Reviews for The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World

The average rating for The Human, the Orchid, and the Octopus: Exploring and Conserving Our Natural World based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-05-09 00:00:00 Richard Hsu Interesting but didn't hold my interest like the author's book on John Bell Hatcher (King of the Dinosaur Hunters). Barnum and Hatcher led similar lives and even worked together on occasion (Patagonia), but Hatcher left behind voluminous correspondence which helped flesh out that book. In addition to explorations in the American West, Barnum's exploits took him farther afield than Hatcher, to Canada, India, Burma, Turkey, and other remote locales. Barnum's big claim to fame is the discovery of the first Tyrannosaurs rex fossils in the early 1900s. While that discovery is the keynote of the book, the drama is overwhelmed by the other events in his busy life. An added dimension is Barnum's surreptitious work for the US government between the wars.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-07 00:00:00 Steve Burgard This book is a fascinating mishmosh of personal narrative, oceanic lore, hard science and various notes on beachcombing, sneaker waterfalls (that is inaccurate, but it's what came to mind and maybe will make you more curious to read the book!) the history of plastic, etc. Some of the stuff about ocean currents was a little hard for me to grasp and I wish I had a person nearby who could explain it, because it seemed important and interesting. I highly recommend this book if you are curious about and/or care about oceans and currents and what happens to things that fall or get dropped into oceans, etc.