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Turning to Stone
- Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks
- Narrated by: Rebecca Stern
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
Earth is vibrantly alive and full of wisdom for those who learn to listen.
Earth has been reinventing itself for more than four billion years, keeping a record of its experiments in the form of rocks. Yet most of us live our lives on the planet with no idea of its extraordinary history, unable to interpret the language of the rocks that surround us. Geologist Marcia Bjornerud believes that our lives can be enriched by understanding our heritage on this old and creative planet.
Contrary to their reputation, rocks have eventful lives—and they intersect with our own in surprising ways. In Turning to Stone, Bjornerud reveals how rocks are the hidden infrastructure that keep the planet functioning, from sandstone aquifers purifying the water we drink to basalt formations slowly regulating global climate.
Bjornerud’s life as a geologist has coincided with an extraordinary period of discovery in the geosciences. From an insular girlhood in rural Wisconsin, she found her way to an unlikely career studying mountains in remote parts of the world and witnessed the emergence of a new understanding of the Earth as an animate system of rock, air, water and life. We are all, most fundamentally, Earthlings and we can find existential meaning and enduring wisdom in stone.
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
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Critic reviews
"Marcia Bjornerud masterfully weaves together the story of her own life and that of the Earth's long, often tumultuous history. “Turning to Stone” is a beautiful book—at once intimate and sweeping, informative and moving."—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Under a White Sky
“This lyrical, wise book will change your relationship to the living Earth. Marcia Bjornerud offers a nuanced celebration of the languages of stone, from the subtle whispers of sand grains to the delightfully complex inner lives of mountains disclosed by eroding outcrops. Her careful attention not only reveals unexpected stories of stone, but teaches us what it means to be boundlessly curious and caring about our world and one another.”—David George Haskell, author of Sounds Wild and Broken
"Marcia Bjornerud has done it again! With flowing grace, technical mastery, and poetic insight, she takes us on a geological odyssey across the vastness of deep time and to the literal ends of the Earth. Turning to Stone interweaves the profound testimony of ancient rocks—granite, basalt, sandstone, and flint—with her inspiring personal journey from curious youth to avid student, from struggling junior faculty member to master field geologist and revered educator. In the process, we share in the eventful, poignant life journey of a gifted scientist who has gained the expertise and nurtured the passion to share astonishing stories of Earth in a unique and timeless book."—Robert Hazen, author of The Story of Earth
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Reading the Rocks
- The Autobiography of the Earth
- By: Marcia Bjornerud
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 8 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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To many of us, the Earth's crust is a relic of ancient, unknowable history. But to a geologist, stones are richly illustrated narratives, telling gothic tales of cataclysm and reincarnation. For more than four billion years, in beach sand, granite, and garnet schists, the planet has kept a rich and idiosyncratic journal of its past. Fulbright Scholar Marcia Bjornerud takes the listener along on an eye-opening tour of Deep Time, explaining in elegant prose what we see and feel beneath our feet.
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More like a whiny sermon.
- By Keith on 10-09-24
By: Marcia Bjornerud
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Timefulness
- How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World
- By: Marcia Bjornerud
- Narrated by: Tanya Eby
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Few of us have any conception of the enormous timescales in our planet's long history, and this narrow perspective underlies many of the environmental problems we are creating for ourselves. Our everyday lives are shaped by processes that vastly predate us, and our habits will in turn have consequences that will outlast us by generations. Timefulness reveals how knowing the rhythms of Earth's deep past and conceiving of time as a geologist does can give us the perspective we need for a more sustainable future.
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The narration was so bad I put it aside
- By 11104 on 10-13-18
By: Marcia Bjornerud
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The Secret Life of the Universe
- An Astrobiologist's Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
- By: Nathalie A. Cabrol
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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We are living in a golden age in astronomy and in the search for life the universe. Over the last few decades, space exploration has shown that not only are there habitable environments within our solar system, but there are millions of exoplanets within our galaxy that could support life. We are on the cusp of breakthroughs that will revolutionize our understanding of our place in the cosmos in. In The Secret Life of the Universe, astrobiologist and the director of the Carl Sagan Center at the SETI Institute Nathalie A. Cabrol takes us to the frontiers of the search for life.
