Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams

May 08, 2011 Trish added it · review of another edition

Shelves: animals, nonfiction, science, teen, ocean

Absolutely suited for would-be scientists of any age, this book is a great introduction to cephalopods. Lest you think you are not interested, consider this: as ocean temperatures rise and salinity changes, giant Humboldt squid are being found in huge numbers much farther north than ever before and have beached themselves as they did in Monterey Bay in 1992. Humboldt squid can reach up to 6 feet in length and weigh up to 100 pounds, and have a dangerous reputation for eating men alive, were one...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Bridgitte rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Cephalopods got the three stars. I LOVE them. Williams held them back. Her style and voice are juvenile. Little organization, lack of development, and silly comments and questions. She is also repetitive (repeating sentences verbatim just pages apart) and can't form a cohesive paragraph.
Even more importantly, her approach to the animals is callous...she has no problem joking about scientists killing them in rough ways right after she talks about how intelligent they are. Her main accolade f...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Conner Fulton rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is about what the title says; squids. Though I may not be the target audience for this book (i.e not a squid fanatic nor a marine biologist fanatic) I still found the book to have interesting facts. Williams talks about all aspects of the squid, from it camouflage capabilities to it's sexual reproduction cycle. I didn't know any of this going into the book, and while it was informative, it seems like something you would learn in an entire college or high school course, not in one book....more

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Dec 16, 2012 Angie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was hoping for a book that discussed the history and behavior of squid (the "world" of squid, I suppose you could say), as that seemed to be what was offered judging by the book description. Instead, this book is mostly concerned with cephalopod research and the medical/military application of those findings.

Maybe my expectations were off, but I thought the author was someone who had a certain respect for her subject matter. What I discovered instead were repeated, disheartening, accounts in t...more

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Dec 27, 2011 Scotchneat rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Williams is a squid scientist who sets out to explain a bit more about squid science and about the history of squid research.

Despite the flirty title, the text itself is more on the research side than the humorous side. And in a world where preservation and protection are keywords in any animal research, squid researchers seem to spend a lot of time catching, decapitating and otherwise eviscerating the objects of their ardour.

To be fair, I had no idea how much we use squid for research that help...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biology, kindle, non-fiction, owned, review-copies, science

I received this copy of Kraken through the publishers Abrams Books at NetGalley. It tells the under-rated story of squid (and octopus and cuttlefish) and how they have had a vital role to play in advancing understanding about human health and function. It also debunks some giant squid myths and contains some amazing facts about their life.

First off, I was really impressed with the writing style and accessibility of the book. I've read a lot of dry science books in my time that manage to make int...more I received this copy of Kraken through the publishers Abrams Books at NetGalley. It tells the under-rated story of squid (and octopus and cuttlefish) and how they have had a vital role to play in advancing understanding about human health and function. It also debunks some giant squid myths and contains some amazing facts about their life.

First off, I was really impressed with the writing style and accessibility of the book. I've read a lot of dry science books in my time that manage to make interesting topics dull, but this wasn't one of them. Williams writes for an interested novice, putting across all the science information in an easy to understand way but also adding interesting details about the scientists and animals themselves. This gave the book a good balance and meant that it was easy to read.

And there was no shortage of interesting trivia and facts. I didn't know much about cephalopods before reading, and was blown away by some of the information - about their blue blood, tool use, how they can bite off their own tentacles and make them light up to divert a predator, how a cuttlefish can camouflage to almost any background, how the suckers on some tentacles are more dexterous than human hands, how part of their brains are wrapped around their throats. The startling information for me was just how intelligent they are as a whole, but in a different way to humans. A cuttlefish can be trained to understand simple if..then rules e.g. if this signal comes up, go left; if a different signal comes up, go right.

Williams' agenda in writing the book did seem to be to show how intelligent they are and to argue that mammalian intelligence isn't the only kind of intelligence on the planet. The other parts of the book seemed to almost be a cry for more funding for cephalopod research by showing how useful limited research has been. I thought it was very interesting how scientists used the giant squid axon to find out about human brain function and how this could lead to treatment for diseases like Parkinson's. I agree with Williams that we should be spending more money on marine research.

