Secrets of the Octopus

 Secrets of the Octopus by Sy Montgomery, 192 pages.

This book is pretty much exactly what it says on the cover. Journalist Sy Montgomery is perhaps best known for her bestselling The Soul of an Octopus (which I still somehow haven't gotten around to reading). Here she returns to to fascinating world of octopus research ten years later, a stretch of time that has been full of breakthroughs in a rapidly growing field. 

This book was written as a companion to the National Geographic TV special of the same name, which this book has filled me with an absolute need to see. I had a pre-existing interest in these crazy smart creatures, but I believe that even if you didn't start with such an interest you would have it by the time you finished the book. Montgomery tells the stories of octopus researchers worldwide, and in the process gives a thorough picture of how unbelievably cool these creatures are. There are behaviors and traits of octopuses so outlandish that (as we see repeatedly in this book) even scientific publications often have a hard time believing them. I HIGHLY recommend this book for octopus lovers, or for anyone with an interest in becoming one. Also recommended for anyone who wants a greater appreciation of the wonders of the natural world.