I listened to Open Throat by Henry Hoke while walking – it’s a short book, but it completely took me by surprise. I didn’t quite know what to expect from a story told through the eyes of a mountain lion, but it ended up being one of those quiet books that stays with you. The narrator’s voice was perfect, and something about hearing the lion’s thoughts while being outside made the experience feel even more intimate. There were moments that made me slow down and just listen, really listen – because something about his loneliness, his longing for belonging, felt incredibly human. The lion lives a simple life: survival, hunger, solitude. But he watches people – their strange behaviors, their cruelty, the way they treat each other – and reflects on it in such a quiet, observant way. What touched me most was how he finds comfort near society’s outcasts, mirroring his own story of being cast out by his pride when he became a threat to his father. It’s a story about not fitting in, about silence and survival, about watching the world from the outside. Maybe that’s why it hit me so deeply. There’s a stillness in it, a kind of soft melancholy that lingers long after it ends. A brief but deeply affecting read – strange, tender, and beautifully told. Based on the true story of P-22, the mountain lion who lived alone in the hills of Los Angeles.