Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behaviour |  | Authors: Martha Holmes, Michael Gunton, Rupert Barrington, Adam Chapman, Patrick Morris
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.95
Buy New: $23.55
as of 9/5/2010 08:49 CDT details
You Save: $16.40 (41%)
New (30) Used (14) from $14.94
Seller: big_o12
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 276,638
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 312
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3.7
Dimensions (in): 10.5 x 10.1 x 1
ISBN: 0520265378
Dewey Decimal Number: 578.4
EAN: 9780520265370
ASIN: 0520265378
Publication Date: March 1, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780520265370 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Life, the spectacular companion volume to the new Discovery Channel/BBC series, tells a majestic and compelling story of survival and of the amazing behaviors animals and plants adopt to stay alive and pass their genes to a new generation. Beautifully written and illustrated with more than 300 high-definition color photographs, Life focuses on the most exciting examples of the millions of species to demonstrate the harrowing and very different challenges that all living things must overcome to prevail and to procreate. In 60 concise and captivating vignettes, intriguingly grouped in categories like Extraordinary Sea Creatures, Fabulous Fish, Irrepressible Plants, Hot-blooded Hunters, and Intellectual Primates, the authors provide the most up-to-date science. Each chapter parallels an episode of the television series, making the book a must-have addition to any interested viewer's library. From the familiar to the rare--polar bears, Japanese snow macaques, monarch butterflies, and fish-catching bats, a mega-roost of 10 million fruit bats in Zambia, capuchin monkeys that use stone tools, marine life beneath and upon the ice of Antarctica, and tiny goby fish that climb Hawaiian waterfalls--this sumptuous volume brims with information and unforgettable images of the spectacular, the dangerous, and the bizarre.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 "For most animals, it is a huge achievement just to survive, to see another dawn." July 6, 2010
Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
//Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behaviour// is the companion to the new BBC series narrated by Oprah Winfrey. This is an absolutely beautiful book. In a ten-by-ten-inch coffee table format, the book filled with some of the most amazing color photographs you may ever see of extraordinary animals. However; it is much more than a book full of pictures. Each photograph or group of photos is accompanied by fact-filled pages which celebrate the extreme behavior of these sometimes unusual, sometimes common, but always extraordinary species. You will learn about their habitats, their place in the food chain, and their history.
A main focus of this book and the BBC series, is to document the extraordinary ends animals and plants go in order to simply survive. Between finding food, fighting off the competition, and attempting to reproduce, for most animals, it is a huge achievement to simply survive the day. This book highlights some of the most exciting examples, grouped by the different ways animals face the universal challenge of survival. If you are looking for a wonderful gift for the animal lover on your list, this book is it.
A wonderful companion to the documentary July 16, 2010
E. Houston (New Jersey, USA)
Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behavior is one of only a handful of coffee-table books that I have ever enjoyed. I have found few books that strike the right balance between quality photographs and readability; Life does that beautifully.
As anyone who has seen the BBC documentary Life (narrated by David Attenborough) [Blu-ray] can attest, the imagery is stunning, and that holds true in the book. Featuring a mix of shots, from "portraits" to action to landscape, they are all amazing. In addition, the print quality is excellent, unlike some other books I've seen.
The book is divided into chapters along the same lines as the DVD. In my opinion, it is the narrative that sets Life apart from other similar books. Incredibly informative, it balances on that delicate line between too simple and overwhelming. Each chapter begins with smaller photos and a few pages of information, often a summary of the narrative from the film, (the version narrated by David Attenborough, not Oprah). Each of the larger photos in the chapter are then accompanied by a short paragraph explaining the who, what, where, and why. Finally, the index is particularly useful in finding specific photos because the organization is based more on behavior than animal type.
Anyone interested in nature, animals, or photography will enjoy this book.
 Doesn't quite capture the magic of the documentary March 22, 2010
D. J. Nardi (Washington, DC)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved the BBC documentary Life (narrated by David Attenborough) [Blu-ray]. However, the Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behaviour book just doesn't capture the magic of animal behavior. The book is pretty good and has nice photos, but it lacks that extra sparkle. There aren't a whole lot of full-page pictures. Maybe seeing a still shot of Komodo Dragons isn't quite as exciting as seeing them tackle a carabao live. Especially for the price, I'd rather spend my money on the blu-ray documentary when it comes out.
|
|
|
![Life (narrated by David Attenborough) [Blu-ray]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B002UXRGM0.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
