Chickens
Their Natural and Unnatural Histories
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Narrated by:
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Katherine Dyer
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By:
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Janet Lembke
About this listen
A fascinating cultural history of chickens in our world.
Framed by the author’s personal experience with backyard hens, Chickens: Their Natural and Unnatural Histories explores the history of the chicken from its descent from the dinosaurs to the space-age present. En route, Lembke surveys chickens in ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th century, and modern times, including the role of chickens in Jewish and Muslim practices. She also investigates the birds’ contributions to science and their jaunty appearances in literature. Eggs receive a chapter of their own, as does chicken cuisine, comprising recipes from the Roman Empire to today’s favorites. Stories about chickens appear, too, often written by those who keep them, including the painter Grandma Moses, the man who holds Cleveland’s Farm Animal Permit No. 17, and Brenda, who had to give her young roosters a talking-to for behaving like sheep.
Chickens have only recently come to a sorry pass in the Western world, where broilers and laying hens are factory-farmed. Lembke investigates the fate of such birds and explores the sustainable, humane alternatives to raising birds for meat and eggs.
A celebration of the chicken in its every aspect, Chickens is sure to delight the chicken fancier, the backyard chicken keeper, and everyone concerned about where our food comes from and how we can treat animals more compassionately.
©2012 Janet Lembke (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Editorial reviews
Janet Lembke's affection for chickens comes through in this lively audiobook about the history of the bird, covering topics such as its descent from the dinosaurs and its appearances in literature. Narrator Katherine Dyer's unhurried, amiable performance delivers complex details and interesting facts about the chicken with ease, and she finds the right amount of humor and matter-of-factness when narrating funny anecdotes, personal testimonies, and even scientific data.
Listeners will be surprised and pleased at the amount of interesting information in this audiobook and will come away with a new appreciation for this humble barnyard fowl.
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Meathooked
- The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession with Meat
- By: Marta Zaraska
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the great science and health revelations of our time is the danger posed by meat-eating. Every day, it seems, we are warned about the harm producing and consuming meat can do to the environment and our bodies. Many of us have tried to limit how much meat we consume, and many of us have tried to give it up altogether. But it is not easy to resist the smoky, cured, barbecued, and fried delights that tempt us.
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A very interesting book on why we crave meat.
- By Amazon Customer on 05-23-16
By: Marta Zaraska
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The Triumph of Seeds
- How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses & Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life, supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and the humble peppercorn drove the Age of Discovery, so did coffee beans help fuel the Enlightenment and cottonseed help spark the Industrial Revolution. And from the fall of Rome to the Arab Spring, the fate of nations continues to hinge on the seeds of a Middle Eastern grass known as wheat.
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Delightfully simplistic!
- By Adrian on 03-30-16
By: Thor Hanson
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Mycophilia
- Revelations From the Weird World of Mushrooms
- By: Eugenia Bone
- Narrated by: Aimee Jolson
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In Mycophilia, accomplished food writer and cookbook author Eugenia Bone examines the role of fungi as exotic delicacy, curative, poison, and hallucinogen, and ultimately discovers that a greater understanding of fungi is key to facing many challenges of the 21st century.
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Absolutely awful, insufferable, racist author
- By Rs 🦇 on 11-25-19
By: Eugenia Bone
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The Good Good Pig
- The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish.
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Uplifting memoir of a pig + autobiography
- By Diana on 04-04-19
By: Sy Montgomery
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Lesser Beasts
- A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig
- By: Mark Essig
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts, swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What's more, he argues, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril.
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Virtuous Carnivors?
- By David on 04-14-16
By: Mark Essig
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Steak
- One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef
- By: Mark Schatzker
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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"Of all the meats, only one merits its own structure. There is no such place as a lamb house or a pork house, but even a small town can have a steak house." So begins Mark Schatzker's ultimate carnivorous quest. Fed up with one too many mediocre steaks, the intrepid journalist set out to track down, define, and eat the perfect specimen.
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Journey into a deeper appreciation for beef
- By John Madany on 10-08-20
By: Mark Schatzker
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The Wonder of Birds
- What They Tell Us About Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future
- By: Jim Robbins
- Narrated by: Danny Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds, Jim Robbins posits, are our most vital connection to nature. They compel us to look to the skies, both literally and metaphorically, draw us out into nature to seek their beauty, and let us experience vicariously what it is like to be weightless. Birds have helped us in so many of our human endeavors: learning to fly, providing clothing and food, and helping us better understand the human brain and body.
