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Reviews tagging 'Dementia'
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery
6 reviews
kk_gotit_goinon's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
5.0
I have never been so moved by a book before. It's beautifully written. You instantly fall in love with everyone, vertebrate or invertebrate. You learn so much about so many different animals, people and beliefs. I cannot recommend it enough, I'm seriously considering rereading it already because there's so much to take in.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Terminal illness, Grief, Self harm, and Dementia
Minor: Self harm
aspi8tionalpile's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
I would highly recommend the audiobook format. The author is a very engaging and enthusiastic storyteller, so just let go and enjoy. Her experiences with octopuses leave you envious and I became quite attached to these wondrous beings. Other of her experiences like learning to scuba dive weren’t as engaging. She builds her case with respect to soul throughout the book while never overtly talking about it, then draws her conclusion on the matter at the very end. It would have been interesting to approach the topic earlier. I did thoroughly enjoy the book. I lost sleep because I just couldn’t put it down. Sign of a good book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Car accident, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Dementia, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
bonsai_delores's review
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
A good book for learning descriptive narrative. Does an excellent job “humanizing” many types of ocean creatures.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief and Animal death
Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt, and Dementia
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
redrosemoth's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Vomit and Dementia
purplepenning's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
This feels like a book that didn't age well, but it was just published in 2015 (and made National Book Award finalist), so... I dunno.
The author is a talented memoirist and travel/nature writer and is clearly having a love affair of sorts with octopuses. However, although much of the book personalizes and attempts to empathize with these incredibly intelligent octopuses (which the author literally calls "inmates" when in aquariums — definitely a tone), there seems to be a sharp limit to the implications considered. For example, they get bored and enjoy interacting with puzzles and humans, but it's okay to leave a young octopus in a plain, dark, boring, solitary barrel for weeks (months?) — and then wonder about her behavioral issues? Similarly, is the end of life "dementia" they experience really inevitable or is a life in captivity and on display contributing to it (and what a flippantly brutal comment about how we "take humans with dementia 'off display'" and hide them away so it's probably okay to do that with octopuses too!)? Octopus lives are short, so grief is probably inevitable while studying them and becoming attached, but the tragic outcomes for the octopus inmates here don't seem inevitable. And while there is genuine grief in those moments, the overall tone is blithely upbeat.
The author struggled, due to an ear condition, to deep dive on her forays to see octopuses in the wild. She seems to have similarly struggled to deep dive in her examinations of their lives in captivity. Overall, it's an interesting, informative, touching observation of the lives of captive octopuses but it's not a satisfyingly full exploration of those lives or their potentials.
The author is a talented memoirist and travel/nature writer and is clearly having a love affair of sorts with octopuses. However, although much of the book personalizes and attempts to empathize with these incredibly intelligent octopuses (which the author literally calls "inmates" when in aquariums — definitely a tone), there seems to be a sharp limit to the implications considered. For example, they get bored and enjoy interacting with puzzles and humans, but it's okay to leave a young octopus in a plain, dark, boring, solitary barrel for weeks (months?) — and then wonder about her behavioral issues? Similarly, is the end of life "dementia" they experience really inevitable or is a life in captivity and on display contributing to it (and what a flippantly brutal comment about how we "take humans with dementia 'off display'" and hide them away so it's probably okay to do that with octopuses too!)? Octopus lives are short, so grief is probably inevitable while studying them and becoming attached, but the tragic outcomes for the octopus inmates here don't seem inevitable. And while there is genuine grief in those moments, the overall tone is blithely upbeat.
The author struggled, due to an ear condition, to deep dive on her forays to see octopuses in the wild. She seems to have similarly struggled to deep dive in her examinations of their lives in captivity. Overall, it's an interesting, informative, touching observation of the lives of captive octopuses but it's not a satisfyingly full exploration of those lives or their potentials.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Terminal illness, Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Sexual content and Sexism
eladnarra's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Terminal illness, Dementia, and Chronic illness
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