I consider myself outdoorsy type. Having been gamewarden for twenty yearn. Frankly was horrified by author's truistic vision. Seemed to be fascinated with fishing hooks. But this book was dilating. Many pictures were well taken and in black and white. However, as a logistical matter, the print was not large enough. My grandmother, who is 101 years old, tried to read. She discovered she had forgotten how (she got the joke about the authors last name, though).

From her brilliant opening essay through her anthology of 14 incredible stories, Donna Seaman has given us a breakthrough book that places theoretical "environmental issues" in a wider context than ever before. Through stories about bats and geese, weeds and trees, mothers and lovers, fathers, sons and very mean kids, from well knowns and lesser knowns, Seaman shows us that nature isn't only "out there", but in here, that what becomes of it also becomes of us. She locates wildness as the common thread in these diverse treasures, thereby joining us immutably to the natural world, showing us that to be isolated from it is to be isolated from one another and from ourselves. In a way, this book is a call to recast the politics of preserving the natural world by better locating, rather than bemoaning, our place in it.

Nature writing has been the bastion of non-fiction. Now, Donna Seaman has introduced readers to a new concept -- nature writing in fiction. In these stories, fiction writers reveal nature's influence on who we are. At the same time, they illustrate how we alter nature and, ultimately, ourselves. After reading the collection, the reader has the sense that there are no boundaries. Seaman has a keen eye for the great story.

Diane Ackerman, with her characteristic aplomb and eloquence, provides a captivating overview of how human society has viewed love through the course of history. This book is particularly well-written, and the topic it addresses is likely of interest to virtually anyone. At Amazon.com prices, and for those who love to read, this book is a must.

A NATURAL HISTORY OF LOVE is an excellent book, an insightful overview of the many faces of love. Ackerman's knowledge of history, animal behavior, and literature dovetail to provide the perfect browser's book. Beautifully written and thought-provoking.

This book is amazing. If you haven't read Ackerman before, I suggest starting with _A Natural History of the Senses_. Then read this book. Ackerman is a very talented writer. Even if the subject isn't entirely interesting, her words and their rhythms are. This subject, however, is very interesting. Ackerman muses on myths (such as Dido) and history (such as Napoleon and Josephine), but also explores instincts and preferences (why women love horses and the influence of pheromones). This book is romantic, historical, sexual, poetic, challenging, and completely beautiful.

I suggest Ackerman peruse air photography documentation of the industrial clear cutting of old growth forests to see how well nature can "take care of itself" which Donna Seaman of Booklist approvingly quotes, otherwise this book is only Ackerman's embarrassing self-gratification.

Ackerman's gift is her ability to capture and convey her wonder, delight and fascination with the creatures that inhabit the Earth. She is equally at home with whales and crocodiles, finds cuddling baby penguins as entertaining as discussing bombardier beetles and thinks nothing of tackling stormy seas and the vertical slopes of volcanic islands to catch a glimpse of a rare sea bird.

In this, her latest attempt to help humans see and understand the "interlocking business of species," Ackerman introduces us to some of the world's most beleagured inhabitants. Meet the Hawaiian monk seal with its "bulbous head covered in silky fur, with black-buttonhook-shaped eyes, a snout on which springy nostrils open full like quotation marks, tiny tab shaped ears, a spray of cat's whiskers, and many doughy chins;" the golden tamarind monkey, with its "sunset-and-corn-silk coloring;" and the magical monarch butterfly, "gliding, flapping and hitching rides on thermals like any hawk or eagle."

Then there are the creatures of the Amazon river - armoured catfish, cashew piranhas, striated herons, sphinx moths, yellow-footed tortoises and bewhiskered dolphins. On the volcanic Japanese island of Torishima, we are introduced to the last of the short-tailed albatrosses and the young Japanese orinthologist who is trying to save them.

Whether she is bushwacking through rainforests, fighting seasickness or summoning the nerve to touch a shiny beetle, Ackerman is always fully and actively present for her reader. Reading one of her books is the next best thing to being in the field with her, and certainly a lot less strenuous. This book is a treat that shouldn't be missed.

This is one of my favorite books for many reasons: it's heartfelt, knowledgable, deeply respectful of the animals and landscapes she knows personally, enviromentally conscientious, and written in unforgettable language. I don't know which I admire more-- her integrity, her passion, or the poetry of her language. I've read and reread it and will read it again.

I thought that this book was very captivating was full of emotion

Smart, witty, informed, observant, funny, practical, and powerfully moving-- Ackerman combines all of these qualities in a book that's both superb natural history and stylish literature. As a scientist, I'm continually amazed by Ackerman's scrupulousness. As a gardener, I'm impressed by her inventiveness (I'm going to try some of her strategies this season). As a lover of literature, I find myself rereading poetic passages of unbelievable beauty. This is one of my favorite books on any subject, because it's brimming with her trademark-- a fascinating sensibility, who loves and is endlessly curious about the natural world, while keeping an equally fascinated eye on the human condition. All that combined with the soul of a poet. In short, a literary treasure.

