Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson

This book posits that we can better understand animal behavior by paying more attention to the differences in the way they understand, perceive, and interact with the world. Grandin also suggests that she better understands animals than most people because her autism allows her to perceive the specific details of the world the way animals do, instead of generalizing details the way most non-autistic human brains do. The book covers a wide variety of fields (autobiography, autism, animal behavior, animal training, and animal cognition, just to name a few) and Grandin handles them deftly and clearly--referring both to research studies in clear ways and specific, illustrative anecdotes. I think the book's most compelling point comes at the end: we should seek to understand animals better in order to give them as good lives (when they're in contact with humans) as possible, because it's likely that domesticating animals (wolves specifically) is a large part of what made us evolve as humans (different from other primates). The book also has some great advice for how humans can most safely approach their relationships with domesticated dogs--eliminating aggression problems so you won't need a trainer.

Foundation and Empire by Isaac Asimov

In this book the Foundation shows that it can resist the last remnants of the Empire, but a new threat rises from the Foundation itself: the Mule, a mutant who inspires loyalty extremely quickly and effectively. Because pyschohistory cannot work on one individual, the Mule throws the Seldon plan off balance. I particularly liked Bayta, and the twist ending.

Thinks... by David Lodge

This book pits science against literature, along the lines of Nice Work--only this time, the stakes are raised as a novelist and a cognitive scientist fight about the nature of consciousness. There are a lot of serendipitous coincidences throughout the novel, and they pile on particularly high at the end, but overall, this is a fun read.