As historian Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts: A Snout-To-Tail History of the Humble Pig, swine have such a bad reputation for the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture from Neolithic villages to modern industrial farms, Essig blends culinary and natural history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of humans.

Parking: Lots one block north and one block east; street parking (meters free after 7pm).