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Title: Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind by David Quammen ISBN: 0-393-05140-4 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 08 September, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.73 (11 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Living with Lions
Comment: This book is amazing. As in it's predecessor, The Song of the Dodo, David Quammen acheives an amazing feat by combining science, travel stories, literature, history, and philosophy (and a sprinkling of pop culture) into a compelling discussion of the fate of what he calls "alpha predators" in this modern world. Quammen traveled to India to visit people living among lions (yes, lions), Australia to visit people living among crocodiles, Romania to visit people living with brown bears (who knew?), and the Russian Far East to visit people living with tigers. Each of these pieces is a distinct story by itself, with its own set of characters, yet Quammen sews them all together with common concerns about predators, prey, and who pays the price of having these alpha predators around. Sensitive to traditional cultures as he is to natural ecosystems, Quammen is a great writer producing unique literature that is important for our time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Without these monsters, what will happen to life?
Comment: Taking the reader on a voyage across the globe, David Quammen tries to distill the essence of man-eating predators down to something that people across the world can appreciate before it is too late.
Quammen focuses on four distinct predators: the asiatic lions of the Gir forest in India, the crocodiles of the Arnhem Land Reserve in Northen Australia, the brown bears of the Carpathian Mountains of Romania, and the tigers of the Sikhote-Alin range in the Russian Far East. It is the predators, people and their interactions that make up most of the book. Sort of a travel narrative that focuses on the people and wildlife. The rest of the book contains Quammen's ruminations on the predator in human culture and literature (Beowulf, Gilgamesh, the Bible, the Alien movies, etc...).
Throughout the book, the reader gets the feeling that things are not going well for the predators and Quammen focuses on that at the end of the book. Predators are slowing going extinct, and due to their nature as "keystone species" (species whose small populations control the populations of other animals and fauna in their respective regions) could have an adverse effect on life across the world if they do disappear.
All around, this is a great book.
Highly Recommended!
Rating: 5
Summary: A wonderful read
Comment: A very insightful and wonderful account of the relations between man and the man-eaters in both myth, mind and memory. The author tackles several subjects in this hands-on accounts. The author looks at traditional 'man-eaters' although the word itself disturbs him in his politically correct nature, he looks at the Siberian Tigers, the Lions and even the Bears of Rumania. He looks at the myths surrounding the 'man-eaters' and he analyzes the political responses. He tells wonderful tales of the alligators of Australia and weaves a web of intrigue whereby the reader can now distinguish between the truly lethal 'man-eaters' and the skinny snouted harmless critters of the inland streams. Many stories are interwoven including vast accounts of the natives who like always seem to live 'in harmony' with nature. Only when modern man came along with his weapons and his urban development did the truly viscous kings of the animal kingdom disappear. The only shortcoming is the small amount of room devoted to wolves and sharks, but obviously the book is such a wonderful gem to only so much could be covered, especially since the account is part travel writing.
Seth J. Frantzman
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Title: The SONG OF THE DODO: ISLAND BIOGEOGRAPHY IN AN AGE OF EXTINCTIONS by David Quammen ISBN: 0684827123 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 14 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: WILD THOUGHTS FROM WILD PLACES by David Quammen ISBN: 068485208X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 16 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder by David Quammen ISBN: 0743200322 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 17 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The FLIGHT OF THE IGUANA: A SIDELONG VIEW OF SCIENCE AND NATURE by David Quammen ISBN: 0684836262 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 16 February, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Empty Ocean: Plundering the World's Marine Life by Richard Ellis ISBN: 1559639741 Publisher: Shearwater Books Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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