If I had to find a criticism of this book, I would say that the title led me to believe there would be more about giant squid mythology/history. I wanted to read about Krakens and monstrous octopuses and ancient mythology alongside the science and there wasn't much of that, only a quick debunk of some giant squid myths.(less)

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Oct 05, 2011 Donna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, science

The first half of this book is fascinating. It gives a quick introduction to the science of cephalopods, explains some of their unique features, and tells us about how humans viewed them in the past. I was especially interested in the parts about the process of marine biology field research, you always see those pop-up GPS tags in television documentaries so it was interesting to learn about how they work.

Then the author got into squid connections to medical research, and she just lost me. Those...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Matty added it · review of another edition

Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
Wendy Williams

Throughout history Cephalopods have captured the imaginations of scientists, artists and writers alike. Why have these invertebrates had such an impact on our bipedal terra firma way of life? Well you need only read Wendy Williams' “Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid” to feel inspired yourself. This engaging and exciting book explores some of the history of the squid, touchi...more Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
Wendy Williams

Throughout history Cephalopods have captured the imaginations of scientists, artists and writers alike. Why have these invertebrates had such an impact on our bipedal terra firma way of life? Well you need only read Wendy Williams' “Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid” to feel inspired yourself. This engaging and exciting book explores some of the history of the squid, touching too upon the octopus and cuttlefish in a straightforward, slightly anecdotal manner that manages to include all kinds of facts that are simultaneously intriguing and terrifying.

Considering how long ago this group of animals split from us in the evolutionary tree, it is truly remarkable how much we still have in common; from the mechanics of neurons to the biological manufacturing of dopamine (some squids have dopamine in their ink, it is speculated that it makes their predators 'high' and forget what they were doing). It is these and other common traits that have made the squid an invaluable asset in medical research for many years, without them (and their enlarged axon) neurological science would not be as advanced as it is today. Then there are the traits that set us apart, seemingly bizarre characteristics that the world of sci-fi would struggle to invent, the astounding colour changing properties of the chromatophors, the regeneration of limbs and body parts, blue blood (isn't that just creepy?!) and the list goes on.

Williams manages to engage you, astound you and disturb you all at once; a very clever thing when you consider that this book has exceedingly more questions than answers, this is not a fault of the writing or Williams but rather a lack of research done in the life of these amazing creatures. These days the burning question is what intelligence these animals have and how do we measure it? The brain structure of Cephalapods are decentralised, the squid has it's wrapped partly around it's throat and in the head while the octopus has its brain spread between the head and throughout it's eight limbs.

This book explores the work and stories of marine scientists in pursuit of the answers weaving in the history of the Cephalapod. The writing style here suits the general pop science audience and while one could be critical of the way ideas seem to be broken up and jump from one to the other, it is more of a device to avoid alienating the reader who does not want cold figures forced to them. If that is your thing then you will still be pleased with this book, the facts are there, hidden in the stories, making it a wonderful treasure hunt with numerous rewards.

“Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid” says it all in the title, a wonderfully vibrant exploration of the deep dark underwater world of some very very distant relatives.(less)

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May 29, 2011 Grace rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Author: Wendy Williams
Title: Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
Description (source): Kraken is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters, and this book introduces one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants of the sea: the squid. The pages take the reader on a wild narrative ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way addressing some riddles about what intelligence is, and what monsters lie in the deep. In add...more Author: Wendy Williams
Title: Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid
Description (source): Kraken is the traditional name for gigantic sea monsters, and this book introduces one of the most charismatic, enigmatic, and curious inhabitants of the sea: the squid. The pages take the reader on a wild narrative ride through the world of squid science and adventure, along the way addressing some riddles about what intelligence is, and what monsters lie in the deep. In addition to squid, both giant and otherwise, Kraken examines other equally enthralling cephalopods, including the octopus and the cuttlefish, and explores their otherworldly abilities, such as camouflage and bioluminescence. Accessible and entertaining, Kraken is also the first substantial volume on the subject in more than a decade and a must for fans of popular science. (Amazon)
ARC source: netgalley
Writing style: Williams has an engaging and easily readable style that will make this book of science accessible and interesting to the lay reader. She is happy to let the scientists she interviewed speak for themselves and to present herself as a learner along with the reader.
Audience: the book will appeal to readers who are intrigued by the complexities of nature, biology, and the undersea world.
Major ideas: squid and their cousins the cuttlefish and the octopus are both unutterably different from humans (ever noticed that Cthulhu resembles a squid? Davy Jones?) and at the same time, similar enough to us that scientists have made breakthroughs in human physiology by studying cephalopods. Williams writes with considerable empathy for both the scientists and the animals.
Wrap-up: I would say that I’m definitely in the audience for a book like this, although I don’t read this type of non-fiction as often as I would like to. I was really interested in the book all the way through; I loved the anecdotes about squid and octopuses, and wanted to know more. I did think the chapter on the squid’s nervous system dragged a little, which is why the book gets 4/5*.
(less)

