Loory's collection of wry and witty, dark and perilous contemporary fables is populated by people - and monsters and trees and jocular octopi - who are united by twin motivations: fear and desire.

At face value, an entertaining and pleasant read, and at a deeper level, extremely thought-provoking.They have personalities and perhaps consciousness, although a consciousness fundamentally different from our own. CN for Other Minds: Additional animal deaths, although not as intimate as in So ul, and brief references to upsetting early experiments.

There is also a fair chunk dedicated to giant cuttlefish, an animal I knew very little about before I read this book and which was probably my highlight of the book. He comes to realize that a key he picked up at the bottom of the bay before he was captured, part of a collection of treasures he hoards behind the rock in his tank, may help unlock this case. There he reposes in a fold of rock, apparently weightless in the clear green medium but very large, his long arms, suppler than silk, coiled in repose, or stirring in recognition of your presence. In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a philosopher, skilfully combines science, philosophy and his experiences of swimming among these tentacled beasts to illuminate the origin and nature of consciousness.I learned a lot about octopuses in an engaging way and grew a new respect for them and an interest in diving. In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how nature became aware of itself - a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. This one, Inky’s Amazing Escape: How a Very Smart Octopus Found His Way Home, is by Sy Montgomery and includes some wonderful octopus facts for minds as curious as Inky’s!