our own emotions., Utterly splendid...I doubt that I've ever read a book as good...Not only is the book exceedingly important, it's also fun to read, a real page-turner., Game-changing....For too long, emotion has been cognitive researchers' third rail....But nothing could be more essential to understanding how people and animals behave. By examining emotions in both, this book puts these most vivid of mental experiences in evolutionary context, revealing how their richness, power and utility stretch across species and back into deep time....The book succeeds most brilliantly in the stories de Waal relates., Before I realized that Frans de Waal was connected to Mama, I sent the video of her last hug to a large group of scientists saying, 'I believe it is possible to view this interaction and be changed forever.' Likewise, I believe that anyone reading this book will be changed forever. De Waal has spent so many decades watching intently and thinking deeply that he sees a planet that is deeper and more beautiful than almost anyone realizes.