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Incredible Book
- By Dennis T. on 09-20-24
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks
- Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In 25 chapters, Donald R. Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that shaped our understanding of geology, from the unearthing of exemplary specimens to tectonic shifts in how we view the inner workings of our planet.
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More about scientists than science
- By Aunt Vee on 06-14-20
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Why Animals Talk
- The New Science of Animal Communication
- By: Arik Kershenbaum
- Narrated by: John Hastings
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Why Animals Talk is an exhilarating journey through the untamed world of animal communication. Following his international bestseller, The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy, acclaimed zoologist Arik Kershenbaum draws on extensive original research to reveal how many of the animal kingdom’s most seemingly confusing or untranslatable signals are in fact logical and consistent—and not that different from our own.
By: Arik Kershenbaum
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Living on Earth
- Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World
- By: Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Narrated by: Mitch Riley, Peter Godfrey-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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If the history of the Earth were compressed down to a year, our species would arise in the last thirty minutes or so of the final hour. But life itself is not such a late arrival: It has existed on Earth for something like 3.7 billion years—most of our planet’s history and over a quarter of the age of the universe (as far as we can tell). What have these organisms—bacteria, animals, plants, and the rest—done in all this time? In Living on Earth, the philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith proposes a new way of understanding how the actions of living beings have shaped our planet.
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Charge
- Why Does Gravity Rule?
- By: Frank Close
- Narrated by: Perry Daniels
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The charges of the proton and electron are opposite and equal, even though the proton is bigger. But why are they equal? This is one of the deepest unresolved puzzles of physics. Frank Close takes us on a journey into the quantum subatomic world of particles. He describes the strong and weak forces that operate alongside electromagnetism, the color and flavor charges, as well as the parallels between them, giving hints of a deeper unity.
By: Frank Close
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Becoming Earth
- How Our Planet Came to Life
- By: Ferris Jabr
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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One of humanity’s oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis—a planet that breathes, metabolizes, and regulates its climate.
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Fascinating and well researched
- By Amazon Customer on 07-10-24
By: Ferris Jabr
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A Brief History of Earth
- Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing 21st-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.
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Very chilling and well thought out
- By Colin Bump on 05-21-21
By: Andrew H. Knoll
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The Importance of Being Educable
- A New Theory of Human Uniqueness
- By: Leslie Valiant
- Narrated by: Rachel Perry
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In this visionary book, Leslie Valiant argues that understanding the nature of our own educability is crucial to safeguarding our future. After breaking down how we process information to learn and apply knowledge, and drawing comparisons with other animals and AI systems, he explains why education should be humankind's central preoccupation. Will the unique capability that has been so foundational to our achievements and civilization continue to drive our progress, or will we fall victim to our vulnerabilities?
By: Leslie Valiant
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Weather Science
- How Meteorology Has Gone from Folklore to High-Tech
- By: Brian Clegg
- Narrated by: Keith Wickham
- Length: 4 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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From the crystalline perfection of the snowflake to the transfer of energy from the Sun, science lies at the heart of the weather and our understanding of it. In recent years, weather science has moved to the leading edge with advanced modelling, versatile use of satellite data and a better understanding of mathematical chaos. This is a true example of hot science at work.
By: Brian Clegg
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Life Lessons from a Parasite
- What Tapeworms, Flukes, Lice, and Roundworms Can Teach Us About Humanity's Most Difficult Problems
- By: John Janovy Jr.
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Though you may not be able to see them with the naked eye, parasites inhabit our everyday lives. From headlice to bird droppings, litterboxes to unfiltered water, you have brushed up against the most common way of life on our planet. In this unique book, John Janovy Jr., one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, reveals what can humans learn from the most reviled yet misunderstood animals on Earth: lice, tapeworms, flukes, and maggots that can eat a lizard from the inside, and how these lessons help us negotiate our own complicated world.
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Disappointed in double agenda.
- By Michael S Derry Jr on 09-17-24
By: John Janovy Jr.
