The extraordinariness of whales, what they mean to us, and their immense connections across the globe and beyond. Beautifully written, but occasionally lapses into flowery waffle and an overload of metaphor. Chapter on plastic is particularly painful.

Actually, this is a DNF.

I listened for 2 hours at 1.2 speed and stopped when I realized the vast majority of the time had been spent on depressing topics. I realize the world is in a climate crisis and that there are things that we humans are responsible for that can't be undone. But two hours of this without a glimmer of hope or positivity is more than I can take. Maybe if we weren't STILL in a pandemic, I have been more tolerant and given it 3 hours...

This book was great but hard to read, mostly didn't help climate anxiety / sadness at how humans treat the planet etc feelings. BUT I did keep saying WOW out loud and have learned many new things about whales which is always a delight. Look forward to being That Guy down the pub later.

Interesting stories but a lot of rhetorical Qs and very wordy- unnecessarily so

Rating is 3.5 stars.
This book started out really solid. I was interesting in the blending of whale biology, human psychology, philosophy and history. However the latter half of this book gets lost in philosophy and the author’s own personal experiences. The whale biology and ecology gets less and less prevalent as she writes about her own inner philosophical dilemmas. The author does also go a bit over the top with her prose and vocabulary, as if she is trying to ensure her readers know she is intelligent. This comes across as annoying at best, pretentious at worst. It was a good book overall but it could have been better and I was hoping for more of a scientific approach.

Absolutely incredible. Easily my favorite book this year. Devastating and gorgeous.