-
The Breath of a Whale
- The Science and Spirit of Pacific Ocean Giants
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
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Publisher's summary
From the author of The Hidden Lives of Owls, an exploration of the elusive lives of whales in the Pacific Ocean, home to orcas, humpbacks, sperm, blue, and gray whales.
Leigh Calvez has spent a dozen years researching, observing, and probing the lives of the giants of the deep. Here, she relates the stories of nature's most remarkable creatures, including the familial orcas in the waters of Washington State and British Columbia; the migratory humpbacks; and the ancient, deep-diving blue whales, the largest animals on the planet. The lives of these whales are conveyed through the work of dedicated researchers who have spent decades tracking them along their secretive routes that extend for thousands of miles, gleaning their habits and sounds and distinguishing peculiarities. The author invites the listener onto a small research catamaran maneuvering among 100-foot-long blue whales off the coast of California; or to join the task of monitoring patterns of humpback whale movements at the ocean surface: tail throw, flipper slap, fluke up, or blow. To experience whales is breathtaking. To understand their lives deepens our connection with the natural world.
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Some people insist that culture is strictly a human feat. What are they afraid of? This book looks into three cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth's remaining wild places. It shows how if you're a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too experience your life with the understanding that you are an individual in a particular community. You too are who you are not by genes alone; your culture is a second form of inheritance. And your culture, too, changes and evolves.
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It all sinks in over the story—highly recommend
- By Knitting Fisherman on 06-13-20
By: Carl Safina
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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
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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.
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The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
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Stop Drifting, Start Rowing
- One Woman's Search for Happiness and Meaning Alone on the Pacific
- By: Roz Savage
- Narrated by: Roz Savage
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2007, Roz Savage set out to row 8,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean—alone. Despite having successfully rowed across the Atlantic the previous year, the Pacific presented the former office worker with unprecedented challenges and overpowering currents—both in the water and within herself. Crossing Earth’s largest ocean alone might seem a long way removed from everyday life, yet the lessons Roz learned about the inner journey, the ocean, and the world are relevant to all of us.
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I only listened to 1/3, so maybe it gets better?
- By Brandin on 05-14-14
By: Roz Savage
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Shadow Divers
- The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 15 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1991, acting on a tip from a local fisherman, two scuba divers discovered a sunken German U-boat, complete with its crew of 60 men, not too far off the New Jersey coast. The divers, realizing the momentousness of their discovery, began probing the mystery. Over the next six years, they became expert and well-traveled researchers, taught themselves German, hunted for clues in Germany, and constructed theories corrective of the history books, all in an effort to identify this sunken U-boat and its crew.
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GRIPPING!
- By Douglas on 07-03-04
By: Robert Kurson
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Close to Shore
- The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916
- By: Michael Capuzzo
- Narrated by: Len Cariou
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Abridged
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Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.
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Captivating and Riveting
- By David on 07-28-03
By: Michael Capuzzo
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The Last Dive
- A Father and Son's Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths
- By: Bernie Chowdhury
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Chris and Chrissy Rouse, an experienced father-and-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve widespread recognition for their outstanding but controversial diving skills. Obsessed and ambitious, they sought to solve the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented World War II German U-boat that lay under 230 feet of water, only a half day's mission from New York Harbor. In doing so they paid the ultimate price in their quest for fame.
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This book is terrible
- By Will O. on 08-21-18
By: Bernie Chowdhury
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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
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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.
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A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
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The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
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What a Fish Knows
- The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins
- By: Jonathan Balcombe
- Narrated by: Graham Winton
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
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An underwater exploration that overturns myths about fishes and reveals their complex lives, from tool use to social behavior. There are more than 30,000 species of fish - more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined. But for all their breathtaking diversity and beauty, we rarely consider how fish think, feel, and behave.
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Title misled me
- By Margaret Weidemann on 08-12-17
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What listeners say about The Breath of a Whale
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-28-21
Insightful!
Informative, interesting and touching. I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about whales, their habits, how they are studied, and their plight. Well-written.
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- LS
- 03-11-23
please learn Hawaiian words if using in audio format
I generally enjoyed this story but was very frustrated with the narrator and their pronunciation of Hawaiian words. Really would recommend doing reach and learning to say words correctly before completing a full audiobook production
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- Lyra
- 06-10-24
Horrible narrator ruins an amazing book.
The book itself is outstanding. Unfortunately the robotic narrator destroys most of the enjoyment of listening. I couldn’t finish the audio book so ordered myself a copy of the book and will read it myself.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-26-19
Amazing journey into the whale world
This book has been totally inspiring to me. It gives plenty of info about whale habits, social behavior and the more you read the more you get affectionate and respectful towards these animals. And I think that this is the author’s goal indeed.
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6 people found this helpful
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- john
- 04-27-23
Narration
I agree with most of the other reviews. The narration was a bit robotic and detracted from the beauty of the story. It is more an emotional look at whales rather than a scientific look.
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- Patricia Crook
- 02-27-22
The Breath of a Whale
Loved it, very informative. I learned a lot about whales and other sea life that I did not know.
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- Deeedah
- 02-13-24
Wonderful
I loved everything about the story and loved the narrator, she made me feel like I was there with them.
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- Stephanie H
- 08-09-22
Wonderful book
The book is wonderful and insightful.
Unfortunately, the narration is robotic and not a great fit for the story.
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2 people found this helpful
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- M
- 03-11-23
Great tour of a few key cetaceans
I enjoyed listening to this book. Narration is a little bit robotic, but very clear. I see other reviews complaining that Hawaiian words were mispronounced, and that's disappointing, but it didn't change my experience.
The story meanders and does not follow a clear outline. The book as a whole feels more like a collection of essays than one single story. The author speaks of her own health challenges as a point to connect emotionally with whales but i don't feel like she told a complete story and every return to the theme of her leaving science or her health issues felt odd to me. I wish she had explored it more explicitly and tied it directly to the themes of the book. It's not that i didn't want to hear her story, but I felt confused about why she was telling us her story.
The science reporting consists more of showing us the day to day of what it's like to be on a research vessel tagging whales than teaching us what scientists know about whales. I would have enjoyed hearing more about experiments, shifting paradigms in marine mammalogy, and anatomical studies conducted on stranded individuals.
There is a strong emotional angle on conservation. I agree with the author's conviction that we need to do everything possible to respect and protect these fellow beings, and it makes me emotional as well, but I suspect some readers may be put off by the author's language around aspects of her interpretation of whale emotions and her own cosmology. That being said, the stories are heartfelt and I was moved to tears more than once.
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- Sophie Krupp
- 04-06-20
I couldn't handle the narration
I was really excited about this book but the reader sounded very robotic and I couldn't continue. I hope they re-do this one. I would love to listen. I have never had this problem with an audio book before.
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6 people found this helpful