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The Snake Charmer: A Life And Death In Pursuit Of Knowledge (2008)

by Jamie James(Favorite Author)

3.83 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1401302130 (ISBN13: 9781401302139)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Hachette Books

review 1: Even knowing from the start what was going to happen to Joe at the end, I found myself transfixed by every single event told about his journey to find and identify snakes. An interesting point of creativity was making each chapter begin with information about a snake, not just any snake, but one that had a key impact on that part of Joe's life. This book could have been a dry, scientific sort of thing that only told what happened from beginning to end in order to memorialize a famous scientist, instead the author used information combined with great storytelling to paint the picture of someone so clearly it was as if you had actually met him somewhere.I have never loved or hated snakes, but this book made me realize what beautiful creatures they can be. In reading, I di... morescovered their abilities and their faults, I discovered the natural wonder that is the snake itself, and I came to understand why others would spend their time searching for these creatures and surrounding themselves with them in homes or offices. By the end of the book I found myself grateful for all the work that Joe had done and was heartbroken at the loss of one so great.
review 2: This was a serendipitous discovery: I THOUGHT I was buying a book about snake handling in Appalachian churches. Instead I got a marvelous combination of biography, geography, and snake lore. Joe Slowinski was a complex individual, devoting his life and career to studying snakes and furthering the comprehensive study of life forms started by Linnaeus and Darwin. He possessed a charismatic and risk-taking personality, one that in no small way contributed to his death while on an expedition to a remote area in Burma in 2001. Recommended for fans of Jon Krakauer. less

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