Montgomery watches Octavia with added excitement when she lays eggs - thousands of them, like 'tiny seed pearls on black string.' 'Mottled with dark patches, Octavia is radiantly beautiful', writes Montgomery, 'the very picture of a healthy octopus and a diligent mother. 'I stroked her head,' Montgomery reports, 'her arms, her webbing, absorbed in her presence. On one occasion, Octavia and Montgomery hold on to each other for one hour and fifteen minutes, in an instance of tactile pleasure felt in an apparently mutual way by octopus and woman.

'Wild-caught in British Columbia and transported to the aquarium by Federal Express, Octavia is the octopus Montgomery comes to know best. The aptly-named giant Pacific octopus Octavia comes alive in the book (as do other octopuses) with a unique personality that responds to Montgomery in poignant ways, as I described in my review for the Times Literary Supplement last week: Montgomery offers a unique window into octopus behavior and intelligence through elegant descriptions - both science-based and emotional - of her extended encounters with octopuses while going behind the scenes at Boston's New England Aquarium and diving in Polynesian waters.

As I wrote here at 13.7 last month, after a morning at my local aquarium, I have fallen hard for all things octopus. I'll be cheering for Montgomery's book to climb even higher in the ranks. This past Sunday, an invertebrate cracked the top group.Ĭoming in 10th - after books about birds, dogs, wolves, sheep and elephants - was Sy Montgomery's The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration in the Wonder of Consciousness. Once a month, The New York Times Book Review includes animals as a category in its best-selling books list.

The soul of an octopus book review