Sounding

Rating:
Summary: Little Package, Big Bang
Review: I can't believe I missed this book these many years, but then the title is not descriptive until you read the book and much like "Watership Down" does not at first glance appear offer the depth and breadth to captivate adults as well as children. What a wonderful surprise! This book is now in my personal Top Ten because of the combination of the scope of the story and the beauty of the telling. Mr. Searls immediately validates the scope of his novel by revealing the enchanting facts of his considerable research early on that describe the size and complexity of the sperm whale brain ( the thinking portion is many times larger and more convoluted than man's and was in that advanced state 30 million years before man's ancestors began to grow big brains ). The reader can't help but wonder for what evolutionary advantage that thinking ability began and survives for so long. We don't have to wonder alone as Mr. Searls immerses us in a completely new and expansive world, the society and history of our oft unseen and rarely appreciated cousins, seaborn mammals. If it were only this deep I would love this beautiful story but the truth is he has achieved much greater depth, much like the miles deep dives of the sperm's themselves so hauntingly described here. Among us humans is a deep desire to know we are not alone in our grasp of Life and the Nature of the Universe. Anyone who has ever utterred the words or even had the thought "If they can put a man on the moon, why can't ( here at home ) they...." need look no further. Here is vast wonder that can't help but stir any sensitive reader to a new grasp of the nature of intelligence and what it means to be an "Earthling". It is a solid mile-marker in the journey to view the "oneness" of our rich planet, Mother Earth, including the larger part under water.

Rating:
Summary: Little Package, Big Bang
Review: I can't believe I missed this book these many years, but then the title is not descriptive until you read the book and much like "Watership Down" does not at first glance appear offer the depth and breadth to captivate adults as well as children. What a wonderful surprise! This book is now in my personal Top Ten because of the combination of the scope of the story and the beauty of the telling. Mr. Searls immediately validates the scope of his novel by revealing the enchanting facts of his considerable research early on that describe the size and complexity of the sperm whale brain ( the thinking portion is many times larger and more convoluted than man's and was in that advanced state 30 million years before man's ancestors began to grow big brains ). The reader can't help but wonder for what evolutionary advantage that thinking ability began and survives for so long. We don't have to wonder alone as Mr. Searls immerses us in a completely new and expansive world, the society and history of our oft unseen and rarely appreciated cousins, seaborn mammals. If it were only this deep I would love this beautiful story but the truth is he has achieved much greater depth, much like the miles deep dives of the sperm's themselves so hauntingly described here. Among us humans is a deep desire to know we are not alone in our grasp of Life and the Nature of the Universe. Anyone who has ever utterred the words or even had the thought "If they can put a man on the moon, why can't ( here at home ) they...." need look no further. Here is vast wonder that can't help but stir any sensitive reader to a new grasp of the nature of intelligence and what it means to be an "Earthling". It is a solid mile-marker in the journey to view the "oneness" of our rich planet, Mother Earth, including the larger part under water.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing thoughts from a whale
Review: It may sound crazy that this book is from the perspective of a whale, but it is extremely insightful and touching. The whale is recalling his life and the lives of other whales through mental pictures and sounds. He thinks about his kind and their experiences with whalers, other species like dolphin, sharks, etc. and deals with how terribly dangerous humans can be. In a cool twist we also get the thoughts of a soldier on a Russian sub that is trapped, much like the fate of the Russian sub earlier this year. This book is amazing. It once again convinced me of our actions and what we do and don't do and how it can drastically change the world.