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| Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents | 
| Author: Marty Essen
Publisher: Encante Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $1.99
You Save: $17.96 (90%)
New (28) Collectible (3) from $1.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 1077054
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 455
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0977859975
Dewey Decimal Number: 910.4
EAN: 9780977859979
ASIN: 0977859975
Publication Date: October 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Condition: New, unused book.; bkcs
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 19 | | NEXT » |
 A surprisingly enjoyable read April 28, 2008
This book takes you on an adventure with Marty Essen and his wife has they travel the globe in search of interesting creatures. Normally this style of book is something that I would find a bit dull. After reading this book I want to join in and sit down and have a beer with Marty. He has a style of writting that is very descriptive and really brings you the reader into the scene.
You can really get the feel of what the amazon must be like adventuring through the rainforests. The way Marty describes looking for the animals is amazing. You get a wonderful sense of the sights, sounds, and feel of every place that he goes in the book. The way he describes looking for amphibians almost makes me want to join in the "herping".
The photography in this book is amazing. I would love to see a coffee table book of all of the photos that were taken. I know I was scanning through the photos to see if I could find photos of the creatures they were looking for in the book. I think anyone of any age would find this book appealing as it is about the adventure and excitement for looking for unique creatures. I would highly recommend this book to you if you were looking for something different to read.
Cool Creatures, Hot Planet: Exploring the Seven Continents July 18, 2007
Marty Essen was a workaholic who never took a day off work sick and rarely had a vacation. Then, he turned forty and had a self described "midlife crisis". However, unlike many men facing this problem, Marty didn't buy a fast car. Instead, he finally took a long overdue vacation with his wife.
Cool Creatures, Hot Planet describes the author's vacation, actually a series of vacations that took the couple to exotic locations on each of the seven continents. Each trip was hand picked not for relaxation and a little sun but for the best possible wilderness adventure and animal viewings (particularly snakes which the author seems to adore).
I completely enjoyed Cool Creatures, Hot Planet. I felt like I was along for the ride on each of his travels. The shear magnitude of the animals and natural habitats that this man got to experience is awe inspiring. The experiences are absolutely priceless.
Entertaining,informative and vicariously enjoyable! July 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What an enjoyable read,Cool Creatures,hot planet should be required reading in high school.At times it was laugh out loud and always thought provoking.If I was forced to pick a favorite adventure it would be the Canada trip and the night with the wolves howling. It gives me goose bumps just thinking about it.Marty and Deb remind us that this beautiful planet we are sharing, needs all of us to participate in its care if it is to survive for the next generations to come.
Close Encounters with Creatures on 7 Continents June 28, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Did you ever watch Steve Irwin grab a snake in the wild and then think, I want to do that? If so, then this is the book for you. Marty Essen starts to live his dream with a trip to the Amazon. Gamely accompanied by his wife, Deb, he treks through the rain forest seeking dangerous snakes. Finding the experience fascinating, the couple followed that trip with seven others over the next 3 1/2 years.
The reader accompanies them on expeditions to Canada, Borneo, Australia, Antartica, Europe and Africa. Avoiding the tourist areas, they sought out close encounters with the wildlife and nature in each continent.
His enthusiasm for herps (snakes and lizards) plus exotic insects makes lively reading. Plenty of adventures fill the 450 pages, including an attack on their canoe by a hippo.
Marty's photographs of the wildlife kept me flipping to the photo section to see the striking pictures that matched his description. I sure wish they were full page photos, as each deserved more than the allotted 1/3 to 1/8 of a page. Really some stunning shots.
At first I found his humor a bit juvenile and could have skipped the imaginary conversations with his dogs who traveled with them in Canada. Gradually the light touch grew on me and I felt I knew him and his wife fairly well by the end of the book. Fun people.
A few places he drops references to President Bush and the war and the government's destructive policies on the environment. Some may find these annoying, but they don't seem inappropriate in a book about saving wildlife.
I particularly enjoyed the section on their Australian trip as he described places I'd seen myself. His assessment of the Australian people hit the target. They are a delight to know and are quite progressive about conservation compared to Americans.
Another part that resonated with me was the description of the caribou migration during their trip to Canada. I'd read James Oliver Curwood's description of that massive animal movement in The Alaskan. It was interesting to see the change that a century of human infringement causes.
If you love to travel or want to experience exotic places vicariously, pick up a copy of Cool Creatures, Hot Planet.
(I had to cover the front of the book so I wouldn't see the whip-scorpion on his face. That bit was too much for me.)
Real life Jungle Book ! June 18, 2007
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I wasn't sure what to expect upon my first encounter with this book since I'm used to watching nature shows on TV and rarely get to read about them. This book turned out to be a wild and fascinating adventure of a married couple traveling though the seven continents, commenting on many steps of their journey with sharp eye for the tiniest details that made for a marvelous book. Marty Essen shows his deep talent for writing, his witty comments and jokes; descriptions of the people, places, even their dogs that went with them to Canada were so entertaining that I never knew what was coming up next. This isn't some boring nature book but a delicious seven course meal of the highest caliber. The book is easy to read yet is chock full packed with incredible information that can only be witnessed by the person who actually went to those places and experiences the cold, the hot and dangerous spots that hold so much allure to all of us.
First leg of the trip was Belize, located on the Caribbean Sea where they searched for deadly snakes and explored flora and fauna of the humid, tropical jungle followed by an amazing boat ride through the rivers of the Amazon. Next they visited Australia, savoring the red hot beauty and in search of cute marsupials followed by a 5,572mile drive to Canada and back with their adorable dogs where they slept in tents and discovered beauty that is closer to most Americans than they think. Up next was Antarctica, a magnificent place that so few of us get to experience, and with Marty and Deb it was a chilling and glorious landscape that wasn't as alien as it appears to be. Borneo, Europe and Africa were the last places that were covered, making me feel that the whole Earth was covered with footprints that belonged to the Essens. Their cheerful and sometimes scary encounters were so wonderfully written about, supplemented with marvelous photographs that I had to look at every time I cracked the book. They were also in perfect order with the book, giving the reader a transition into their trip from place to place, making it seem effortless even though it took them a few years to complete. It also helped that Marty took notes while traveling, making this book more authentic and adding little bits and pieces of conversation and jokes that could have been lost otherwise.
I felt closer to some of my favorite animals after reading this gripping book, felt the warmth and hospitality of people from far away places and best of all I feel like I got the front row seat at a ride of my life, thinking that perhaps one day I will visit those places and give them the same respect as the author did. Marty placed great value upon respecting our planet, not littering and being careful with wild animals, not bringing them any harm when they are being observed. People should go and visit places to take the beauty in, not to take it away and diminish it in any way.
This was a really exciting read, a wild life memoir filled with laughs and valuable information that will grip any reader and it made me feel like I went on an adventure of my own, reading about the close encounters with the most beautiful places and coolest animals.
- Kasia S.
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