The Cabaret of Plants
Forty Thousand Years of Plant Life and the Human Imagination
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Narrated by:
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Ralph Lister
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By:
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Richard Mabey
About this listen
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.
Mabey takes listeners from the Himalayas to Madagascar to the Amazon to our own backyards. He ranges through the work of writers, artists, and scientists and across nearly 40,000 years of human history: Ice Age images of plant life in ancient cave art and the earliest representations of the Garden of Eden; Newton's apple and gravity, Priestley's sprig of mint and photosynthesis, and Wordsworth's daffodils; the history of cultivated plants such as maize, ginseng, and cotton; and the ways the sturdy oak became the symbol of British nationhood and the giant sequoia came to epitomize the spirit of America.
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Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the 'hunter-gatherer' tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Accomplished author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers that suggests that systems of food production and land management have been understated in modern retellings of Aboriginal history, and that a new look at Australia's past is required.
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One of the best books ever!!!!
- By Matt Powers on 05-07-18
By: Bruce Pascoe
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A Naturalist at Large
- The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich
- By: Bernd Heinrich
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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From one of the finest scientists and writers of our time comes an engaging record of a life spent in close observation of the natural world, one that has yielded marvelous, mind-altering insight and discoveries. In essays that span several decades, Bernd Heinrich finds himself at his beloved camp in Maine, plays host to annoying visitors from Europe (the cluster fly) and more helpful guests from Asia (ladybugs), and unravels the far-reaching ecological consequences of elephants in Botswana bruising mopane trees.
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Listen and See the World Anew!
- By Thoughtful Learner on 06-03-18
By: Bernd Heinrich
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Cræft
- An Inquiry into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts
- By: Alexander Langlands
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In Craeft, archaeologist and medieval historian Alexander Langlands argues that our modern understanding of craft only skims the surface. His journeys from his home in Wales have taken him along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, from Spain through France and England to Scotland and Iceland in search of the lost meaning of craft.
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Too little information too much brag and biography
- By Thomas B. on 04-28-21
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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
- By: Elisabeth Tova Bailey
- Narrated by: Renee Raudman
- Length: 3 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Elisabeth Tova Bailey tells the intimate and inspiring story of her year-long encounter with a snail. While an illness keeps her bedridden, she becomes an astute and amused observer of the snail's surprising nocturnal adventures as it lives in a flowerpot on her nightstand. Intrigued by the snail’s clear decision making abilities, hydraulic locomotion, mysterious courtship, and molluscan anatomy, Bailey takes the listener deep into the life of this tiny amazing animal. With wit and grace, The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating recounts a remarkable journey of human and gastropod survival and resilience, and shows how the natural world illuminates our own human existence. Winner of the William Saroyan International Prize for Nonfiction, the John Burrough Medal Award for Natural History, and a National Outdoor Book Award. If you enjoyed Wesley the Owl, The Guest Cat, and Marley & Me, you'll enjoy this unique interspecies audiobook listen.
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This is an unexpected wonder. The quiet virtues of the snail reflect the quiet voyage of the author.
- By Frances on 08-03-15
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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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The Wild Places
- By: Robert Macfarlane
- Narrated by: Simon Bubb
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Are there any genuinely wild places left in Britain and Ireland? Or have we tarmacked, farmed and built ourselves out of wildness? In his vital, bewitching, inspiring classic, Robert Macfarlane sets out in search of the wildness that remains.
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Magical
- By Jennifer on 01-27-22
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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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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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1491
- New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
- By: Charles C. Mann
- Narrated by: Darrell Dennis
- Length: 16 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus' landing had crossed the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago; existed mainly in small nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas were, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness. But as Charles C. Mann now makes clear, archaeologists and anthropologists have spent the last 30 years proving these and many other long-held assumptions wrong.
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Exposes Non-Academic Audience to The Debate Between Ideas of Pre-Colombian America's
- By Christopher on 01-19-17
By: Charles C. Mann
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The Statues That Walked
- Unraveling the Mystery of Easter Island
- By: Terry Hunt, Carl Lipo
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 6 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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The monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works?
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The "Mystery of Easter Island" remains raveled
- By Diane on 09-14-12
By: Terry Hunt, and others
What listeners say about The Cabaret of Plants
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rosemary F
- 05-21-16
Ideas jump about
Is there anything you would change about this book?
There's such a lot of peripheral detail that I got bogged down by unrelated happenings (how a friend photographs flowers, for instance.) There's only a scraping of information that is about 40,000 years of history: it's notable by its absence until agriculture became more prominent and records of any kind were left for us today. True, I have only listened to the first chapter, but there seems to be little of the "history" of plants and the imagination.
Would you recommend The Cabaret of Plants to your friends? Why or why not?
No. Most of my friends prefer a straightforward logical approach to information about even non-scientific topics.
How could the performance have been better?
The breathy excitement of the narrator may show his enthusiasm, but it's one-note approach was difficult to relax to.
Was The Cabaret of Plants worth the listening time?
I would rather have read it in my own way. Later chapters do sound interesting.
Any additional comments?
Perhaps I should not have had preconceived notions that could be so easily disappointed. I did listen to the online intro, but this personal odyssey was not what I expected.
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3 people found this helpful
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- hyacinthgirl
- 12-27-16
Can't wait to listen to again!
Since discovering author Richard Mabey's delightful book, "Weeds: In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants" earlier this year, I was thrilled when this turned up on Audible! I listened to a sample (sometimes the reader turns you off a book---after all, this is someone you're going to have to listen to for HOURS!) I was confident u would enjoy both book and reader. I read a LOT, but I live in NYC and sometimes the trains are crowded and you can't get a seat or I'm stuck in a line at the market---with audiobooks, I at least don't feel like this is time wasted. The book skirts between scientific studies, history, and personal narrative. If you're looking for a dry textbook, this is not for you. But if you appreciate plants and poetry, philosophy, and political science... It's a walk with in the park with a modern-dat Walt Whitman. Highly recommend!
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7 people found this helpful
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- Eric C. Cook
- 11-08-16
It was ok.
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
there were parts liked, but the flowery language was a little too much for me after a while.
Was The Cabaret of Plants worth the listening time?
I probabley wouldn't listen, knowing what I know now.
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-12-21
Origins of Some of the Many Plant Species
Pretty good listen if you are interested in plants😊 Covers so many different varieties/species🏵️ So it was a little difficult to follow at times, but narrator did a great job👍
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- Paula
- 11-24-17
Fascinating
The content of this book was fascinating. I listened actively and googled pictures of plants, paintings, and wiki-bios of the people mentioned. I'm not sure the antiquated Queens English narration was necessary, but maybe it helps connect to a Victorian botany theme in the book.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-08-17
Engaging writing, entertaining audio
Narrator was great, his accent fit very well. Great story that had a good mix of humor and information. Great if you like plants and evolution.
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- Elizabeth R A Triano
- 10-30-19
TK
(I started writing a review but it was gone when I came back to write more. I hooe to try again soon)
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- Anne S
- 01-29-24
New perspective on our relationships with plants
I loved the new information about plants and the Victorian ideas about plants and gardens and botanical science. Each chapter was interesting and enlightening.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-17-17
If you like Walden you might like this...maybe.
This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?
People who are really into philosophical conjecture and navel gazing.
Would you ever listen to anything by Richard Mabey again?
Doubtful.
Did the narration match the pace of the story?
The narration was actually really nice. It kept me listening longer than I would have otherwise. The content of the book is what kills it.
What character would you cut from The Cabaret of Plants?
The narrator (not the voice actor the main character).
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1 person found this helpful