Vanishing Treasures

A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures

De: Katherine Rundell

Narrado por: Lenny Henry, Katherine Rundell

A Most Anticipated Book from Boston Globe, Parade, & Literary Hub • From the award-winning author Katherine Rundell comes a “rare and magical book” (Bill Bryson) reckoning with the vanishing wonders of our natural world

The world is more astonishing, more miraculous, and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this brilliant and passionately persuasive book, Katherine Rundell takes us on a globe-spanning tour of the world's most awe-inspiring animals currently facing extinction.

Consider the seahorse: couples mate for life and meet each morning for a dance, pirouetting and changing colors before going their separate ways, to dance again the next day. The American wood frog survives winter by allowing itself to freeze solid, its heartbeat slowing until it stops altogether. Come spring, the heart kick-starts itself spontaneously back to life. As for the lemur, it lives in matriarchal troops led by an alpha female (it’s not unusual for female ring-tailed lemurs to slap males across the face when they become aggressive). Whenever they are cold or frightened, they group together in what’s known as a lemur ball, paws and tails intertwined, to form a furry mass as big as a bicycle wheel.

But each of these extraordinary animals is endangered or holds a sub-species that is endangered. This urgent, inspiring book of essays dedicated to 23 unusual and underappreciated creatures is a clarion call insisting that we look at the world around us with new eyes—to see the magic of the animals we live among, their unknown histories and capabilities, and above all how lucky we are to tread the same ground as such vanishing treasures.

Full of inimitable wit and intellect, Vanishing Treasures is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck, to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness.

©2024 Katherine Rundell (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“A poignant survey of animal species whose survival is threatened by humans . . . Rundell approaches her subjects with reverence, as when she writes that blind, iridescent golden moles ‘burrow and breed and hunt, live and die under the African sun, unaware of their beauty, unknowingly glowing.’ Animal lovers will cherish this.”
—Publishers Weekly

“[Rundell] illuminates this collection of essays with fable, legend, myth, and truth stranger than fiction... Although it is a sobering glimpse at the destruction humanity has wrought on other living things, Vanishing Treasures is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring exploration of the wonder left in the world and how humanity can fit within it, and add to its extraordinary quality.”
—Shelf Awareness

“This world, even as we degrade it, remains almost unimaginably beautiful and interesting, as this remarkable bestiary makes clear. Here are a bunch of very very good reasons to actually try and hold on to as much of the Pleistocene as we can.”
—Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature

Amazing Book

This is a very interesting book. Each chapter covers a different animal and the stories are all very entertaining. I highly recommend it.

Sweet bestiary of memorable critters

I love that this book is equally interesting to adults and children. The affection the author has for each creature is palpable. Thank you for this sweet bestiary.

Wonder

No lack of wonders here !! We will not starve for for want of wonders, but for want of wonders. Amazing !!

Loved this little gem!

I listened in one sitting and loved it. Funny but insightful, whimsical but heartbreaking. Don't miss it.

Passionate and Impassioning

A fantastic, concise (yes, short) summary of endangered creatures written so lovingly and wittily as to make the reader crave a complete bestiary in the same vein. The book unabashedly calls for action and conservation, while cathartically indicting humanity for its folly. A must-read for nature-lovers. A quick way to learn about amazing critters in an impactful manner.

excellent

this book is beautifully written and wonderfully informative. I guarantee that no matter how much you know about animals, you will learn something new

Fun facts and folklore but a bit preachy

Loved the facts and folklore of the animals but could have used a break from the sanctimonious tone. I appreciate the call to action but in the audible version it didn’t come across well-specifically the one told by the female. If you get past that it’s a fun read