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Creatures That Eat People
- Why Wild Animals Might Eat You
- By: Richard Freeman
- Narrated by: Lyle Blaker
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Avoid getting eaten! Do you find yourself wondering: Do bears eat humans? Do birds eat people? Do kangaroos? Could I survive people eating predators of any kind? Perfect for anyone with a fun or morbid interest in wildlife or survivalism, Creatures That Eat People is full of stories of strange animals that eat humans and the situations that lead to it.
By: Richard Freeman
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Earth
- An Intimate History
- By: Richard Fortey
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 18 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Beginning with Mt. Vesuvius, whose eruption in Roman times helped spark the science of geology, and ending in a lab in the West of England where mathematical models and lab experiments replace direct observation, Richard Fortey tells us what the present says about ancient geologic processes. He shows how plate tectonics came to rule the geophysical landscape and how the evidence is written in the hills and in the stones. And in the process, he takes us on a wonderful journey around the globe to visit some of the most fascinating and intriguing spots on the planet.
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Random Geology Verbose History Jumbled Tours
- By Herbert S. on 12-10-21
By: Richard Fortey
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Lapidarium
- The Secret Lives of Stones
- By: Hettie Judah
- Narrated by: Nina Wadia
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Stones have furnished our earliest technologies and our first art materials. As jewelry and talismans, they have accompanied us in our journeys into the afterlife. We have carried stones over vast distances, erecting temples with them where we gathered to worship our gods. The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures.
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Lovely Bite-Sized Stories
- By Anonymous User on 07-20-23
By: Hettie Judah
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The Anasazi of Chaco Canyon
- Greatest Mystery of the American Southwest
- By: Kyle Widner
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 4 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Greatest Mystery of the Southwest USAPerhaps the most fascinating chapter in Southwest history is the tale of the mysterious, “vanished” Anasazi Indians. Their tremendous achievements can be found in many places, including the spectacular cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park. But the crest of the Anasazi wave was in Chaco Canyon, a shallow, windswept wash in northwest New Mexico. Here, 1,000 years ago, strange and unexplained events unfolded, events which continue to intrigue scientists and visitors today. In this book, you'll delve into the mystery: Why choose inhospitable Chaco...
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Missing words
- By BRAD HAFEN on 08-29-24
By: Kyle Widner
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Dirt
- The Erosion of Civilizations
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Tim Lundeen
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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This fascinating yet disquieting audiobook finds that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are, and have long been, using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.
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Highly recommended if you care about your food
- By Roy Pfaltzgraff on 11-20-19
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Magic Soup, Typing Monkeys, and Horny Aliens from Outer Space
- The Patently Absurd Wholly Unsubstantiated and Extravagantly Failed Atheist Origin Myth
- By: Evan Sayet
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 4 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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We know what people who believe in God believe; but do we know what the atheists believe in God's stead? This book looks at the latest atheistic science (hint: there is none) as well as the politics of the Militant Atheist movement that has turned non-belief into a political crusade. Written by Evan Sayet, longtime television writer ("Politically Incorrect w/Bill Maher) and political commentator who has advised presidential campaigns, written speeches for presidential candidates (and a president) and who has appeared on every television news network from MSNBC to Fox.
By: Evan Sayet
What listeners say about Turning to Stone
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- dkh5
- 10-31-24
Amazing coalescence of the life of rocks and a human life.
I learned a lot about rocks but mostly liked reading about the intellectual and personal development of this brilliant scientist.
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- F Shaw
- 09-17-24
Very unusual book by a profound writer
The word I keep thinking of is profound. Marcia Bjornerud sees the long long river of time we exist in. She gives me some acceptance of the state of the world we are in. Nothing stays the same ever. She is a skilled writer, pulling together strands of geology, philosophy, politics, memoir, literature, even thrift store shopping. It is the kind of book many people will love because it contains, as Walt Whitman said, multitudes. It is also a very personal book.
The scientific geological terms can get confusing. It helps to listen over again in bursts. But it doesn't really matter for the point of this book. And I did learn a LOT about rocks. And even more about humility and gratitude for what is.
The reader is wonderful.
I will read this again and recommend it to lots of friends.
Thank you Marcia Bjornerud.
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1 person found this helpful