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unladylike's review against another edition
5.0
Just as I had predicted and hoped, with this book in Rachel Carson's trilogy of eloquent ecological synopses, I was immersed into a world of unfathomable information (pun intended). What I kept wishing I had throughout this beautifully written audiobook is a contemporary commentary or annotations. So often Carson asks a significant question but then says, "as of this time, no one knows." This was published in the early 1950s, though, so surely the scientific understanding of many of these topics has advanced significantly, even just since 2019.
Carson's passionate curiosity and oratory style makes the worlds of marine biology, geology, and the forces that cause the seas to move accessible and appealing to the layperson. However, she is also a product of her time and culture, and at times uses phrases and perspectives that are distinctly ethnocentric and white supremacist. Thankfully, she does also at times include descriptions of oral traditions from non-European, precolonial, and ancient civilizations.
Carson's passionate curiosity and oratory style makes the worlds of marine biology, geology, and the forces that cause the seas to move accessible and appealing to the layperson. However, she is also a product of her time and culture, and at times uses phrases and perspectives that are distinctly ethnocentric and white supremacist. Thankfully, she does also at times include descriptions of oral traditions from non-European, precolonial, and ancient civilizations.
terpgirl42's review against another edition
5.0
I loved reading this with the benefit of 70 additional years of scientific exploration and discovery behind me - being able to see how far we've come, and how much more we have yet to learn is humbling.
ghosthermione's review against another edition
Fascinating to read. Some of the knowledge of the time, specifically around the formation of the moon, plate tectonics and the (absence of) the concept of pangaea, is absolutely outdated. And at the same time it gives a good idea of the knowledge of the time from the formation of the seas up to current scientific experiments and early offshore oil drilling. Which is interesting in the context of Silent Spring, written a decade later.
wilmacederfeldt's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
jfmirab2's review against another edition
4.0
The book suffers a bit from age - a lot of the information contained in it has been overwritten. (An easy example in the first chapter is an estimation of the earth's age set to be 2.5 billion years, which is currently short by a margin of what rounds up to two billion years.) I don't hold that against the book, but because much of the book is rapid fire information, and I am not trained in geology or oceanography, I ended up finding myself forced to Google a lot, or to take what I was reading with many grains of salt.
I learned of Rachel Carson through a documentary, and ordered "The Sea Around Us" and "Silent Spring" simultaneously. This book arrived first, and I read it first. The documentary praised a beautiful and accessible writing style, which I partially agree with - the bookend chapters were beautifully written, with a nearly narrative style of nonfiction and interesting facts paced well around them. But other middle chapters seemed too quick to dole out information; jumping around factual sentences in the style of a documentary script, but with none of the scenes present to make the reading stick.
I've tried to diagnose it in the paragraph above, but regardless of the cause, the pacing of the book was unsettling to me, and the information contained felt rushed. I ended chapters either enraptured or worn out, and the dissonance between those feelings makes me throw on four stars rather than five - still, I recognize that this was a significant work of conservation and one of the only efforts to tell a comprehensive summary of earth's oceans, including a geologic history. A good and important book, but often as it can be with nonfiction, not a great one.
I learned of Rachel Carson through a documentary, and ordered "The Sea Around Us" and "Silent Spring" simultaneously. This book arrived first, and I read it first. The documentary praised a beautiful and accessible writing style, which I partially agree with - the bookend chapters were beautifully written, with a nearly narrative style of nonfiction and interesting facts paced well around them. But other middle chapters seemed too quick to dole out information; jumping around factual sentences in the style of a documentary script, but with none of the scenes present to make the reading stick.
I've tried to diagnose it in the paragraph above, but regardless of the cause, the pacing of the book was unsettling to me, and the information contained felt rushed. I ended chapters either enraptured or worn out, and the dissonance between those feelings makes me throw on four stars rather than five - still, I recognize that this was a significant work of conservation and one of the only efforts to tell a comprehensive summary of earth's oceans, including a geologic history. A good and important book, but often as it can be with nonfiction, not a great one.
mvanhar's review against another edition
4.0
While this was a slow read, it was a relaxing and enchanting exploration of sea life and a look into a totally different world. Carson had a fascinating life, and glad I followed up on the reference from Popova's Figuring.
dlrcope's review against another edition
5.0
This book taught me how the ocean was formed, and how it is renewed. I learned that I live almost on the Sargasso Sea, and I learned what's special about that. I learned about the great cycles of the sea, how earth and minerals and water are exchanged, and also about the annual seasons in the sea. I learned about the ocean currents, and why all the beaches south of Hatteras are so much more comfortable for swimming.
This book is dated. Even after reading the footnotes, there is some information that is no longer current, but most of the information is still valid. If you love the ocean, I hope you'll read this book. It'll change the way you see things.
This book is dated. Even after reading the footnotes, there is some information that is no longer current, but most of the information is still valid. If you love the ocean, I hope you'll read this book. It'll change the way you see things.
tarioronar's review against another edition
3.0
This book would greatly benefit from some maps in the text.