The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds
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Book Overview
Ackerman journeys in search of monarch butterflies and short-tailed albatrosses, monk seals and golden lion tamarin monkeys- the world's rarest creatures and their vanishing habitats. She delivers a rapturous celebration of other species that is also a warning to our own. Traveling from the Amazon rain forest to a forbidding island off the coast of Japan, enduring everything from broken ribs to a beating by an irate seal, Ackerman reveals her subjects in all their splendid particularity. She shows us how they feed, mate, and migrate. She eavesdrops on their class and courtship dances. She pays tribute to the men and women hwo have deoted their lives to saving them.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0679776230
ISBN13:9780679776239
Release Date:January 1997
Publisher:Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Length:208 Pages
Weight:0.58 lbs.
Dimensions:0.6" x 5.2" x 8.0"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Grand Adventures!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 19 years ago
Diane Ackerman writes with such eloquence. This book was such an enjoyable read, it is easy to forget that it deals with tough environmental issues. The author has collected short stories from many of her travels to various places to witness endangered species first-hand. From the rain forest to a remote island in Japan, she blends the story of her trip with information about the endangered species/habitat and the interesting people she meets along the way. She manages to get us to think about our impact on nature without being preachy, and in an entertaining manner. A must for any adventurer, actual or armchair.
Collection of essays on endangered species
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 20 years ago
I want Diane Ackerman's life. She gets to visit weird, remote, exotic locations, observe unusual flora and fauna, write about them - and earns enough money to go out and do it again. In The Rarest of the Rare, she gathers together 6 essays previously published elsewhere; all deal with endangered species such as the golden lion tamarind, the monarchs, monk seals, and others. But she's not just a do-gooder naturalist: she's also a poet, a philosopher, and a heck of a good writer. Some of her musings, the questions she asks of herself, the parallels she makes, remind me of Annie Dillard's nature writing - her books such as Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.It's a joy to share these things that I will never experience through the eyes of such a consummate scientist and writer and human being.Also, for an entirely different approach to observing endangered species, see Daniel Glick's Monkey Dancing.
Poetic, delightful, enlightening!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 26 years ago
Ms. Ackerman creates a lush visual smorgasbord of imagery in everything she writes and I feel this is her finest work to date. If your tastes run toward the exotic and adventerous and if you have a passion for ecology/nature, don't miss this elegant and provocative book!
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