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Stories about birds with something for everyone
- By D on 07-24-17
By: Jim Robbins
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Gulp
- Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
- By: Mary Roach
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Mary Roach returns with a new adventure to the invisible realm we carry around inside. Roach takes us down the hatch on an unforgettable tour. The alimentary canal is classic Mary Roach terrain: The questions explored in Gulp are as taboo, in their way, as the cadavers in Stiff and every bit as surreal as the universe of zero gravity explored in Packing for Mars. Why is crunchy food so appealing? Why is it so hard to find words for flavors and smells? Why doesn’t the stomach digest itself? How much can you eat before your stomach bursts?
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Funtastic Voyage
- By Mel on 04-05-13
By: Mary Roach
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Eight Flavors
- The Untold Story of American Cuisine
- By: Sarah Lohman
- Narrated by: Sarah Lohman
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population which makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG, and Sriracha. In Eight Flavors, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.
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Great read... Terrible accents
- By S. Macklin on 12-14-18
By: Sarah Lohman
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Farmacology
- Total Health from the Ground Up
- By: Daphne Miller MD
- Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Can urban farms reduce neighborhood crime? These may not sound like typical questions for a family physician to consider, but in Farmacology, Daphne Miller, MD, ventures out of her medical office and travels to seven innovative family farms around the country on a quest to discover the hidden connections between how we care for our bodies and how we grow our food. Miller also seeks out the perspectives of noted biomedical scientists and artfully weaves in their research, along with stories from her own practice. Farmacology offers a profound new approach to healing.
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Crystals and all - great book
- By Topherwayne on 02-22-20
By: Daphne Miller MD
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South Toward Home
- Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land
- By: Julia Reed, Jon Meecham - foreword
- Narrated by: Julia Reed, Dan Bittner - introduction
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In thinking about her native land, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, “It’s the juxtapositions that get you down here.” These juxtapositions are, for Julia Reed, the soul of the South and in her warmhearted and funny new audiobook, South Toward Home, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life - the Delta hot tamale festival, a masked ball, a rollicking party in a boat on a sand bar, scary Christian billboards, and the southern affection for the lowly possum.
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Julia Reed IS the SOUTH
- By toni on 05-23-20
By: Julia Reed, and others
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The Big Oyster
- History on the Half Shell
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Before New York City was the Big Apple, it could have been called the Big Oyster. Now award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants, the oyster, whose influence on the great metropolis remains unparalleled.
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history of the oyster in America
- By Andy on 01-01-20
By: Mark Kurlansky
What listeners say about Chickens
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- david
- 03-23-14
Chicks ROCK!!
As a "backyard" chicken keeper, I loved this book. I am not sure a reader that is not familiar with the joys of chickens would enjoy the book as much, but I loved it and hope it is the first of many books on these wonderful, feathered friends.
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- Elisa
- 05-05-13
Interesting but...
Any additional comments?
What can I say? I started reading this hoping that it would be about evolution or selective breading, something along those lines anyways. I was expecting lots of references and evidences of how Chickens came to be. the narration is alright, though not captivating enough to make the book really worth it. As I read the book, i kept finding myself asking, that's it? Is that all the evidence the author had to offer? Granted, there were some interesting sections, especially when the author speaks of how humans use to view chickens and how it is used in literature, but I was also expecting some more science throughout. In the end, I didn't finish the book, because it seems to slip into narration as it draws to an end and there was still very little references to how chickens changed throughout the year.
One good thing that came out from reading this book; I finally remember the order in which an organism is classified. Not highly recommended aside from that.
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4 people found this helpful
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- J.D.
- 05-13-13
Awful, if you like chickens.
What would have made Chickens better?
This is a book that never should have been published. You won't learn anything from it, nor will you be entertained.
What could Janet Lembke have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?
Less rambling and more stories and facts.
Would you be willing to try another one of Katherine Dyer’s performances?
Yes. The reading was well done.
If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Chickens?
Just about all of them.
Any additional comments?
I rarely dislike an audio book.
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3 people found this helpful