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Jul 13, 2011 A. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

This is one of those books I would give 3.5 if the scale allowed half-stars. A "popular science" book, this is aimed at the lay reader and is appropriate for all readers, regardless of their prior acquaintance with cephalopods and marine biology. Williams is a science writer rather than a scientist herself, trained in the art of making science readable to the general population.

As a longtime cephalopod enthusiast, much of the material was both familiar and new to me. The text's focus seemed to w...more This is one of those books I would give 3.5 if the scale allowed half-stars. A "popular science" book, this is aimed at the lay reader and is appropriate for all readers, regardless of their prior acquaintance with cephalopods and marine biology. Williams is a science writer rather than a scientist herself, trained in the art of making science readable to the general population.

As a longtime cephalopod enthusiast, much of the material was both familiar and new to me. The text's focus seemed to wobble a bit between between "cephalopods are awesome because..." and "here is why cephalopods are useful to humans". I recognize that their use to humans demonstrates the neatness that is the cephalopod brain/neuron-layout, as well as their startling similarities to Homo sapiens. However, it seems kind of odd to describe them in terms of...usage? I don't know, it kind of rubs me the wrong way, but then again I'm seldom accused of practicality.

I guess "unfocused" is a good way to describe how much of the text felt in a few ways. Then again, the subtitle of the book is The Curious, Exciting and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid so perhaps I'm the one going into the book with improper expectations.

On a fannish note, I was delighted to see the inclusion of Dr. James Wood, lord of The Cephalopod Page, which I'm been haunting since I was in junior high (and Dr. Wood was a graduate student and I was sending him dorky e-mails). Neil Shubin (one of the discoverers of Tiktaalik roseae) and his book Your Inner Fish (which I recommend) also were quoted. Actually, come to think of it, a number of books that I enjoy and have read were cited. I'll be digging through the bibliography and works cited for things to add to my "To Read" list.

However, it's a quickish read and I learned a number of cool things that I did not know about prior to reading this. So while not perfect, I would recommend it if you're into marine biology, particularly for lay readers. Folks used to more meat in their science reads may find this text lacking in substance.(less)

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Jun 18, 2012 Claudia Piña rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-nonfiction, 3-star, reviewed

Agradable lectura. Muy accesible, con gran sentido del humor. Particularmente disfrute que buena parte del libro tiene como principio el hecho de que mientras mas conoces algo, menos le temes. Que el mensaje sea efectivo o no, es otra cosa.

Y es que el mar y sus criaturas inspiran miedo y asco en muchos (me incluyo). A diferencia de los dinosaurios, terribles pero muertos al fin, o de los grandes felinos o los osos que son peligrosos pero involuntariamente bonachones, la fauna marina es tan poco...more

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May 12, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cephalopods, a group of animals that include octopuses and squid, may be some of the oldest creatures in the known world and can vary in size from a fraction of an inch to hundreds of pounds. In this wonderful exploration of one of the sea’s most mysterious class of creatures, Wendy Williams explores the strange and unique aspects of the cephalopod and explains why this odd creature may have done more for the advancement of medical science than any other animal in the world. She shares the reaso...more Cephalopods, a group of animals that include octopuses and squid, may be some of the oldest creatures in the known world and can vary in size from a fraction of an inch to hundreds of pounds. In this wonderful exploration of one of the sea’s most mysterious class of creatures, Wendy Williams explores the strange and unique aspects of the cephalopod and explains why this odd creature may have done more for the advancement of medical science than any other animal in the world. She shares the reasons people are so squeamish when it comes to this animal and the unique way they display intelligence that scientists are only now beginning to discover and tap into. Drawing upon research that stretches back hundreds of years, Williams shares the common misconceptions that have hounded squid and octopuses from their earliest days and delights her audience with the weird and wholly unexpected reality and astounding facts about the cephalopods that abundantly fill Earth’s oceans.

