Natural Acts
A Sidelong View of Science and Nature
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Natural Acts
Buy for $21.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Patrick Lawlor
-
By:
-
David Quammen
About this listen
"Lively writing about science and nature depends less on the offering of good answers, I think, than on the offering of good questions," said David Quammen in the original introduction to Natural Acts. For more than two decades, he has stuck to that credo. In this updated version of Natural Acts, curiosity leads him from New Mexico to Romania, from the Congo to the Amazon, asking questions about mosquitoes (what are their redeeming merits?), dinosaurs (how did they change the life of a dyslexic Vietnam vet?), and cloning (can it save endangered species?).
This revised and expanded edition best-loved "Natural Acts" columns, which first appeared in Outside magazine in the early 1980s, and includes recent pieces such as "Planet of Weeds," an influential new Natural Acts is an eye-opening journey that will please both Quammen fans and newcomers to his work.
©1985, 2008 David Quammen (P)2022 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
Breathless
- The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Breathless is story of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a “forever virus,” destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Melissa on 03-10-23
By: David Quammen
-
The Song of the Dodo
- Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message - a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Extensive and Entertaining
- By Thylacine on 07-26-21
By: David Quammen
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,578
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 562
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 469
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 470
We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic Book
- By Peter Jensen on 09-08-22
By: Steve Brusatte
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
Breathless
- The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Breathless is story of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a “forever virus,” destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Melissa on 03-10-23
By: David Quammen
-
The Song of the Dodo
- Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message - a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Extensive and Entertaining
- By Thylacine on 07-26-21
By: David Quammen
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,578
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals
- A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 562
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 469
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 470
We humans are the inheritors of a dynasty that has reigned over the planet for nearly 66 million years, through fiery cataclysm and ice ages: the mammals. Our lineage includes saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, armadillos the size of a car, cave bears three times the weight of a grizzly, clever scurriers that outlasted Tyrannosaurus rex, and even other types of humans, like Neanderthals.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic Book
- By Peter Jensen on 09-08-22
By: Steve Brusatte
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,868
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,569
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,561
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
-
Otherlands
- A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
- By: Thomas Halliday
- Narrated by: Adetomiwa Edun
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 229
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 187
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 185
The past is past, but it does leave clues, and Thomas Halliday has used cutting-edge science to decipher them more completely than ever before. In Otherlands, Halliday makes sixteen fossil sites burst to life.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book brilliantly read
- By Dipam on 04-06-22
By: Thomas Halliday
-
The Song of the Cell
- An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
- By: Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris
- Length: 16 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 870
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 735
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 729
From the author of The Emperor of All Maladies, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and The Gene, a #1 New York Times bestseller, comes his most spectacular book yet, an exploration of medicine and our radical new ability to manipulate cells. Rich with Mukherjee’s revelatory and exhilarating stories of scientists, doctors, and the patients whose lives may be saved by their work, The Song of the Cell is the third book in this extraordinary writer’s exploration of what it means to be human.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beyond Words Wonderful
- By Lynn on 11-27-22
-
A Life on Our Planet
- My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future
- By: Sir David Attenborough, Jonnie Hughes
- Narrated by: Sir David Attenborough
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,091
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 907
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 902
In this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century, award-winning broadcaster and natural historian Sir David Attenborough shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Engaging, powerful, hopeful, visionary.
- By K. Stark on 10-15-20
By: Sir David Attenborough, and others
-
Wild New World
- The Epic Story of Animals and People in America
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Clark Cornell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 353
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 328
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 327
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America's known human history but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens presented to the continent's evolutionary richness. Distinguished scholar Dan Flores's ambitious history chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the "wild new world" of North America.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Tough for me to to review
- By Kindle Customer on 11-13-22
By: Dan Flores
-
The Sixth Extinction
- An Unnatural History
- By: Elizabeth Kolbert
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,537
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,838
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,805
A major audiobook about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Lifts you out of the ordinary
- By Regina on 04-28-14
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,486
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,012
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
The Invention of Nature
- Alexander von Humboldt's New World
- By: Andrea Wulf
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 14 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,565
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,255
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,248
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infested Siberia. He came up with a radical vision of nature, that it was a complex and interconnected global force and did not exist for man's use alone. Ironically, his ideas have become so accepted and widespread that he has been nearly forgotten.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Poignant origin story
- By Jeremy Fairbanks on 03-03-16
By: Andrea Wulf
-
Fuzz
- When Nature Breaks the Law
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Mary Roach
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,516
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,276
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,267
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The footnotes
- By Alex on 09-24-21
By: Mary Roach
-
Wonderful Life
- The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
- By: Stephen Jay Gould
- Narrated by: Jonathan Sleep
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 18
High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It holds the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book, Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Science made interesting
- By An Old Crow on 09-13-23
-
The Bird Way
- A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
- By: Jennifer Ackerman
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ackerman
