Pete Cross narrates with clarity and precision, assuming just the right pace for this fascinating audiobook on the meaning of navigation. His style lets the information speak for itself, illuminating the complex science. The result is an audiobook that sounds authoritative as Bond addresses human navigation, way finding, and the positives and negatives of getting lost, doing so in a way that is well documented and convincing. This audiobook has useful insights: If you are lost, stay put. And frustrating facts: GPS gives location but takes away navigational skills. Cross also tells harrowing stories like that of Geraldine Largay, who in 2013 got lost and died when she wandered off the Appalachian Trail in Maine.
Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2020
Duration: 6 hrs, 45 mins
Publisher: Dreamscape
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
Dr. Plotkin is an ethnobotanist who recounts his experiences searching for new medications in the Amazon rain forest. He makes an impassioned plea for the world to stop destroying this irreplaceable resource. Since the author reads his own work, we can rely on the pronunciation of some unusual botanical terms; however, his voice (presumably not trained for performance) lacks the enthusiasm and fascination the words suggest. Furthermore, with no chapter references and few pauses between sections, transitions, such as the change of location from Ecuador to Massachusetts, are awkward.
Pub Date: N/A
Duration: 3 hrs
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2026
The prose and Athavale’s expertly restrained performance meld gracefully in this flawless audiobook.
Narrator Vidish Athavale's voice is softly indelible, like the snow that blankets the Himalayan landscape the author so beautifully describes. An Indian wildlife biologist, Suryawanshi has spent decades studying snow leopards and their ecosystem among the planet's highest mountain peaks. What differentiates the author's scientific work, and his enthralling narrative, is his goal to understand and protect rather than conquer. The author also achieves a near-perfect balance between insightful and entertaining personal observations of remote communities (both animal and human); his own growth as a scientist, husband, and father; and the difficult and dangerous scientific work he and his colleagues have undertaken.
The prose and Athavale’s expertly restrained performance meld gracefully in this flawless audiobook.Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2026
Duration: 10 hrs, 9 mins
DD ISBN: 9798217336845
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2026
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