This week marks the release of Elena Passarello’s collection Animals Strike Curious Poses. It’s not a book about Prince, despite the title, but instead features sixteen essays and meditations on famous animals throughout history, creatures from Mozart’s pet starling to a mummified wooly mammoth to Cher Ami, the carrier pigeon who saved two hundred lives during World War I. The book also includes rampaging elephants, circus animals, and old-timey sideshow attractions like Mike, the chicken who kept living even after his head was cut off. Passarello, who lives in Oregon, will be in conversation with Lucas Mann.