Reviews

Eye of the Shoal: A Fishwatcher's Guide to Life, the Ocean and Everything by Helen Scales

elentarri's review against another edition

informative inspiring medium-paced

4.0

This book provides a fascinating and enjoyable survey of the fishy world, from fish colours and illumination, what they see, to venoms, poisons, how and what they eat, their evolution, the sounds fish make and if they can think and feel (apparently this is an issue!!?). In addition, Helen Scales provides personal observations from her lifelong passion of fish watching, as well as interesting historical anecdotes and more recent fishy research. Each chapter is also followed by a fishy folk tale. The writing style is natural and easy to understand. This is a beautifully written and enjoyable book that celebrates the diversity of fish but minimizes the doom and gloom (e.g. conservation, pollution and over-fishing). 

OTHER BOOKS:
- Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods by Danna Staaf
- What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins by Jonathan Balcombe 
- Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry by Christie Wilcox
- Restless Creatures: The Story of Life in Ten Movements by Matt Wilkinson
- Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales
- Horseshoe Crab: Biography of a Survivor by Anthony D. Fredericks
- Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Oceans' Oddest Creatures and Why They Matter by Ellen Prager
- Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
- Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality by Helen Scales
- Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin by Samuel T. Turvey
- Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur by Carl Safina

clarel's review against another edition

5.0

Took twice as long to read as it would have if I hadn’t read half the book aloud to my husband! Excellent.