The New York Times Book Review was right-- Ackerman's attention to sharp details is as delicious as her voluptuous joy in gardening. She is indeed excellent company on every page. I found the book brimming with natural history surprises, unexpected humor, and also powerfully moving digressions. She's a brilliant observer of the world of nature and humans, an important thinker, but also a modest and delightful one. The gardening dramas and lore are endlessly fascinating, and the lyrical style took my breath away. It's sheer poetry. On so many levels, this is among the richest books I've ever read.

This book is a rich feast for the senses. In fact it reminds me so much of A Natural History of the Senses that I think of it as a continuation taken outside into the garden. It's classic Ackerman, another beautifuly-written, deeply felt celebration of life. She manages her large garden with minimal help or fuss, but an endless supply of curiosity, wonder, humor, and passion. It's the perfect book to re-read this winter while I wait for spring.

I bought this book thinking I'd find something wonderful by Diane Ackerman in it, and I did, but it's a short essay anthologized from her magnificent "A Natural History of the Senses." The other essays are good, but no one writes about nature the way Ackerman does. If you're an Ackerman fan, you're much better off buying "Senses" to learn how to watch the sky. Or two of my personal favorites: "The Rarest of the Rare" and "The Moon by Whale Light," which are both incredible hymns to endangered animals and ecosystems.

THE CURIOUS NATURALIST is an outstanding collection of well written, easy to read, and informative essays about the various biomes of the natural world. A famous naturalist examines each biome in detail, often detailing his or her account of the flora and fauna in that area with tidbits of personal experience. Excellent pictures, coupled with nature study techniques and field observation tools, enhance the book's descriptions and down-to-earth information on the biomes. A major drawback, however, is the book's lack of specifics; that is, there is not much mention of specific wildlife of observing nature in a specific region. After all, woodlands in the east coast are definitely different than those in California. Still, this was a helpful, engaging, and valuable book, which has aided me many a time in my own natural investigations. Great for beginners and experts alike.

I fell in love with this book's large, beautiful pictures and easy reading. This is not a book for someone who wants step by step information on how to do something, but for someone seeking to learn how to view nature around us so that we can then learn from it. This book has all the quality of a National Geographic magazine built-in. Essays on all kinds of environments discuss some weather, flora, and fauna, and their interactions. Great book for those who love the out-of-doors to cuddle up with. This one has a special spot on my shelf.

As a therapist in a mental hospital and a volunteer for a crisis line, I was very interested in this book for Ackerman's insights into working with persons in crisis over the telephone. While I did appreciate her healthy and Zen-like perspective on life and the natural world, I felt she really didn't address much about the crisis work at all. Instead, most of this book consists of ramblings about unrelated aspects of nature and shameless self-promotion of her other literary and artistic efforts.

To illustrate my point, I present a breakdown of a typical chapter in the book; of 22 pages, 3 pages were dedicated to thoughts about being an artist, 2 pages to women's roles, 4 pages to her ordeals when she broke her foot, 1 page about zoos, 1 page about food, 4 pages about solar eclipses, 1 page about the word "asylum", 4 pages about squirrels, and a whopping 2 pages about a crisis call.

I agree with other reviewers that her writing stlye is also very awkward, with some sentences running on for entire pages and rarely coming to any points. While this book isn't entirely bad, I felt it was a disappointing effort at addressing the dynamics of individuals on both sides of a crisis telephone line, which is how it is promoted.

I am reading this book for the second time as I'm currently in a training program for potential crisis counselor volunteers. With the very small amount of exposure I've had to what being a crisis counselor is like, I do think that Ackerman's portrayal is very accurate. I can certainly understand her frustrations over not being able to fix her callers' problems and her intense curiosity about what her callers are like in person. The book is beautifully written and, while I like the juxtaposition of her life as a naturalist with her life as a crisis counselor, I must admit I do find myself skipping over the chapters devoted to squirrels and birds in order to get to the "good stuff." All in all, "A Slender Thread" is an account of human crises that leaves the reader with hope rather than despair.