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 362
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 309
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 306
"There is the mammal way and there is the bird way." But the bird way is much more than a unique pattern of brain wiring, and lately, scientists have taken a new look at bird behaviors they have, for years, dismissed as anomalies or mysteries - what they are finding is upending the traditional view of how birds conduct their lives, how they communicate, forage, court, breed, survive. They are also revealing the remarkable intelligence underlying these activities, abilities we once considered uniquely our own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good Work but it doesn’t scale
- By Stanley Lippman on 07-02-20
-
Transformer
- The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death
- By: Nick Lane
- Narrated by: Richard Trinder
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 226
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 191
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 192
For decades, biology has been dominated by the study of genetic information. Information is important, but it is only part of what makes us alive. Our inheritance also includes our living metabolic network, a flame passed from generation to generation, right back to the origin of life. In Transformer, biochemist Nick Lane reveals a scientific renaissance that is hiding in plain sight-how the same simple chemistry gives rise to life and causes our demise.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
You need lot of chemistry to get it
- By 11104 on 09-05-22
By: Nick Lane
Related to this topic
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 379
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 378
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
-
Superlative
- The Biology of Extremes
- By: Matthew D. LaPlante
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating survey of amazing biology
- By Nerd's-eye view on 12-06-19
-
Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 255
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 223
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,486
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,012
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Beak of the Finch
- A Story of Evolution in Our Time
- By: Jonathan Weiner
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 470
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 379
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 378
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend 20 years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos, studying natural selection. They recognize each individual bird on the island, when there are 400 at the time of the author's visit or when there are over a thousand. They have observed about 20 generations of finches - continuously.Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating in-depth look at evolution in action
- By Philip on 05-15-11
By: Jonathan Weiner
-
Superlative
- The Biology of Extremes
- By: Matthew D. LaPlante
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 94
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 80
The world's largest land mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is showing us how to solve a century-old engineering mystery. The oldest tree is giving us insights into climate change. The loudest whale is offering clues about the impact of solar storms. For a long time, scientists ignored superlative life forms as outliers. Increasingly, though, researchers are coming to see great value in studying plants and animals that exist on the outermost edges of the bell curve.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating survey of amazing biology
- By Nerd's-eye view on 12-06-19
-
Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 255
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 223
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 225
Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
-
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
- A New History of a Lost World
- By: Steve Brusatte
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 4,486
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 4,032
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 4,012
In this stunning narrative spanning more than 200 million years, Steve Brusatte, a young American paleontologist who has emerged as one of the foremost stars of the field - discovering 10 new species and leading groundbreaking scientific studies and fieldwork - masterfully tells the complete, surprising, and new history of the dinosaurs, drawing on cutting-edge science to dramatically bring to life their lost world and illuminate their enigmatic origins, spectacular flourishing, astonishing diversity, cataclysmic extinction, and startling living legacy.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
"The Rise of the Scientists Who Study Dinosaurs"
- By Daniel Powell on 09-16-18
By: Steve Brusatte
-
The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 84
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 78
Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
-
The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 95
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 85
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 84
The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
-
Remarkable Creatures
- Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species
- By: Sean B. Carroll
- Narrated by: Jim Bond
- Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 139
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Remarkable Journey
- By Michael Dowd on 03-22-09
By: Sean B. Carroll
-
Feathers
- The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 165
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 150
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 151
Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Fantastic Science and Fun
- By Chris Reich on 12-28-14
By: Thor Hanson
-
The Dragon Behind the Glass
- A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish
- By: Emily Voigt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 274
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 233
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 231
A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
-
The Thing with Feathers
- The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 105
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 91
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 90
Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Interesting book, terrible reader
- By MGM123 on 03-16-18
By: Noah Strycker
-
Gods, Wasps and Stranglers
- The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
- By: Mike Shanahan
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers, rain forest royalty, more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Gods, Wasps and Stranglers tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our prehuman ancestors, influenced diverse cultures, and played key roles in the dawn of civilization.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Incredible research in a wonderful story
- By Alonsa Guevara on 11-24-22
By: Mike Shanahan
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,031
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 916
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 917
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
The Bald Eagle
- The Improbable Journey of America's Bird
- By: Jack E. Davis
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
I thought the book would be about the bald eagle
- By An Amazon Buyer on 10-25-22
By: Jack E. Davis
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 679
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 580
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 577
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
The Horse
- The Epic History of Our Noble Companion
- By: Wendy Williams
- Narrated by: Angela Brazil
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
Horses have a story to tell - one of resilience, sociability, and intelligence and of partnership with human beings. In The Horse, journalist and equestrienne Wendy Williams brings that story brilliantly to life. Williams chronicles the 56-million-year journey of horses as she visits with experts around the world, exploring what our biological affinities and differences can tell us about the bond between horses and humans and what our longtime companions might think and feel.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Full of science.
