I hoped for something different from this book. Whales are so interesting, but this book was written in a way that made me forget that. Almost like this was a book about a man researching whales with tidbits about the history of whales and whaling sprinkled in. None of this was particularly engaging or cohesive , possibly because of my own false expectations. Whatever the case, this left me pretty underwhelmed. ( )

Nick Pyenson make a daunting scientific topics approachable in this book that will tell you more about whales than you ever knew you wanted to know. Readers who enjoy science, well written non-fiction, and books about animal life should definitely give this one a try. ( )

Nick Pyenson, the marine mammal curator at the Smithsonian, discusses whales, the focus of his academic study. Both recounting his own milestones in his academic career focusing on whales of the past and present, and also relating other information known (and not known) about whales, Pyenson's book was extremely interesting to me. I loved learning all sorts of things that I had never even thought to ask about whales and the ocean--I had no idea how much we (still!) don't know about whales--and I really enjoyed it. I found the book really engaging, and it also made me aware of possible repercussions of climate change (on marine ecosystems) that I hadn't ever considered before.

I listened to this on my commute over the past few weeks, so one thing that I didn't mind (and actually really enjoyed) about this book was that it didn't have a super clear narrative--it felt much more like an old friend telling you about their interests, which worked really well for how I read this book. As with many of the books that I've been reading lately, I picked this up on a complete whim when I found it in the library catalog, and I'm so happy that I did. It was a super interesting dive into a world that I know little about, and it definitely has made me want to read more about the ocean. ( )

If you are looking about a general book about all sorts of whales you might want to pass. Although I was disappointed that the author focused on particular whales, I appreciated the scientific insight on their evolution, what bones reveal, a different outlook on whaling, and other things. So if you really want the science, this has a lot of cool information. What I didn’t like was the lack of focus of the book, I didn’t know what his point was- how everything was supposed to tie in. It felt like it was just a mish mash of random topics yet he’d never focus on anything so I was left wondering what I missed. Also, there was no excitement or passion in his tone, the book I read on Seeds was way more enthusiastic. Felt like a general bio teacher talking to me the whole time. So overall, great book! Just not what I was expecting. ( )

Learned a lot about whale biology and evolution as well as the unique challenges facing those who devote their lives to studying them. I particularly enjoyed the discussion about animal culture, species-specific anatomy, and language dialects. The woodcut illustrations were a nice addition. Some photographs of Cerro Ballena dig site and/or the whaling ships, etc, would have been interesting to see too. ( )