With a subject that ranges from the noxious to the infernal, it is a wonder that Girling's book manages to be compulsively readable and often hilarious, as well as important.

I believe this is one of the most important books of the year...highly fascinating, totally absorbing, compulsively readable.

A timely intervention for a human race hooked on throwing things away...Girling's sardonic humour makes unpalatable facts compelling prose.

Be scared. Be very scared. But be sure to read this book.

This deeply researched, heartfelt book will make you by turns depressed, angry and inspired to act.

[Wohlleben] neatly combines anecdotes and scientific evidence in his search for the answers to some basic questions, such as do animals feel things the way we do?... Wohlleben has no doubt that all animals have a rich inner life. By the end of this delightful, surprising book, most readers will be persuaded that he is right.

The tone is friendly and informal and the prose largely free of scientific jargon… Entertaining and thought-provoking

Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know what animals think? Here, Peter Wohlleben explores a range of bestial emotions we didn’t know existed… unveiling remarkable insights into their hidden lives in the process

A fascinating read

Peter Wohlleben’s convincing, highly readable stories about free-living and domestic animals show there’s much overlap between how humans and other animals experience bonding, loss, and the great, shared themes of life.

Animal lovers everywhere will be enthralled. Find out what squirrels, deer, and other animals really do out in the woods.

With the same charm and clarity that drew so many readers to The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben has produced another gem. I found delight on every page, thanks to the author’s rare skill at blending scientific discoveries with his own wealth of insightful personal experiences.

A tour de force. Wohlleben’s love of animals is apparent on every page of this absorbing book, and he has a special gift for allowing the rest of us to feel his enthusiasm and share in his knowledge and personal observations in a very simple way … Reading this book is pure delight.

An important reminder that while we surely are different from other animals, the similarities in our cognitive, emotional, and moral lives are not only surprising and daunting, but very real.

Captivating… Intriguing… Wondrous

A book which is so fascinating and moving that it has genuinely made me more fond of trees.

Beautifully written, funny and jam-packed with astonishing information.

A compendium of intriguing and revelatory animal information - you may find dolphins go down in your estimation, while hyenas go up ...

An eye opening , informative and hysterical history of our ideas about animals - very funny !

Clever, thoughtful, accessible and, above all, so SO funny.

Endlessly fascinating.

Lucy Cooke’s modern bestiary is as well-informed as you’d expect from an Oxford zoologist. It’s also downright funny ...

Brilliantly researched and hilariously informative

It's easy to feel dour about the future of mankind. But constant, widespread doomsday prophecies are not going to help - it's only going to make matters worse. If every doomsday scenario feels possible, then people are actually disincentivized to take action, says Steven Pinker ... Things like nuclear war and climate change can, with careful and diligent work, be mitigated

Pinker has a coherent theory of progress.

Shock therapy for pessimists.

[Steven Pinker has] become a deep and important critic of the visceral hostility to nature and science now so sadly prevalent on the left and right, a defender of reason and the Enlightenment against the 'social justice' movements on campus, and his new book is a near-relentless defense of modernity.

[ENLIGHTENMENT NOW] proves that much of the handwringing and doom-saying promulgated in the popular press, academia, and politics can't be justified on the facts. . . it's both a manifesto of ideas that [Bill] Gates himself has espoused through the years, as well as a paean to individuals, like Gates, who have committed their time and money to changing the world for the better.

A forceful defense of the democratic, humanist institutions that [Pinker] says brought about these changes, and a declaration that reason, science and humanism can solve the problems to come.

Vindication has arrived in the form of Steven Pinker's latest book. ENLIGHTENMENT NOW: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress is remarkable, heart-warming, and long overdue.

Pinker offers numbers to show that the world has, on the whole, become safer, healthier and wealthier. These benefits are more pronounced in the West, but even in developing countries conditions have improved ... His optimism is resilient

Extremely hopeful... Steven Pinker argues that people are happier, healthier, wealthier, and safer than they've ever been ... we're living in the best moments humans have experienced yet

Pinker is a deep and important critic of the visceral hostility to nature and science now so sadly prevalent on the left and right, a defender of reason and the Enlightenment ... Pinker is right

An erudite defence

Modern life has gotten much better despite ever-present complaints. Technology has reduced the need for physical labor. Mortality rates are down. IQ scores are on the rise. Wars are less frequent and less deadly ... the Enlightenment's championing of reason, science, humanism and moral progress is a model for our own times

Pinker is right ... Much good news today tends to be underreported, even unreported. Human beings today lead longer, safer, healthier, wealthier and indeed happier lives than at any point in recorded history ... Pinker surveys the stupendous advancements that the human race has made in modern times according to a dizzying range of metrics

An engaging, compelling set of reasons to be cheerful ... it is a welcome antidote

The world is better than ever before. And Steven Pinker can prove it.

A substantial and wide-ranging book on the state of our world today ... In forensic detail, Pinker enumerates the myriad ways in which life is getting better ... The book is packed with statistics vaunting the gifts of progress

After devouring all 453 pages and 75 graphs of psychologist Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now, I admit defeat. The defeat of defeatism. This man has done the math. Since the 18th century things have been getting better in pretty much every dimension of human wellbeing.

Steven Pinker has a cure for your despair ... life is better than it has ever been. Pinker's case is compelling

Useful and exciting ... Pinker doesn't declaim, he demonstrates - with dozens of graphs and charts - that humankind has spent two centuries winning the battle against entropy in all fields: from health to peace, the environment to democracy, wealth to happiness, to equality between men and women. He asks us crucial questions ... Steven Pinker is right

Enlightenment Now seeks to undo, with facts and figures, the pessimism that has paralysed the world ... We must read this book and absorb its message

Guys, it's really not that bad. In fact, it's the best it's ever been ... Pinker urges people to look at the bigger picture and dive into the data

Things are not as bad as your Facebook news feed makes them seem ... a cheerful, contrarian tract for dark times

Compelling ... At a moment when liberal Enlightenment values are under attack, from the right and the left, this is a very important contribution ... An impressive and useful accomplishment