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Summer World
- A Season of Bounty
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
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Publisher's summary
Almost all life on the surface of the earth derives its energy from the sun, either directly through photosynthesis or indirectly by consuming plants, making summer the time when nature is most active - feeding, fighting, mating, and nesting. From frogs, wasps, and caterpillars to hummingbirds and woodpeckers, Heinrich explores these animals' adaptations for surviving and procreating during the short window of summer, and he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there.
Infused with his inexhaustible enchantment with nature, Summer World encourages a sense of wonder and discovery for the natural world and its busiest season.
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Autobiography plus science, excellent
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What a wonderful book about bugs!
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Editorial reviews
Bernd Heinrich has astonishing powers of observation. In great detail, the awakening of summer in the natural world in New England is described - the migrations, mating, budding, metamorphoses from tadpole to frog, and multiple other transformations taking place in our backyards. Mel Foster's deep voice is clear, and his pacing is accurate. But this is the season of bounty and wonder and joy, yet Foster's narration remains inexpressive. Heinrich conducts backyard experiments to figure out whether flower blooms stay open due to light or warmth and tempts fate with hornets, resulting in an unfortunate but predictable outcome. Foster may be able to effectively translate Heinrich's ecological concerns for the future, but he's less successful with Heinrich's almost-boyish enthusiasm.
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- By Frances on 08-03-15
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Feathers
- The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?
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Fantastic Science and Fun
- By Chris Reich on 12-28-14
By: Thor Hanson
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The Tree
- A Natural History of What Trees Are, How They Live, and Why They Matter
- By: Colin Tudge
- Narrated by: Enn Reitel
- Length: 19 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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There are redwoods in California that were ancient by the time Columbus first landed and pines still alive that germinated around the time humans invented writing. There are Douglas firs as tall as skyscrapers and a banyan tree in Calcutta as big as a football field. From the tallest to the smallest, trees inspire wonder in all of us, and in The Tree, Colin Tudge travels around the world - throughout the United States, the Costa Rican rain forest, Panama and Brazil, India, New Zealand, China, and most of Europe - bringing to life stories and facts about the trees around us.
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Not the book described in the Audible summary
- By E. Miller on 04-28-17
By: Colin Tudge
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The Galápagos
- A Natural History
- By: Henry Nicholls
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The Galapagos were once known to the sailors and pirates who encountered them as Las Encantadas: the enchanted islands, home to exotic creatures and dramatic volcanic scenery. In The Galapagos, science writer Henry Nicholls offers a lively natural and human history of the archipelago, charting its evolution from deserted wilderness to scientific resource (made famous by Charles Darwin) and global ecotourism hot spot.
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Thought-Provoking
- By Jean on 10-23-18
By: Henry Nicholls
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The Thing with Feathers
- The Surprising Lives of Birds and What They Reveal About Being Human
- By: Noah Strycker
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Birds are highly intelligent animals, yet their intelligence is dramatically different from our own and has been little understood. As we learn more about the secrets of bird life, we are unlocking fascinating insights into memory, relationships, game theory, and the nature of intelligence itself. The Thing with Feathers explores the astonishing homing abilities of pigeons, the good deeds of fairy-wrens, the influential flocking abilities of starlings, the deft artistry of bowerbirds, the extraordinary memories of nutcrackers, and other mysteries.
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Interesting book, terrible reader
- By MGM123 on 03-16-18
By: Noah Strycker
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Fruitless Fall
- The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis
- By: Rowan Jacobsen
- Narrated by: Rowell Gormon
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Many people will remember that Rachel Carson predicted a silent spring, but she also warned of a fruitless fall, a time with no pollination and no fruit. The fruitless fall nearly became a reality when, in 2007, beekeepers watched 30 billion bees mysteriously die. And they continue to disappear. The remaining pollinators, essential to the cultivation of a third of American crops, are now trucked across the country and flown around the world, pushing them ever closer to collapse.
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Compulsory Reading - Share with Everyone!
- By Charles Koenen on 04-12-20
By: Rowan Jacobsen
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Gods, Wasps and Stranglers
- The Secret History and Redemptive Future of Fig Trees
- By: Mike Shanahan
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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They are trees of life and trees of knowledge. They are wish-fulfillers, rain forest royalty, more precious than gold. They are the fig trees, and they have affected humanity in profound but little-known ways. Gods, Wasps and Stranglers tells their amazing story. Fig trees fed our prehuman ancestors, influenced diverse cultures, and played key roles in the dawn of civilization.
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Incredible research in a wonderful story
- By Alonsa Guevara on 11-24-22
By: Mike Shanahan
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The Backyard Parables
- Lessons on Gardening, and Life
- By: Margaret Roach
- Narrated by: Margaret Roach
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret Roach has been harvesting 30 years of backyard parables - deceptively simple, instructive stories from a life spent digging ever deeper - and has distilled them in this memoir along with her best tips for garden making, discouraging all manner of animal and insect opponents, at-home pickling, and more. After ruminating on the bigger picture in her memoir And I Shall Have Some Peace There, Margaret Roach has returned to the garden, insisting as ever that we must garden with both our head and heart, or as she expresses it, with "horticultural how-to and woo-woo."
