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Claire MessudClaire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, is fiercely intelligent and urgently intimate, written with precision, humor, and an incredible... Continue »
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This title in other editions

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

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The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild Cover

 

Staff Pick

Animal Dialogues is one of the best collections of nature writing I've read in years, which puts Craig Childs in the company of giants: Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Terry Tempest Williams. I found myself wondering how Childs could possibly write such beautiful sentences. It's the strength of his subject matter: Animal Dialogues is a study in raw personal experience, richly interwoven with natural history and adventure, and infused with an expansive understanding of the animal kingdom. Childs finds magic in all creatures great and small, from grizzly bears on the Alaskan tundra and mountain goats in a lightning storm to rare toads in desert canyons and owls in forest snowstorms. The sum of these experiences is a powerful reminder that humans are but a small part of this planet, and the more we pay attention to the world around us, the more we gain in wonder and grace.
Recommended by Jason W., Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

From one of the finest nature writers at work in America today — a lyrical, dramatic, illuminating tour of the hidden domain of wild animals.

Whether recalling the experience of being chased through the Grand Canyon by a bighorn sheep, swimming with sharks off the coast of British Columbia, watching a peregrine falcon perform acrobatic stunts at 200 miles per hour, or engaging in a tense face-off with a mountain lion near a desert waterhole, Craig Childs captures the moment so vividly that he puts the reader in his boots.

Each of the forty brief, compelling narratives in The Animal Dialogues focuses on the author's own encounter with a particular species and is replete with astonishing facts about the species' behavior, habitat, breeding, and lifespan. But the glory of each essay lies in Childs's ability to portray the sometimes brutal beauty of the wilderness, to capture the individual essence of wild creatures, to transport the reader beyond the human realm and deep inside the animal kingdom.

Review:

"In these eloquent essays, naturalist and adventurer Childs (House of Rain) describes some of his extraordinary experiences with creatures — from wasps, red-spotted toads and hummingbirds to grizzly bears, coyotes and jaguars. Seeking entre into animal societies, he interprets messages left in marks on the ground and in scents on leaves and trees, and communicates with animals directly using their own language of stares, gestures, postures, sounds, scents and gaits. He goes looking for animals alone in hazardous wilderness areas — tracking mountain goats in Colorado's Gore Range or surprising a secret society of ravens in a canyon in Utah. Always longing to be at one with animals, he is not afraid to climb an aspen to see the world from a porcupine's perspective, run with a herd of elk or wonder how it would feel to jump from a plane and fly with a bald eagle. Childs's captivating essays, rich in sensuous imagery (the porcupine 'looks like a mop, a bundle of ponderosa pine needles, a mobile hairstyle'), are hauntingly beautiful and replete with evocative observations of animal life. 42 b&w illus." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Childs leads readers down the same wild trails blazed by Barry Lopez, Edward Abbey, and John McPhee. Reading Childs' interpretations of encounters with bear, coyote, and jaguar, I realized I had found a writer capable of art." Gary Presley, author of Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio and reviewer for Internetreviewofbooks.com

Synopsis:

The Animal Dialogues tells of Childs' experiences among the grizzlies of the Arctic, sharks off the coast of British Columbia, jaguars in the bush of northern Mexico, and others. These stories reveal an entire realm of languages and interactions that humans rarely get the chance to witness.
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Sammy2009, July 14, 2012 (view all comments by Sammy2009)
Even if you're not into nature studies, this book will change your mind! The author has amazing insight on the life of animals and makes ever encounter interesting and thought provoking.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780316066471
Author:
Childs, Craig
Publisher:
Back Bay Books
Subject:
Animals
Subject:
Life Sciences - Zoology - General
Subject:
Wildlife
Subject:
Essays
Subject:
Animals - North America
Subject:
Animals - General
Subject:
Nature Studies-World Wildlife
Copyright:
2009
Publication Date:
20090331
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
322
Dimensions:
8.30x5.46x.94 in. .68 lbs.
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Related Subjects


Science and Mathematics » Biology » Reference
Science and Mathematics » Nature Studies » General
Science and Mathematics » Nature Studies » World Wildlife
Science and Mathematics » Nature Studies » Zoology

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$14.99 In Stock
Product details 322 pages Back Bay Books - English 9780316066471 Reviews:
"Staff Pick" by ,

Animal Dialogues is one of the best collections of nature writing I've read in years, which puts Craig Childs in the company of giants: Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Terry Tempest Williams. I found myself wondering how Childs could possibly write such beautiful sentences. It's the strength of his subject matter: Animal Dialogues is a study in raw personal experience, richly interwoven with natural history and adventure, and infused with an expansive understanding of the animal kingdom. Childs finds magic in all creatures great and small, from grizzly bears on the Alaskan tundra and mountain goats in a lightning storm to rare toads in desert canyons and owls in forest snowstorms. The sum of these experiences is a powerful reminder that humans are but a small part of this planet, and the more we pay attention to the world around us, the more we gain in wonder and grace.

by Jason W.
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "In these eloquent essays, naturalist and adventurer Childs (House of Rain) describes some of his extraordinary experiences with creatures — from wasps, red-spotted toads and hummingbirds to grizzly bears, coyotes and jaguars. Seeking entre into animal societies, he interprets messages left in marks on the ground and in scents on leaves and trees, and communicates with animals directly using their own language of stares, gestures, postures, sounds, scents and gaits. He goes looking for animals alone in hazardous wilderness areas — tracking mountain goats in Colorado's Gore Range or surprising a secret society of ravens in a canyon in Utah. Always longing to be at one with animals, he is not afraid to climb an aspen to see the world from a porcupine's perspective, run with a herd of elk or wonder how it would feel to jump from a plane and fly with a bald eagle. Childs's captivating essays, rich in sensuous imagery (the porcupine 'looks like a mop, a bundle of ponderosa pine needles, a mobile hairstyle'), are hauntingly beautiful and replete with evocative observations of animal life. 42 b&w illus." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Childs leads readers down the same wild trails blazed by Barry Lopez, Edward Abbey, and John McPhee. Reading Childs' interpretations of encounters with bear, coyote, and jaguar, I realized I had found a writer capable of art." Gary Presley, author of Seven Wheelchairs: A Life beyond Polio and reviewer for Internetreviewofbooks.com
"Synopsis" by , The Animal Dialogues tells of Childs' experiences among the grizzlies of the Arctic, sharks off the coast of British Columbia, jaguars in the bush of northern Mexico, and others. These stories reveal an entire realm of languages and interactions that humans rarely get the chance to witness.
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