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| | The Moon by Whale Light - and Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians and Whales |  | Author: Diane Ackerman
Publisher: Random House Value Publishing
Category: Book
Buy Used: $34.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 2472797
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
ISBN: 0517156784
EAN: 9780517156780
ASIN: 0517156784
Publication Date: March 31, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Hardcover edition. Good copy
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Product Description
In a rare blend of scientific fact and poetic truth, the acclaimed author of A Natural History of the Senses explores the activities of whales, penguins, bats, and crocodilians, plunging headlong into nature and coming up with highly entertaining treasures.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Nature Adventures April 25, 2008
"The many colors were in the ever-bluing sky, in the cloud formations, the muted light, the midnight sun, the auroras dancing over still waters with icebergs and crash ice, and in areas that dazzled like small hand mirrors, through which black-and-white penguins dove." ~ pg. 233
Diane Ackerman is a woman who throws herself into her research with a sense of abandon. She blends her own experience with mythology and interesting facts and turns each journey into an exciting adventure. In this book she explores the worlds of bats, crocodiles, whales and penguins.
When discussing bats she writes so beautifully you can almost imagine having a bat as a pet, and some people do. They seem cuddly and cute! This was a surprise and anyone who is afraid of bats should read the first section. Not only are they loveable, they help to pollinate flowers and disperse seeds for trees.
The section on whales is magestic and awe inspiring. We learn about whales that "sail" and learn about various whale behaviours. Diane swims with a mother and a baby whale and they seem to be watching her as much as she is observing them.
To complete the book, a section on penguins looks at how they live in captivity vs. how they live in the wild. A close encounter with an attacking leopard seal adds excitement to the story about Antarctica. In each story, Diane Ackreman shows incredible bravery and makes you long for your own nature adventure. If you love this book, you may also enjoy:
A Natural History of the Senses
Cultivating Delight: A Natural History of My Garden
An Alchemy of Mind: The Marvel and Mystery of the Brain
~The Rebecca Review
Once I held a baby bat in my hands
as a child in Africa...
 An Ace for Ackerman December 20, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was assigned to read this novel for an English class and was not excited to dive into a scienc book. But the depth of Ackerman's poetic words creates had changed my thought. The Moon by Whale Light not only capivates the reader's thoughts of the endless beauty of the natural world but also inhances our appreication of well-written literature. Needless to say I will be asking for another of Ackerman's poetry books for under the Christmas tree.
intriguing November 9, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Naturalist-writer Diane Ackerman writes passionately about several animals and their habitats in this collection of nature essays. In sensuous prose she captures the experiences of whale watching, alligator sexing, bat investigating, and visiting Antarctica to view penguins in the wild. Ackerman gets up close and personal with these intriguing creatures, using poetic prose to describe their habitats, habits and appearance. Not only do the animals come alive, so too do the naturalists and various people she meets in her travels.
Enchanting February 21, 2004
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I think this was the first book by a naturalist that I ever read (and it was many years ago that I first read this book) that was utterly enchanting and engaging. Most books of this nature are didactic with occasional leaps into literary writing. Ackerman, in contrast, balances fact with fancy and reality with conjecture; she balances personal experience with the universal; she asks original questions that have no known answers; she merges conversation with conservation; she gives us a sense of who she is without losing the thread of what she's writing about. Not being particular scientific, I was surprised to find myself clinging to every word, reading the book straight through in perhaps two nights of bedtime reading.
The chapters on diverse topics can be read separately as individual essays, but there's a sense of progression of Ackerman's life that lends a personal touch to the book. These wonderful essays found their first home in The New Yorker. Subjects are all over the map: bats, alligators, penguins, and of course the whales of the title, which reads like a misprint - but isn't. In the process, Ackerman underscores man's responsibility to act in the protection of the world's other creatures: we are but one among many (and we're hugely outnumbered, BTW).
Besides being a perfect melding of animal lore, objective study, and conservation, The Moon by Whalelight is an example of nonfiction storytelling at its best.
 Nature writer vs. naturalist who writes November 20, 2001
0 out of 13 found this review helpful
Basically, as stories about animals we don't have much contact
with, this is a pretty good book. As science, well... Two sentences that floored me read, "How could anything that heavy float? But doesn't the moon float?" Uh, Ms. Ackerman, the moon is outside the earth's gravitational pull and ships float. What exactly was your point?
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