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Great Writing Distracting Reading
- By Amazon Customer on 02-11-13
By: Margaret Roach
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Nature's Best Hope
- A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard
- By: Douglas W. Tallamy
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, awakened thousands of individuals to an urgent situation: wildlife populations are in decline because the native plants they depend on are fast disappearing. His solution? Plant more natives. In this new book, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation.
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A must read for everybody! Not just nature lovers.
- By Steve Ebert on 06-11-20
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The Cabaret of Plants
- Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
- By: Richard Mabey
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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A rich, sweeping, and compelling work of botanical history, The Cabaret of Plants explores dozens of plant species that for millennia have challenged our imaginations, awoken our wonder, and upturned our ideas about history, science, beauty, and belief. Going back to the beginnings of human history, Richard Mabey shows how flowers, trees, and plants have been central to human experience not just as sources of food and medicine but as objects of worship, actors in creation myths, and symbols of war and peace, life and death.
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Can't wait to listen to again!
- By hyacinthgirl on 12-27-16
By: Richard Mabey
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Parasite Rex
- Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures
- By: Carl Zimmer
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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For centuries, parasites have lived in nightmares, horror stories, and the darkest shadows of science. In Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer takes listeners on a fantastic voyage into the secret universe of these extraordinary life forms that are not only among the most highly evolved on Earth, but make up the majority of life's diversity. Traveling from the steamy jungles of Costa Rica to the parasite-riddled war zone of southern Sudan, Zimmer introduces an array of amazing creatures that invade their hosts, prey on them from within, and control their behavior.
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Fascinating and Horrible
- By David A on 10-09-18
By: Carl Zimmer
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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
What listeners say about Summer World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Thoughtful Learner
- 06-03-18
Listen and See the World Anew!
Bernd Heinrich has no living equal in his ability to convey the joys of becoming intimate with the natural world. He has a child's open wonder and curiosity combined with the mind and experience of a brilliant scientist. With his compellingly constructed real-life stories, Bernd will draw you into a world that is better than magic--it's real, available to you, and you'll learn how to access it just by listening and being entertained. Start now and see the world anew!
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Overall
- Roy
- 08-23-09
The Natural World Beats the Virtual for Sure!
Naturalist Bernd Heinrich has allowed us to glimpse the natural world he studies in an informative, entertaining, and inspiring way. He accomplishes this by sharing interesing observations about the flora and insect life near his home in Maine and Vermont. This book has motivated me to be more observant of the world around me in general and the natural world in particular.
Parenthetically, this book does for Summer what Heinrich did earlier for winter in "Winter World." Unfortunately the rich illustrations are not available to listeners in either his first or second volumes. Don't let that keep you from listening to his words - your mind will make up the difference.
If you are a novice to naturalism, let Heinrich gently walk you through lane and woods. Yield to his intimate interest in that world and you will not be disappointed.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Lee Hoy
- 03-31-19
Well Read and Unique Read
A natural history book with some specific observations on a summer in the northeast. The narrator is also excellent.
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- Sara
- 09-12-14
The Amazing World Revealed All Around You
Bernd Heinrich is a fascinating and gifted writer. More than this he is a keen observer, scientist and an educator able to instill awe and wonder in others. I love all his books and find myself returning to reread Summer World often in the early spring. It reminds me to slow down and reopen my eyes to the miracle of the seasons happening right under my nose. Often without this type of reminder life hurries by unnoticed.
Highly recommended listening for nature lovers or people interested in learning about nature and connecting with the natural world. I also recommend Heinrich's memoir, The Snoring Bird, which is fantastic and my favorite of his books. Not yet available here on Audible--but hopefully soon.
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30 people found this helpful
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- Riley Burnham
- 05-24-23
really good -- my second of his
i first read Heinrich's extremely good "Mind of the Raven," & was surprised this was by the same author partway in
to be fair, back in the 2000s when this was written, i too believed in Newtonian physics & heliocentrism; so i give Bernd a pass when he repeats the completely farcical notions that rotten philosophy has borne us [this is to say, Earth is a flat/plane realm; totally different than what we're commonly taught]
i loved his observations of plant & animal life as the seasons move from winter into spring & summer, which is the time-window this book focuses on
he details so many interesting insect, bird, tree, flower, etc. behaviors that i do recommend this book
next i shall try his "Winter World," thinking i know what to expect
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- Superette
- 07-04-21
Dull Summer World
Summer world sounds exciting, and this book is probably better read not listened to. The narrator makes this interesting book sound more boring then the worst most boring text book. I feel bad saying it, but it’s true. I haven’t been able to get myself to finish it.
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