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Sigh, yet another popular book of narrative nonfiction that takes what is essentially a topic for a good magazine essay and blows it up to book length with all kinds of digressive excursions into anything remotely relating the main story. Basically, in 1997, a tiger killed a hunter in the Russian Far East, leading to a tiger-hunt. This takes about fifty pages to detail (and I do mean detail), leaving another 250 to be filled with all kinds of material, such as the history of the region (which is
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This is a hard book to rate. Some passages were brilliant and rated a 4; others bored me half to death and would merit only a 2. Overall a decent read, with good subject matter and adequate research. The author has a tendency to wander off topic; sometimes this enhances the story but there are those other times where you wish he would quit lecturing and get back on topic, already. It's a book with great potential but might have been improved by being briefer and more to the point.
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The sensationalistic aspect of this book is that it's about a man-eating Amur tiger in a desolate region of Russia's Far East. But what makes it a worthwhile read is that John Vaillant places the story of the tiger in a larger context, using it to explore the history, culture, economics, politics, and ecology of a little known part of the world.
He also explores the plight of endangered Amur tigers, and their complex relationship with the humans sharing their environment, many of whom are engage ...more
He also explores the plight of endangered Amur tigers, and their complex relationship with the humans sharing their environment, many of whom are engage ...more
I'm actually not certain how much I would have liked this in printed form, but the audiobook was curiously calming.
The whole story plays like a funhouse mirror version of THE LIFE AQUATIC with STEVE ZISSOU, and given the way it was described, I sorta want to put "hear a tiger roar in person" on the bucket list. ...more
The whole story plays like a funhouse mirror version of THE LIFE AQUATIC with STEVE ZISSOU, and given the way it was described, I sorta want to put "hear a tiger roar in person" on the bucket list. ...more
May 23, 2023
Elizabeth
marked it as to-read
Why is there a period after "read" in the new design?
Anyways...this looks intriguing. ...more
Anyways...this looks intriguing. ...more
May 27, 2010
Juliana Philippa
marked it as to-read
Aug 31, 2010
MichelleCH
marked it as to-read
Sep 16, 2010
Tracyene
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2013
Kimberly
marked it as to-read
Nov 14, 2013
Janet Whalen
marked it as to-read
Dec 25, 2013
Jayme Pendergraft
marked it as to-read
Aug 28, 2016
Jenna
marked it as to-read
Aug 14, 2017
Terri
marked it as kindle-2
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review of another edition
Shelves:
animals-general,
animals-wild
Jan 03, 2019
Seulky
marked it as to-read
Jan 21, 2022
Annie
marked it as to-read
Jan 02, 2024
Erica
marked it as to-read
Dec 27, 2024
Tania
marked it as to-read