I’m a nut for science writing, particularly nature writing. In my efforts to discover all that I can about the flora and fauna that populate the world, I sometimes come across a book that I can’t ignore. This was such a book. I had never really given squid and octopuses much thought because, frankly, they seemed a little too gelatinous and slimy for my liking. But when the opportunity to review this book came up, I jumped on it because it fed my need to know more about nature and the strange things in the sea. I wasn’t disappointed in the slightest by this book and found that Williams has not only a conversational and accessible style, but that she used the most fascinating analogies and illustrations to show just what being a cephalopod is all about.

Both octopuses and squid have developed and adapted all sorts of body weaponry over the millions of years they have evolved. They are known as experts at defending themselves, which seems counterintuitive because they don’t have the protection offered by bones or shell with which to repel predators. Some cephalopods even take fleeing from prey to the next level, like the Japanese flying squid, who can launch its body out of the water to avoid predation. Some are adept at using their skin cells to change colors, and this technique is not only used for camouflage, but also to turn parts of their bodies into either an attractant or repellent by producing some truly startling colors. All cephalopods live in salt water and some can live up to fifteen years. Most cephalopods, however, do not live that long at all.

This book was so packed with interesting information that it was like a treasure trove for readers looking for strange tidbits to keep the brain churning. For example, did you know that there are a few squid who can expel a mucus-filled ink that actually mimics the form of the squid when it’s released, making it easier for the animal to escape? Or that most cephalopods have three hearts and copper-based blood (as opposed to human iron-based blood)? Many people have probably heard that a cephalopod arm is capable from separating from the body, but did you also know that the severed arm has the capability to live independently for hours? Some cephalopods can even leave the water to hunt on land at certain times. One of the most interesting things I found while reading is that some cephalopods are filled with a protein based bio-luminescent bacteria that enables them to turn lighter and darker beneath the waves, enabling them to be both invisible to predators and giving them light with which to hunt more capably.

The research side of this book was also fantastic. Because of cephalopod research, the field of neuroscience has advanced monumentally, and studying cephalopods has helped science fill in questionable evolutionary gaps that have remained unsolved for hundreds of years. Research on squid has even proved promising in the search for a cure to Alzheimer's. It was also interesting to discover that squid share many characteristics with humans, such as binocular vision, similar neurons and neurotransmitters, and even some intellectual developments. The book also shares the fascinating logistics of cephalopod reproduction (which was an eye-opening section indeed), and expounds on the ability of cephalopods to solve complex and multifaceted puzzles. In fact, researchers at this point are a bit stumped in devising puzzles for these animals that will challenge them, because at this point, they have figured them all out in record time. As of this book’s writing, scientists are trying to discover a way of quantifying cephalopod intelligence, which is proving to be a difficult task indeed.

Reading this book was like being in a natural science class, but unlike a science class, the book was always entertaining and relevant and never repetitious or boring. I found so much here to pique my interest, and as far as science writing goes, this book was top-notch. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks that the myriad creatures of the sea are fascinating, but I have to say, if you pick up this book and give it a few pages, you will be just as engrossed as I was, I’m sure of it. In this fascinating look into the science of cephalopods, no stone is left unturned. A remarkable read.(less)

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Jun 27, 2012 Harkinna rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I love cephalopods: octopus, cuttlefish, squid. I don’t eat them because I love them so...I could never even try one. They are just too smart(see video above regarding their smarts). So when Brent surprised me with this book, I was excited. But the book disappointed, or rather the author did. I know she spent a lot of time working on the book, but she injected herself into the story too often. And I feel like she needed a better editor. She repeated herself a lot.

I did learn some fun things thou...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Ellie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks, non-fiction, science

A seriously fascinating read. If you like to pigeon hole things, I'd have to say this would be popular science. If you're a squid specialist, you'll probably know everything in this book, but as there aren't many of them in the world, lets assume you'll learn a lot. That's if you can keep an open mind about the interestingness of cephalopods.

