Blending the selfish allure of the daily horoscope with thevoyeuristic pleasures of watching animal courtship on a nature show, "The Animal in You" offers achance to "discover your true animal type and unlock the secrets of your personality." By means ofa short and easy self-test, and a somewhat intimidating, but obviously thorough, eighty-some pagesof tables, you can quickly find out if you're an owl or a dolphin, a weasel or an elephant. Eachanimal personality offers a brief overview of the genuine animal, it's human counterpart, and shortsections on careers, relationships, advice and a few amusing examples of celebrity examples. It'sno stretch to learn that Liberace was a peacock, Woody Allen a snake, and Michael Jordan agiraffe.
While Feinson obviously has good background in animal behavior and dedicates someserious discussion at the beginning of the book to understanding the relationship between man andanimals, and to translating animal behavior to our homo sapiens agenda, it is clear than he does notintend us to take this book too seriously. Once this is understood, the book is a great deal offun. Once one finds out one's own animal brother or sister identity, the real fun begins by takingthe test for one's spouse, boss, friends (and enemies)! I always knew my boss was a warthog and mybrother-in-law a weasel, but I was surprised to find out my wife was a cottontail - not the bestmate for a bat like myself.
A great casual c! offee table book to leave out at parties,"The Animal in You" might have been better served being published in hardcover - after only twoweeks on my desk at the office, it's cover is "dog-eared" and the test-page covered in"hen-scratches". This book serves as a reminder of our inextricable link to our animal brothers andsisters and offers the reader an entertaining and often surprisingly revealing glimpse into our own"nature".