A wondrous look at our love-hate relationship with the most human of animals.
Our fin-footed friends (and foes).
With their big flirty eyes, they are modern man’s pet “sea dogs.” With their haunting, near-human voices, they were the sirens of ancient mariners. With their unexpected humor (“Hey you. Get outta there!” a seal named Hoover habitually barked, complete with Boston accent, at startled New England Aquarium visitors), they are animal celebrities par excellence, regular headliners. Flippers be damned, seals are human animals, so much so that Nordic and Celtic legends worship part-seal, part-human selkies. But with their rapier teeth and sentient whiskers that identify prey in any ebb-and-flow of water, seals have also been one of our biggest archnemeses. Because they are such superior “fishermen,” seals have deprived us of the food we’ve needed at countless historic junctures. One result: We have passed laws both to conserve seals and to cull them. Morris, a masterful storyteller, has done full justice to these creatures of the deep. A visit to a remote island of 400,000 seals yields much beautifully described seal sturm und drang. The island is a mating site, so it is, in one way, “National Geographic on steroids. The seals didn’t come to socialize, they came to further their species. Pup, nurse, mate, survive. The plump, wide-eyed pups were fearful. Their mothers were deflated balloons, weakened by their sacrifice. The males were battle-scarred.” But as this is also a site where seals live unbothered by their human bêtes noires, it is also like stepping into a “watercolor painting” by Bob Ross. Still, the author concludes that our fascination with both the humanity in nature and the nature in humanity will result in our reconciling the two—when it comes to seals, anyway. “Perhaps the loudest anti-seal voices have been those of fishermen,” she muses. “But fishermen are also the ones calling the Marine Mammals of Maine hotline to report stranded seals in every season.”
A wondrous look at our love-hate relationship with the most human of animals.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781643755014
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.
The third volume in the Elephant Whisperer series.
In this follow-up to An Elephant in My Kitchen, Malby-Anthony continues her loving portrait of the Thula Thula wildlife reserve, which she co-founded in 1998 with her late husband, South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony, who published the first book in the series, The Elephant Whisperer, in 2009. Following his death in 2012, Malby-Anthony sought to honor his legacy by continuing his vision “to create a massive conservancy in Zululand, incorporating our land and other small farms and community land into one great big game park.” At the same time, the elephants gave her “a sense of purpose and direction.” In the Zulu language, thula means quiet, and though the author consistently seeks to provide that calm to her charges, peace and tranquility are not always easy to come by at Thula Thula. In this installment, Malby-Anthony discusses many of the challenges faced by her and her staff, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic. These included an aggressive, 2-ton rhino named Thabo; the profound loss felt by all upon the death of their elephant matriarch, Frankie; difficulty obtaining permits and the related risk of having to relocate or cull some of their animals; the fear of looting and fire due to civil unrest in the region; and the ongoing and potentially deadly struggles with poachers. Throughout, the author also shares many warm, lighthearted moments, demonstrating the deep bond felt among the humans and animals at the reserve and the powerful effects of the kindness of strangers. “We are all working in unity for the greater good, for the betterment of Thula Thula and all our wildlife….We are humbled by the generosity and love, both from our guests and friends, and from strangers all around the world,” writes the author. “People’s open-hearted support kept us alive in the darkest times.”
A heartwarming and inspiring story for animal lovers.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 9781250284259
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
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