In reading A SLENDER THREAD, something amazing happened: my already worshipful esteem for Ms. Ackerman increased dramatically. A fan from the first words of the bestselling A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES, I didn't think it possible for Ms. Ackerman's boundless curiosity and breathtakingly poetic prose to get any better. But in this new book, the metaphors and the subjects they describe are indeed large as life. After donating a laptop computer to her local crisis prevention chapter, Ms. Ackerman is lured into giving a speech to its staff, and ultimately becomes a staff-member herself, as a volunteer answering phones for the suicide prevention hotline. Her oddessey of aiding those in distress is beautifully undertaken and even more beautifully described. At first, the seemingly fearless Ackerman (who has a private pilot's license, scuba dives, is an accomplished horsewoman, and has even sexed crocodiles) is nervous about her abilities at crisis intervention. After the several weeks of training, she still feels apprehensive about responding to callers' crises. But like everything else in the author's incomparable ouevre, life beckons and blazes tantalizingly, and she handles adeptly the callers on the other end of that slender thread. Some people are mired in bogs of depression, others struggling with abusive relationships, while a few are at the brink of suicide. In the stunning climax, Ackerman, from her isolated perch at Suicide Prevention's offices, rescues two desperate souls in a single evening: a teen only seconds from a fatal leap, and a frequent caller whom Ackerman finally realizes from faint clues has already ingested a potentially fatal dose of pills. In reading this late chapter, one's pulse races as frantically as the author's. But in between her shifts, Ackerman celebrates in her typically effervescent way, many of nature's splendors. From weekend bicycle rides around Upstate New York's Finger Lakes region, a two-year study of her backyard squirrels, and a rollicking full moon cross country skiing trek to the strains of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," among other delightful rituals. Ackerman is an impassioned participant in all of life's rich pageants. (And this sentence, quiet as it is, jolts one out of blind admiration for this intrepid soul: "Some of our counselors, like me, are ones who survived, people who lived to see their lives turn around, and who relish life more because they came so close to losing it.") Yes, a joyous life, but not without its share of troubles. Fortunately, the worst our fiercely talented explorer experiences in these pages are a couple of broken toes. One from a misstep on a neighbor's porch, the other a casualty of her own wheelchair. In A SLENDER THREAD Diane Ackerman has outdone herself. She has turned her poetically tuned naturalist's curiosity to our own fragile species, and composed an elegant song of survival, endurance, and brilliant life

Although Ackerman's Natural History of Love is by far my favorite book, this latest work comes in at a close second. It is a beautiful, moving exploration/explanation of our need for "deep play." Trust me -- four sentences into it, you will reach for your highlighter/pen to mark certain passages/phrases and take notes in the margins. Loved it.

As a creative woman and professional writer, this is one of the best books I have read on creativity. It is about learning to find time for play-- something we are strongly discouraged to do as we grow up and become adults. Diane Ackerman teaches us to see that we do play, and encourages us to nurture that play. Play is a time of learning, and a time of relaxing and letting go. It is revitalizing, and allows us to refresh and find new insights, which ultimately leads us to become creative. Ackerman guides us through her personal experiences with examples that enlighten, delight and are enjoyable to read.

Diane Ackerman brings forth yet another stunning lyrical prose that is sure to delight. This book is in itself a 'Deep Play' for not only the author but the reader as well, a book that is meant for enjoyment and relaxation. Ackerman is indeed a stylist in her own right.

This is a book with a most appealing title (at least for me): The Bard on the Brain. I've taught Shakespeare for many years, and I'm interested in what neuroscience has to say about literature.

The book was published by the Dana Foundation which does all kinds of good things in connection with the brain, nervous system, and the diseases thereof. Ordinarily their publications are very good.

What could Shakespeare say about the brain? As any Shakespearean could tell you, not much. The book consists of quotations from Shakespeare about various aspects of the mind (e.g., Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking, Falstaff on alcohol, Jaques on aging). The book then follows up with some statements about current knowledge of this or that aspect of brain function.

I have to say that I did not expect much from this approach and I got what I expected. The quotations from Shakespeare are fine, and the commentary on them inoffensive. The statements of brain function seemed tailored to someone who barely knows that there is such a thing as a brain, extremely elementary. This is really a coffee-table book.

The best thing in the book are the gorgeous full-page photographs of recent performances of Shakespeare, the basis for its coffee-table status. Unfortunately, the editors chose to reduce the brain images in size and to pretty them up with confusing backgrounds. It is very hard to see what the commentary is referring to. The scientific footnotes are lumped together in the back in a way that makes it hard to follow out any particular point.

A disappointment. And this is intended as a word to the wise.

I was really intrigued by this book -- how often do scientists and literary scholars collaborate? This is not an academic book in the purest sense--but what's wonderful about it is that is written by two academics who are not afraid to show their love of Shakespeare and who want their work and interests to be accessible to a broad audience. The result is a fun and refreshing look at art and science, which I really enjoyed. The gorgeous illustrations are enticing, as is the often illuminating and always thought provoking commentary by the two authors. Since I am not a scientist, I was particularly taken by the brain imaging and commentary by Dr. Matthews. As a drama lover, I also enjoyed the many photos from performances of the Bard's plays.