What's a cephalopod I hear you ask? It's a family of spineless creatures that includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish. This book covers all three but does fo...more A seriously fascinating read. If you like to pigeon hole things, I'd have to say this would be popular science. If you're a squid specialist, you'll probably know everything in this book, but as there aren't many of them in the world, lets assume you'll learn a lot. That's if you can keep an open mind about the interestingness of cephalopods.

What's a cephalopod I hear you ask? It's a family of spineless creatures that includes squid, octopus and cuttlefish. This book covers all three but does focus on squid, as the title suggests. You'll be amazed by the medical advances that have been made thanks to the research carried out on squid. I even learned a little about the human nervous system, although I did start to tune out a little when it got a bit complex.

On occasion the book branches out to cover other areas of behavioural research, such as a charming story of how the finch learns to sing. Another researcher, carries out an experiment with his pet dog and yellow snow.

There's a chapter on sex which ranges from the funny (an incident of jumping sperm in a classroom) to tragic (the story of the Great Pacific Octopus mother).

Whilst the writing style isn't going to win any literary awards, the subject matter more than makes up for anything lacking in the sentence structure. It is a non-fiction book after all and does well to be entertaining. I repeatedly found myself putting down my current fiction read so I could read a little bit more about squid.

On a side note, the picture captions were very basic. There was one photo near the beginning that just said “a squid”. I think if you have picked up the book to read you'll know what one looks like and it should either have been expanded upon or left out. I do think the drawings are a nice addition and I just love the cover illustration. In general, I think more books need pictures!

If you enjoy watching natural history documentaries, especially those concerning marine wildlife, I would sincerely recommend this book.

I'm glad I've never really liked squid as a food as I would now feel guilty eating such interesting little, and not so little, creatures.(less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Louise rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, purchased-2012, natural-history, sea-ships-and-sailors, covers-i-love, 2012-reads, marine-biology, squuuuuuid, 3-and-a-half-stars, 21st-century, science, female-authors, reviewed, books-i-own

3.5 stars

Kraken is one of those beautiful natural history hardbacks that I normally gaze longingly at for several minutes in the bookshop before reminding myself that a) it’s probably far too expensive for me b) I don’t read non-fiction that often and have a whole bookshelf of it already that I haven’t managed to read yet, and c) I’m not as much of a sciencey person as I would like to be and probably won’t understand it anyway. However, this winter I managed to get myself a temporary Christmas j...more
3.5 stars

Kraken is one of those beautiful natural history hardbacks that I normally gaze longingly at for several minutes in the bookshop before reminding myself that a) it’s probably far too expensive for me b) I don’t read non-fiction that often and have a whole bookshelf of it already that I haven’t managed to read yet, and c) I’m not as much of a sciencey person as I would like to be and probably won’t understand it anyway. However, this winter I managed to get myself a temporary Christmas job in Waterstone’s entitling me to 40% (40%!) discount for the month of December. So naturally I not only bought absolutely all of my Christmas presents there, I treated myself to some as well by ignoring all the paperback fiction I normally pick up and going straight for the stuff I always talk myself out of buying.

Kraken, unfortunately, doesn’t quite live up to its gorgeous cover (and it is a gorgeous cover). I liked it, I almost really liked it, but in the end I just had too many reservations about the writing style to enjoy it as much as I had been hoping to. It started well, for the first few chapters I was utterly hooked – cephalopods fascinate and creep me out in almost equal measure – but then it seemed to lose direction. I’d had some issues with Williams’ writing in the early chapters – it’s very obvious from early on that she’s a science journalist rather than a scientist and it reads like Sunday supplement journalism – always bringing it as much back to the author of the piece as the actual subject. Too many unneccessary ‘I think’ and ‘This reminds me of’ or slightly over-flowery scene-setting that actually distracted my attention from the subject and reinforced the presence of the author in moments that didn’t need it. But after a few chapters it seemed to lose something in the sense of direction as well.