- By Jennifer90046 on 02-07-17
By: Wendy Williams
-
In Search of the Canary Tree
- The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
- By: Lauren E. Oakes
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Moving and inspiring
- By Catherine A Gould on 05-26-19
By: Lauren E. Oakes
-
The Lost City of the Monkey God
- A True Story
- By: Douglas Preston
- Narrated by: Bill Mumy
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 5,912
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5,244
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5,238
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Still Lost...
- By Mel on 01-12-17
By: Douglas Preston
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,578
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Song of the Dodo
- Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message - a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Extensive and Entertaining
- By Thylacine on 07-26-21
By: David Quammen
-
Breathless
- The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Breathless is story of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a “forever virus,” destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Melissa on 03-10-23
By: David Quammen
-
The Secret Lives of Bats
- My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals
- By: Merlin Tuttle
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 97
A lifetime of adventures with bats around the world reveals why these special and imperiled creatures should be protected rather than feared.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Very Disappointing
- By R. Klein on 07-31-23
By: Merlin Tuttle
-
Spillover
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 20 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,845
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,582
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,578
The emergence of strange new diseases is a frightening problem that seems to be getting worse. In this age of speedy travel, it threatens a worldwide pandemic. We hear news reports of Ebola, SARS, AIDS, and something called Hendra killing horses and people in Australia - but those reports miss the big truth that such phenomena are part of a single pattern. The bugs that transmit these diseases share one thing: they originate in wild animals and pass to humans by a process called spillover. David Quammen tracks this subject around the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating, but not Riveting
- By L. M. Roberts on 03-08-14
By: David Quammen
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 112
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 98
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 99
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Tangled Tree
- A Radical New History of Life
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,194
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,046
In the mid-1970s, scientists began using DNA sequences to reexamine the history of all life. Perhaps the most startling discovery to come out of this new field is horizontal gene transfer (HGT), or the movement of genes across species lines. For instance, we now know that roughly eight percent of the human genome arrived not through traditional inheritance from directly ancestral forms, but sideways by viral infection - a type of HGT. In The Tangled Tree David Quammen chronicles these discoveries through the lives of the researchers who made them.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Very Enjoyable and Readable
- By Dennis on 08-18-18
By: David Quammen
-
The Song of the Dodo
- Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 24 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 210
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 172
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 171
David Quammen's book, The Song of the Dodo, is a brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope, far-reaching in its message - a crucial book in precarious times, which radically alters the way in which we understand the natural world and our place in that world. It's also a book full of entertainment and wonders. In The Song of the Dodo, we follow Quammen's keen intellect through the ideas, theories, and experiments of prominent naturalists of the last two centuries.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Extensive and Entertaining
- By Thylacine on 07-26-21
By: David Quammen
-
Breathless
- The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 181
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 159
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 159
Breathless is story of SARs-CoV-2 and its fierce journey through the human population, as seen by the scientists who study its origin, its ever-changing nature, and its capacity to kill us. David Quammen expertly shows how strange new viruses emerge from animals into humans as we disrupt wild ecosystems and how those viruses adapt to their human hosts, sometimes causing global catastrophe. He explains why this coronavirus will probably be a “forever virus,” destined to circulate among humans and bedevil us endlessly, in one variant form or another.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Loved it!
- By Melissa on 03-10-23
By: David Quammen
-
The Secret Lives of Bats
- My Adventures with the World's Most Misunderstood Mammals
- By: Merlin Tuttle
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 113
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 96
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 97
A lifetime of adventures with bats around the world reveals why these special and imperiled creatures should be protected rather than feared.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
Very Disappointing
- By R. Klein on 07-31-23
By: Merlin Tuttle
-
Winter World
- The Ingenuity of Animal Survival
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 186
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 149
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 150
In Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, biologist, illustrator, and award-winning author Bernd Heinrich explores his local woods, where he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there. Because winter drastically affects the most elemental component of all life---water---radical changes in a creature's physiology and behavior must take place to match the demands of the environment.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A Fascinating Exploration
- By Sara on 02-05-15
By: Bernd Heinrich
-
The Forest Unseen
- A Year's Watch in Nature
- By: David George Haskell
- Narrated by: Michael Healy
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 355
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 304
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 304
In this wholly original audiobook, biologist David Haskell uses a one-square-meter patch of old-growth Tennessee forest as a window into the entire natural world. Visiting it almost daily for one year to trace nature's path through the seasons, he brings the forest and its inhabitants to vivid life. Each of this audiobook's short chapters begins with a simple observation: a salamander scuttling across the leaf litter; the first blossom of spring wildflowers.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Delightful stories
- By Eleanor B. Hildreth on 08-03-15
-
Wild New World
- The Epic Story of Animals and People in America
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Clark Cornell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 353
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 328
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 327
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America's known human history but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens presented to the continent's evolutionary richness. Distinguished scholar Dan Flores's ambitious history chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the "wild new world" of North America.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Tough for me to to review
- By Kindle Customer on 11-13-22
By: Dan Flores
-
On Spice
- Advice, Wisdom, and History with a Grain of Saltiness
- By: Caitlin PenzeyMoog
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 30
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 30
Every home cook has thoughts on the right and wrong ways to use spices. These beliefs are passed down in family recipes and pronounced by television chefs, but where do such ideas come from? Many are little better than superstition, and most serve only to reinforce a cook's sense of superiority or cover for their insecurities. It doesn't have to be this way. These notes On Spice come from three generations of a family in the spice trade, and dozens upon dozens of their collected spice guides and stories.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Yummy!
