Stickeen - The Story of a Dog (1909)

by John Muir

Wait—I know what you're thinking. But hear me out: if you loved the intimate, almost spiritual bond Muir captures between himself and Stickeen, this journal-style account of his 1869 wilderness expedition shows you that same observational tenderness applied to an entire landscape. It's Muir at his most lyrical, and the way he notices small details—a flower, a bird's call—mirrors how he noticed Stickeen's personality.

by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Thomas spent decades observing wild animals with the same patient attention Muir gave to that little dog, and she writes about deer the way Muir wrote about Stickeen—as individuals with distinct personalities and emotional lives. Her prose has that same quality of wonder, but she's working from decades of field research rather than a single transformative encounter.

by Margaret Atwood

This might seem like a left turn, but Atwood's trilogy opens with a human protagonist and his complicated relationship with a genetically-modified creature—a bond that's tender and tragic in ways that echo Muir's unexpected emotional depth with Stickeen. The book asks what it means to truly see another being, whether human or not, and Atwood writes those moments of connection with the same quiet intensity.

by Ruth Katz

Here's your genuine surprise pick: Katz writes about microorganisms with the same reverent attention Muir brought to nature and to Stickeen. It's a practical book, yes, but it's also a meditation on noticing the invisible life around us and developing a relationship with it. If what moved you about Stickeen was Muir's ability to find profound connection in unexpected places, this applies that same philosophy to bacteria.

by Henry Beston

Beston spent a year alone in a cottage on Cape Cod, and his account has that same quality as Stickeen—a solitary observer noticing the particular character of wild creatures and wild places. Published in 1928, it's from a different era than Muir, but Beston learned from Muir's approach: he doesn't sentimentalize nature, he simply pays attention with such care that the reader falls in love with it too.