Although each chapter does flow on from the other and although it’s full of fascinating stuff, I still can’t really quite work out the logic to the structure. It all seems to flow in a slightly aimless way, a bit hither and thither, sometimes moving onto something else and sometimes revisiting things from earlier chapters – which leads to quite a bit of repetition. Of course it’s probably thanks to Williams’ journalist background that I can actually understand the science involved at all and am not overwhelmed by technical words and details. It’s definitely an accessable read that doesn’t require any qualifications in marine biology before you can understand it – but I do think that it could have benefited from a more scientific approach to structuring the chapters.

The second disappointment was that it wasn’t as much about squid as I had been expecting based on the title. And I’m not talking about the fact that squid share their page time with octopuses and cuttlefish – which are both equally fascinating – but the human characters who fill up the book. In many places it’s almost more about the human experts and cephalopod research scientists than it is about the animals themselves. ‘The Curious, Exciting, And Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid‘ is not just the science of how a squid works but how the squid has helped human scientists with other problems. So as well as learning about the evolution of the squid eye we get descriptions of the harvesting of squid for research purposes, stomachs being removed, heads cut off, and their enlarged axon (nerve cells) studied by students of neuroscience because they’re similar in structure but much larger than human axons. Now I’m not squeamish and I didn’t actually mind this, it makes fascinating, if slightly gruesome reading in fact – it just simply wasn’t quite what I had expected when I picked up the book. Interesting as I find dissections and scientific research (I was always upset that we never got to dissect an eye for GCSE biology at my school, a squid would have been amazing!) I’m more interested in the animals themselves than how Julie’s PHd about them is going (very well, as it happens) and would probably have prefered a lot of the human research stuff to appear as little asides rather than as the main focus of whole chapters.

But that’s a problem with my expectations – obviously Williams is more interested in the research and scientific potential of squid and it’s totally valid that she does chose to write about that. I’m not sure I would have picked it up had I known how the balance of science of squid/squids contribution to science was weighted, but I’m very glad that I did, it just wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I would probably, however, recommend it to people more interested in the sciencey side of things than the animal side – quite a few other reviews I’ve read were pretty disgusted with the animal cruelty of the scientific experiments and harvesting (I was pretty horrified myself actually by the octopus who had had the left and right sides of its brain split to function individually). For me the thing that bothered me most though was the ‘me-ness’ of the writing style – it’s rather like a tv documentary where the presenter is just slightly overdoing it so you’re always aware of their presence (more ‘The One Show does marine biology' than David Attenborough’s Blue Planet). But that didn’t stop it from being both an enjoyable and extremely educational read.(less)

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May 08, 2011 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: science fans, marine biologist wannabes

Shelves: netgalley, nature, nonfiction, kindle

I have been on a streak with the popular science books, and I am happy to say it continues with this book. Full disclosure: I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau, I went to Marine Biology camp, I went to Marine Biology campus in college, and were it not for a wicked tendency to seasickness and an awesome ornithology professor I would probably be a Marine Biologist today. I love the ocean and the animals in it.

Wendy Williams (such name confusion! Between China Miéville's new book by the same name a...more I have been on a streak with the popular science books, and I am happy to say it continues with this book. Full disclosure: I grew up watching Jacques Cousteau, I went to Marine Biology camp, I went to Marine Biology campus in college, and were it not for a wicked tendency to seasickness and an awesome ornithology professor I would probably be a Marine Biologist today. I love the ocean and the animals in it.

Wendy Williams (such name confusion! Between China Miéville's new book by the same name and several famous Wendy Williamses, whew!) gets me, but she gets the squeamish people too. So if you don't automatically love squid that is not on your dinner plate, don't give up. (But don't look for sympathy from me. I don't get you, squeamish people!) She follows the history of squid in popular culture, art, and writing, and finds them and their octopi brethren thoroughly vilified. She takes time to dispel rumors, and even to touch some critters herself.

Williams tackles the GIANT SQUID that has fascinated artists and scientists for years. Their carcasses have popped up randomly, confirming stories of their existence though some were overblown. And they EAT PEOPLE! No, not really. But they look super-cool and they live really deep in the ocean. She follows scientists studying the weedy Humboldt squid, and she also spends a lot of time with neurologists using squid nerves as models for human nerves. Fascinating! I loved the section on animal intelligence, where she notes the anthropocentric attitude toward invertebrates as stupid and considers the ways that WE would be stupid to a squid.

Between Finding Nemo ("You guys made me ink!" being one of the highlights of the film for me) and the adorable octopus with the coconut shell, cephalopods are moving up in popular opinion. Hopefully the kid fans of Sponge Bob and Nemo will grow up to read this book and discover the really amazing animals that inspired the shows. Williams's humor and scientific curiosity are qualities you will enjoy in your tour guide into the cephalopod world.

Thanks to Abrams Books for providing a copy of this book via netgalley. My opinions are my own.(less)

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Sep 29, 2012 Elizabeth K. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-new-reads

This was essentially interesting, because hi, it's about cephalopods. And there was plenty of good information about octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish. They're really neat.

As far as pop science writing goes, this was a little weird. Some of the analogies used to explain scientific phenomena were harder to follow than the actual science. Squid says what?

I was also a little disappointed with the poor quality of the (too few) photographs used to illustrate this book. Yes, I get that there aren't a...more

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Jul 27, 2012 Jordan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, non-fiction, read-but-unowned

This book had some potential and some interesting facts in it, but it really needed some tightening up.

First off, the title. It puts an emphasis on "Kraken" making me think that Kraken and Giant Squid are going to be a significant part of the book. But they're not. If I were to name one squid this book was about I'd say the Humboldt squid stole most of the time. The Giant Squid really is only used to snare the reader in. A couple squid legends are mentioned in passing and there's not much else o...more This book had some potential and some interesting facts in it, but it really needed some tightening up.

First off, the title. It puts an emphasis on "Kraken" making me think that Kraken and Giant Squid are going to be a significant part of the book. But they're not. If I were to name one squid this book was about I'd say the Humboldt squid stole most of the time. The Giant Squid really is only used to snare the reader in. A couple squid legends are mentioned in passing and there's not much else other than the conclusion that the giant squid is mysterious. Also on the title. This book is supposedly about the "Science of Squid" but a significant portion of this book is spent on other Cephalopod. The Giant Pacific Octopus in fact gets three chapters, more than the titular Kraken. The Cuttlefish also gets its own chapter as well. There's also a lot of time spent on digressions about such things as neuroscience. So even though the title promises awesome squid science potentially focusing on the Giant Squid, instead the book delivers a kind of all over the place look at squid and evolutionary history and neuroscience and octopus and whatever else the author was distracted by.

Second, squid axons. Actually axons in general. The whole middle chunk of this book was about them. And it really could have been shortened significantly and focused more on squid. Yes it's interesting that squid axons helped advance neuroscience and helped develop cures for human disorders, but this book is about squid and not the history of neuroscience. There was way too much getting off-track with this and my eyes started majorly glazing. In addition it felt like there was a lot of repetition in the parts about the squid.

Third, the author. Kept inserting opinions and musings that got repetitive and annoying. I get it, intelligence can be possessed in different ways. Please stop pondering how to design tests to tell if dogs have a sense of identity. Or cuttlefish. Or monkeys. Because this book is not about dogs or cuttlefish or monkeys or humans. It's about SQUID. Mention identity and intelligence tests and move on to your actual subject, please.

And lastly. The pictures. Were relatively small and black & white. When talking about squid and their ability to change color it would be great to have a nice color picture of this instead of a grainy little black & white picture. A few color pages could have made a significant improvement to this book. This picture instead were boring and added next to nothing to this book.(less)

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Apr 13, 2012 g-na rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biology-zoology

I am one of those people who are intrigued by cephalopods, and this book only served to feed that interest. This book goes into some detail about the evolution, anatomy, and physiology of squids (plus a bit about octopuses and cuttlefishes) and shows you what unique creatures they are. Williams spent time with cephalopod researchers and conveys their interest in their subjects while dismaying the negative myths that sometimes surround these tentacle-y subjects. She also continually touches on th...more

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Jan 22, 2012 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Despite the title, the book looks at several types of cephalopod, not just squid. It's written at a pretty basic level, easily readable by pretty much anyone, and I enjoyed the first half in particular. In the latter half the author starts explaining how useful the squid have been to our understanding of human neurons, and turns into a basin lesson on biology and cell structure; as a biologist I already knew most of this so lost interest a bit. The author is clearly not a scientist herself and h...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Peggy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A lovely, easy-to-grasp overview of squid and why they are so important to us. Could it have used more pictures? Sure. Could it have talked about more types of squid? Of course. But for the author's purpose—showing us how the study of squid has directly benefited humans—she covered the right bases. Heck, she even interviews a professor from my alma mater (Dr. Purdy, for all you curious SU alums), who I had no idea was studying cuttlefish (it was regular fish when I was in school).

To sum up: squ...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Punk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, science

Non-Fiction. Cephalopods throughout history.

Better written than Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate and covering a lot of the same ground, using a lot of the same sources, but with an emphasis on squid.

The prose is easy and the author offers some good metaphors to describe unfamiliar concepts, but the structure and focus were a bit loose. The narrative jumps around enough that I had trouble remembering scientists introduced in earlier chapters. The section on squid axons was maybe too...more

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Oct 15, 2011 Amy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned-without-finishing

I did not love this book in the way that I thought I would, being an avid lover of squid, cuttlefish, and yes, even the lowly octopus, since way back in the day.

The cause of this lack of enthusiasm on my part is three-fold:

1. The tiny black-and-white photographs give the book the feeling of a high school newspaper from the 1990s. Especially in the chapters that discuss the amazing color capabilities of squid, the lack of color photos is amazingly frustrating. And they're tiny - you really have...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poseidon, 2012, science, non-fiction, nautical

Themes: science, research, fishing, weird critters, evolution

I love the ocean. I just can't swim. (And actually, I hate the water. I have tried to learn to swim, but it's this phobia thing I just can't seem to master.) So I have to get my underwater fix from documentaries and books.

And the giant squid is like the coolest sea creature ever! I mean, it eluded scientist for hundreds of years, but sailors knew better. It is legendary. So a whole book about it was just impossible to resist.

Turns out...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Todd Martin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: environment-science

Most readers will find the title of Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid a bit misleading. First of all, the book looks at an array of cephalopods – octopi, cuttlefish and nautiluses in addition to squid, second of all, I didn’t find anything I’d consider slightly disturbing, and finally, the mythological Kraken was largely ignored. Three strikes for the marketing geniuses who came up with that title.

With that out of the way, I find myself struggling to come u...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Leslie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Williams ostensibly is writing about squid, giant and otherwise, but what she really writes about is the contribution to our own well-being that research on squid has made. Interesting and thought-provoking, Williams educates the reader about cephalopods of all kinds, including octopi and cuttlefish, while highlighting the applications to humankind from ongoing research into these seemingly alien creatures.

Fascinating and yet a little disturbing, Williams' book is much like the squid themselves...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Correen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Squid, Octopi, Cuttlefish are an amazing lot! I have been fascinated ever since I saw video of squid changing colors. Williams provides a compelling account of cephalopods, a history of human interaction with them, their amazing capabilities, their contribution to human medical knowledge, and the questions they raise about the meaning of intelligence. It is fascinating to learn that squid neurons are so similar to humans that they can provide clues to Parkinson's disease, Alzheimers, and other n...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Mo Tipton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-nerd

I absolutely loved this book. I agree with other reviewers in that the title is a sneaky marketing misnomer and the teeny black and white photos are so indistinguishable that they might as well have not included them, but in spite of this, I was completely fascinated from page one. Williams ties together so many interesting factoids, from the coining of the word serendipity to musings on measuring different types of intelligence, I was actually disappointed when the book was over; I could have h...more

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Mar 11, 2011 Sarah Porter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can't honestly say I loved absolutely every second. There were moments when I found Williams's prose a little cutesy, or her transitions jarring, or I wished there was more information about something. But for a slim book, it packs in an incredible amount of breathtaking information and also does a great job of presenting enough of the basic scientific context to let you understand the material. (E.g., I understand how neurons work a lot better now.) Consistently enthralling.

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Jan 29, 2012 Jihan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm a fan of cephalopods and I learned some interesting things from this book. I would have liked more straight up cephalopod information and fewer descriptions of scientists at work. The chapters also feel disorganized and sometimes the style gets in the way of the content. If you're interested in the subject, this book is worth a try, but I got less out of it than I expected.

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Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid

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