- By amanda j green on 11-17-24
-
The Trees in My Forest
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 28
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 28
In a book destined to become a classic, biologist and acclaimed nature writer Bernd Heinrich takes listeners on an eye-opening journey through the hidden life of a forest. A lifetime observer of the natural world shares his vast knowledge and reflections on the trees of the Northeast woodlands and the rhythms of their seasons, from the DNA contained in an apple seed to the great branches beyond reach.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Trees, woods, forests, pines and apples, and Maine
- By Lynn Spann Bowditch on 08-30-24
By: Bernd Heinrich
-
Of Wolves and Men
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: Matt Godfrey
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 80
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
Humankind's relationship with the wolf is the sum of a spectrum of responses ranging from fear to admiration and affection. Lopez's classic, careful study has won praise from a wide range of reviewers and improved the way books on wild animals are written. Of Wolves and Men explores the uneasy interaction between wolves and civilization over the centuries, and the wolf's prominence in our thoughts about wild creatures.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
To Better Know Wolves
- By REV on 08-20-22
By: Barry Lopez
-
The Demon in the Freezer
- A True Story
- By: Richard Preston
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,370
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,019
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,013
The first major bioterror event in the United States - the anthrax attacks in October 2001 - was a clarion call for scientists who work with "hot" agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a number-one New York Times best seller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of USAMRIID, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Pretty interesting listening in a horrific way
- By S A on 09-19-03
By: Richard Preston
-
The Hot Zone
- A Terrifying True Story
- By: Richard Preston
- Narrated by: Richard M. Davidson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,400
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,982
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,981
A highly infectious, deadly virus from the central African rain forest suddenly appears in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. There is no cure. In a few days, 90 percent of its victims are dead. A secret military SWAT team of soldiers and scientists is mobilized to stop the outbreak of this exotic "hot" virus. The Hot Zone tells this dramatic story, giving a hair-raising account of the appearance of rare and lethal viruses and their "crashes" into the human race. Shocking, frightening, and impossible to ignore, The Hot Zone proves that truth really is scarier than fiction.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
If you love viruses and gore and non-fiction...
- By aaron on 01-05-12
By: Richard Preston
-
A Sand County Almanac
- And Sketches Here and There
- By: Aldo Leopold, Barbara Kingsolver - introduction
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 565
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 488
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 482
First published in 1949 and praised in the New York Times Book Review as "full of beauty and vigor and bite", A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great in some ways; in others, wtf!
- By RG on 06-22-20
By: Aldo Leopold, and others
-
Realm of Ice and Sky
- Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue
- By: Buddy Levy
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
Arctic explorer and American visionary Walter Wellman pioneered both polar and trans-Atlantic airship aviation, making history’s first attempts at each. Wellman has been cast as a self-promoting egomaniac known mostly for his catastrophic failures. Instead he was a courageous innovator who pushed the boundaries of polar exploration and paved the way for the ultimate conquest of the North Pole—which would be achieved not by dogsled or airplane, but by airship.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
a great book, read by a good naratator
- By Amazon Customer on 02-27-25
By: Buddy Levy
-
Gathering Moss
- A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
- By: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Narrated by: Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,804
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,576
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,568
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites listeners to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Soul Stirring
- By KatieBourgeois on 02-23-19
-
An Immense World
- How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
- By: Ed Yong
- Narrated by: Ed Yong
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,868
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,569
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 1,561
The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us to perceive the skeins of scent, waves of electromagnetism, and pulses of pressure that surround us.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
If you’ve never read about the wonder of animal sensory capabilities this is for you
- By MediaBaron on 06-27-22
By: Ed Yong
What listeners say about Natural Acts
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- MM
- 05-24-24
Bite sized stories
This is the first Quamann I’ve listened to. I will likely listen to more! His writing style is sardonic, spunky, and informative, and his subjects are intriguing. A fun listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful