Your best friend doesn’t ask for anything specific for the holidays.

He’s really pretty content with what he’s got. A bed in the living room. A ball or a chew-bone. A few scratches behind the ears, that’s all he needs. He just needs you, and you need these books about animals and pets. 

If your heart doesn’t melt at the cover of “The Purest Bond: Understanding the Human-Canine Connection” by Jen Goldbeck and Stacey Colino (Atria, $28), then you’re not a total dog lover. Read the book, and you will be, though.

The saying is that we don’t deserve dogs and this book may make you agree. It’s all about the great things dogs can do and why humans and dogs connect so easily and so well. Take your dog to work, put your dog to work, go to work for your dog, it’s all in here from puppyhood to the devastating final days, and you’re going to want to read it.

Who’s peeking around the corner of “The Hidden Language of Cats: How They Have Us at Meow” by Sarah Brown (Dutton, $28)? If you’re a cat person, you’ll want to check that out before you read about all the ways that cats communicate with their owners, their frenemies, and one another. What’s your cat saying when he grooms you, blinks at you, or decides that you’re his person? Find out in this thorough and fascinating book.

Animal lovers know that there’s a sense of urgency in rescue these days, and “Defending Animals: Finding Hope on the Front Lines of Animal Protection” by Kendra Coulter (The MIT Press, $24.95) is a book that takes you around the world in a look at all the efforts people are doing to protect and save animals. Readers will love that this book isn’t all about dogs, cats, and household companions; it’s also about wild animals, large domestic animals, and animals in zoos and farms. Learn how animal rescue needs smart people with passion. It’s a real job, as well as a labor of love.

Once upon a time, animals were thought to be put on Earth solely for humans. That notion has changed and in “Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals” by Christopher J. Preston (The MIT Press, $29.95), you’ll see how a change in human attitude has helped the preservation of certain endangered animals. Here, you’ll also see why this is so important, through stories told by researchers, Indigenous people, and others who work to save the animals and, by extension, to help the planet’s ecological system. This is an impressive resource with a big message.

If these books about animals aren’t enough, be sure to stop by your favorite bookstore or library and grab the first friendly face you see for help. Librarians and bookstore people love to place the right book in the hands that need it, and they have access to millions of books for every animal lover. Just ask for these, and other great books.