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slferg's review against another edition
5.0
A fun book. The authorial "we" kept throwing me off at first, but I got accustomed to it. It is not, I think, an overly serious book. They are serious in thei search for the Tasmaian Tiger, but there are a lot of odd incidents and quite a few humorous ones thrown in during their search around New Zealand. They also meet some very interesting people who are hunting for the tiger.
Well worth reading.
Well worth reading.
lamusadelils's review against another edition
3.0
Creí que me iba a gustar más.
Es entretenido, las anécdotas y la información sobre el viaje son interesantes e incluso da espacio para reflexionar un poco sobre nuestro papel en el planeta, pero francamente el tono me pareció algo molesto, el punto de vista muy cerrado y el libro en general poco organizado.
Es entretenido, las anécdotas y la información sobre el viaje son interesantes e incluso da espacio para reflexionar un poco sobre nuestro papel en el planeta, pero francamente el tono me pareció algo molesto, el punto de vista muy cerrado y el libro en general poco organizado.
lizlogan's review against another edition
5.0
Well-described and interesting not only for its facts about the Tasmanian Tiger, but fascinating for its details about other wildlife and facts about Tasmania. This is a great example of what travel literature and nature literature should be.
spottedang11's review against another edition
2.0
I picked this book out as part of a 'Blind Date With a Book' from a local indie bookstore..
I really wanted to like this book, I did. The idea that there may still be thylacines still romping around Tasmania would be quite amazing, and as I finished this book I had two thoughts - 1) I'm keeping my fingers crossed they're still in some dense, untamed area, and 2), that book took way too long to read. Some of it was quite interesting, but after awhile it became just downright tedious to read.
I really wanted to like this book, I did. The idea that there may still be thylacines still romping around Tasmania would be quite amazing, and as I finished this book I had two thoughts - 1) I'm keeping my fingers crossed they're still in some dense, untamed area, and 2), that book took way too long to read. Some of it was quite interesting, but after awhile it became just downright tedious to read.
melbsreads's review against another edition
2.0
This book is.............odd. Essentially, two Americans decided that they should go to Tasmania to try and find a thylacine, the last living specimen of which died in a zoo in 1936. Their reasons for doing so go largely unmentioned, as do the reasons why they're SO CONVINCED throughout the course of the book that they're definitely going to see an animal that was declared extinct in the 1980s (animals cannot be declared extinct until 50 years after the last confirmed sighting).
They also seem to have...not done a huge amount of research prior to starting off on this thylacine search. Like, they're surprised to learn that Tasmania is part of Australia and that English is spoken there. WTF.
The entire book is written in the first person plural, which was INCREDIBLY grating for me, particularly when it says things like "we dreamed" and "we stumbled" and "we realised we only had hiking boots with us". Add in the fact that they're accompanied on this journey by a bizarre artist who makes paint out of animal shit and seems to spend about half the book smoking pot, and it was...frustrating.
I hope they tipped their rental car company EXTREMELY well, given how they repeatedly talked about Alexis (the artist) filling the car with roadkill and bags of wombat or Tasmania devil scat to use in his art and how bad the car smells. There's one (unfortunately) memorable scene in which he decides he's going to use a leech to make pigment, and "we" take a living leech and mash it into paste using a ballpoint pen(??????), at which point Alexis decides it's not liquidy enough and has "us" stab him in the finger with a sewing needle so he can add his own blood to the "paint".
Add in the fact that Tasmania's Indigenous population are repeatedly referred to as "aboriginals" where Australian convention (admittedly, the book was published in the US, but STILL) would dictate using "Tasmanian Aboriginal people" or "Indigenous Tasmanians", and I spent a lot of this book cringing.
Basically, this book is the story of some ignorant Americans who thought they'd see in a couple of weeks what nobody's had a confirmed sighting of in almost a hundred years, despite die hard thylacine believers spending decades searching for scat and footprints and living specimens. They travel around Tasmania, interviewing interested parties, most of whom are like "Look, I'd LOVE for someone to find a living thylacine. But all evidence suggests it's not going to happen". And yet they still expect to see a thylacine around every corner.
In short, it's almost like going to the Montana badlands and expecting to see a velociraptor because this one time Alan Grant saw a live dinosaur but has literally no proof of it.
I'm about 85% sure this one is going to get weeded from our collection at work. I can't imagine it's going to prove helpful to any students researching thylacines. Unless they want to know how to make paint out of wombat shit and leeches...
They also seem to have...not done a huge amount of research prior to starting off on this thylacine search. Like, they're surprised to learn that Tasmania is part of Australia and that English is spoken there. WTF.
The entire book is written in the first person plural, which was INCREDIBLY grating for me, particularly when it says things like "we dreamed" and "we stumbled" and "we realised we only had hiking boots with us". Add in the fact that they're accompanied on this journey by a bizarre artist who makes paint out of animal shit and seems to spend about half the book smoking pot, and it was...frustrating.
I hope they tipped their rental car company EXTREMELY well, given how they repeatedly talked about Alexis (the artist) filling the car with roadkill and bags of wombat or Tasmania devil scat to use in his art and how bad the car smells. There's one (unfortunately) memorable scene in which he decides he's going to use a leech to make pigment, and "we" take a living leech and mash it into paste using a ballpoint pen(??????), at which point Alexis decides it's not liquidy enough and has "us" stab him in the finger with a sewing needle so he can add his own blood to the "paint".
Add in the fact that Tasmania's Indigenous population are repeatedly referred to as "aboriginals" where Australian convention (admittedly, the book was published in the US, but STILL) would dictate using "Tasmanian Aboriginal people" or "Indigenous Tasmanians", and I spent a lot of this book cringing.
Basically, this book is the story of some ignorant Americans who thought they'd see in a couple of weeks what nobody's had a confirmed sighting of in almost a hundred years, despite die hard thylacine believers spending decades searching for scat and footprints and living specimens. They travel around Tasmania, interviewing interested parties, most of whom are like "Look, I'd LOVE for someone to find a living thylacine. But all evidence suggests it's not going to happen". And yet they still expect to see a thylacine around every corner.
In short, it's almost like going to the Montana badlands and expecting to see a velociraptor because this one time Alan Grant saw a live dinosaur but has literally no proof of it.
I'm about 85% sure this one is going to get weeded from our collection at work. I can't imagine it's going to prove helpful to any students researching thylacines. Unless they want to know how to make paint out of wombat shit and leeches...
cindywho's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed this one despite the narrative choice of using the second person plural. It made the authors sound like conjoined twins - or was it the royal "we"? - it was a consistent irritant throughout the book. Luckily the trek around Tasmania was interesting as an introduction to some of the nifty places and critters of that island. We've planned it as part of our trip to Oz next month (me and my conjoined twin) and I made notes and got ideas on where to go when we get there. Wombats - Old growth forest - Quolls - The Nut - Here I come!
lizdesole's review against another edition
4.0
In the first few chapters I thought this will be a 5 star for sure. I loved the humor, the interesting factual information and the narrative pacing. After a while, I must admit that the cutesy humor began to wear on me-especially the things the artist said. Also somewhat annoying was that the co-authors wrote as one voice. "Last night we had a dream..." Really, you two had the same dream? Overall though, I really enjoyed it and learned a bunch about Tasmanian wildlife. Now I'm itching to read about the wildlife in my own backyard (they live in Brooklyn and have a local nature book)
splitinfinitive's review against another edition
3.0
A nice book, with some excellent anecdotes and information which I can use for an upcoming trip to Australia - however, the authors' use of the royal pronoun "we" - sample: "we dreamed about..." is decidedly eccentric, at its best, and off-putting at its worst.