Reading List by Jayne about Sea Stuff
Sea Wonders: The Octopus, the Cuttlefish, and the Squid by Marco Colombo
Explore the world of extraordinary marine creatures in this beautifully illustrated guide to thirty species of octopuses, cuttlefish, and squids.
In Sea Wonders, discover the remarkable characteristics of cephalopods, enigmatic sea creatures with arms directly attached to their heads, who are masters of survival and transformation. Thirty species are collected in this fascinating guidebook, detailing their most surprising habits and abilities.
The first half of the book contains fifty gorgeously detailed and realistic illustrations and delves into the species’ main characteristics and the secrets of their underwater world. The second half features specimen cards with scientific information and fun facts for easy reference.
Review
This is a charming book for anyone who has watched or read about cephalopods. I think that anyone with a general interest in the topic from middle grade through adults will enjoy it. However it is not geared towards professionals as it’s more “quick and dirty.” Colombo gives a short description about each species which is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.
Then there are the one page “specimen cards” which also show sizes in relation to either a human hand or a full sized diver to give perspective. I think this could be a jumping off book to foster interest and further online research. B
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Ocean: Earth’s Last Wilderness by Sir David Attenborough and Colin Butfield
Award-winning broadcaster and natural historian David Attenborough and longtime collaborator Colin Butfield present a powerful call to action focused on our planet’s oceans, exploring how critical this habitat is for the survival of humanity and the future of Earth.
Through personal stories, history and cutting-edge science, Ocean uncovers the mystery, the wonder and the frailty of the most unexplored habitat on our planet – and the one which shapes the land we live on, regulates our climate and creates the air we breathe. The book showcase the oceans’ remarkable resilience: they are the part of our world that can, and in some cases has, recovered the fastest, if we only give them the chance.
Drawing a course across David Attenborough’s own lifetime, Ocean takes readers on an adventure-laden voyage through eight unique ocean habitats, through countless intriguing species, and through the most astounding discoveries of the last 100 years, to a future vision of a fully restored marine world, even richer and more spectacular than we could possibly hope. Ocean reveals the past, present and potential future of our blue planet. It is a book almost a century in the making, but one that has never been more urgently needed.
Review
This is a fascinating book which dives deep (pun intended) into the subject. I’ve watched almost all of the documentaries that Attenborough has been associated with and was thrilled to be offered an arc. It is divided into the various sections of the ocean and discusses that area and what problems it faces. I’ll be honest and say that when watching nature documentaries, often the last 10 minutes of an episode is devoted to telling us how everything is going to crap. I understand the need to spread the word and engage people in efforts to stop this and save our planet but it often leaves me feeling down and depressed. But this book ends each section by talking about reclamation efforts and how things can or are improving. Yes!
I’ll also admit that while I’m not usually an audiobook fan, I think this book is better suited to that media because – David Attenborough and Colin Butfield narration. There is a little repetition and if you can’t listen to the audio then a documentary might even be better than reading which (winces) wasn’t quite as riveting as aural or visual. But – David Attenborough. You can’t really go too wrong with him. B-
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