Lloyd Spencer Davis
Autor(a) de A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins
About the Author
Davis Lloyd Spencer received the PEN (NZ) Best First Book Award for Nonfiction for Penguin: A Season in the Life of the Adelie Penguin. He is the author of Looking For Darwin, which won the CLL Writer's Award, New Zealand's most significant nonfiction award. He lives in New Zealand.
Image credit: photo by Scott Davis
Obras por Lloyd Spencer Davis
A Polar Affair: Antarctica's Forgotten Hero and the Secret Love Lives of Penguins (2019) 45 exemplares
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Data de nascimento
- 1954
- Sexo
- male
- Local de nascimento
- Napier, New Zealand
- Locais de residência
- Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
- Educação
- University of Alberta (PhD)
- Ocupações
- Writer
photographer
filmmaker
Stuart Professor of Science Communication - Organizações
- University of Otago
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Lloyd Spencer Davis was born in Napier, New Zealand. He went to universities in Wellington and Christchurch before heading overseas to do his PhD at the University of Alberta in Canada. In 1985, he moved to Dunedin, New Zealand, and still calls it home. He is both a proponent and practitioner of creative nonfiction writing and his books to date are distinguished by the unique perspectives he puts on them.
He also writes essays for magazines like Natural History and newspapers like the Star Sunday Times. His topics usually involve nature or science and his approach is often very personal.
In addition to being a writer, Lloyd Spencer Davis is also an award-winning scientist, photographer, filmmaker and science communicator. He currently holds the Stuart Chair in Science Communication at the University of Otago where, among other things, he teaches creative nonfiction writing and science communication.
Membros
Críticas
Penguin: A Season in the Life of the Adelie Penguin por Lloyd S. Davis
Quite a nice book about the adelie penguin. I think I bought this when I was in my sculpting phase and actually made some bronze penguins ...somewhat drawing on the information in this book. It's written in the first person as though the penguin is writing it. Why? Maybe to appeal to kids. But seems to me that the author hasn't really sorted out whether his audience is kids or adults or zoologists. But interesting and some nice photos. And the information seems authoritative. But I'm now in the position of having to downsize my library and this book is one of the casualties. Pity but I won't be using it in the future. I give it three stars.… (mais)
I got this book through the Amazon Vine program for review. I kind of surprised myself by finishing this. In the end, finding out who got to the South Pole first and who survived the journey really propelled me through the book.
This book is a mishmash of historical and contemporary encounters with Adelie penguins. There is a lot of survival and history of polar exploration as well.
I enjoyed the middle portion of this book (where they are in Antarctica) much more than the beginning and end. The beginning and end just throw around too many names and jump around too much.
In fact the discontinuity is a fundamental flaw of this book. The author jumps around between past explorers and present explorers kind of willy nilly. He also jumps between his search for info on Levick and his own experiences at the South Pole. He does make an effort to tie together the topics across all of the people and timelines but it still comes across as a bit jumbled.
This is also not a book to read with kids. Each chapter starts with a two page discussion on a deviant type of sexual behavior and how it could relate to penguin reproductive behaviors. In fact this is another heavy theme throughout the book that felt forced at times. Davis often tries to relate the sexual exploits of the Adelie penguins to the sexual exploits of past explorers. The heavy sex theme is a bit weird and feels contrived.
The above issues aside, I did enjoy reading and learning about Antarctica and what explorers who go there suffer through. It was also intriguing to read about the different types of penguins and how they reproduce and survive. I didn't find the piecemeal history and background about the different explorers to be as interesting.
Overall this is a decent read if you are interested in the history of polar travel and penguins. If blatant discussion about deviant sexual behavior bothers you I would skip it.… (mais)
This book is a mishmash of historical and contemporary encounters with Adelie penguins. There is a lot of survival and history of polar exploration as well.
I enjoyed the middle portion of this book (where they are in Antarctica) much more than the beginning and end. The beginning and end just throw around too many names and jump around too much.
In fact the discontinuity is a fundamental flaw of this book. The author jumps around between past explorers and present explorers kind of willy nilly. He also jumps between his search for info on Levick and his own experiences at the South Pole. He does make an effort to tie together the topics across all of the people and timelines but it still comes across as a bit jumbled.
This is also not a book to read with kids. Each chapter starts with a two page discussion on a deviant type of sexual behavior and how it could relate to penguin reproductive behaviors. In fact this is another heavy theme throughout the book that felt forced at times. Davis often tries to relate the sexual exploits of the Adelie penguins to the sexual exploits of past explorers. The heavy sex theme is a bit weird and feels contrived.
The above issues aside, I did enjoy reading and learning about Antarctica and what explorers who go there suffer through. It was also intriguing to read about the different types of penguins and how they reproduce and survive. I didn't find the piecemeal history and background about the different explorers to be as interesting.
Overall this is a decent read if you are interested in the history of polar travel and penguins. If blatant discussion about deviant sexual behavior bothers you I would skip it.… (mais)
1 
krau0098 | 2 outras críticas | Sep 18, 2019 |
krau0098 | 2 outras críticas | Sep 18, 2019 | My eye caught three things: Robert Falcon Scott--Antarctica--Penguins--and I submitted my request for the galley. Later I noted one other stand-out word: Sex. Specifically, the sex lives of penguins, but the book embraced more than just the birds' proclivities.
My first introduction to Antarctica was Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, which an elementary school teacher read aloud to my class. I read it many times. When I was about eleven years old I picked up The Great White South by Herbert Ponting, the photographer on the Scott Expedition to the South Pole. Scott's story caught my imagination. He was a tragic, flawed hero. Ever since, I have been drawn to read books about Polar expeditions and explorers.
A Polar Affair by Llyod Spencer Davis is a highly readable and entertaining book about Davis's career in penguin research and the stories of the explorers who first encountered the Antarctic penguins. Specifically, George Murray Levick, physician with the Scott expedition, who became the first to record the habits and lives of penguins.
Levick wrote a book but it was never made public. When Davis discovered a copy he was shocked to learn that he was not the first to observe what Levick had already documented.
The book is a wonderful blend, offering science and nature, history, first-person account, and adventure. He vividly recounts the story of the men who vied to be the first to reach the South Pole, including their human frailties and ill-thought decisions.
The story of Levick and two other men trapped over an Antarctic winter in an ice cave is especially horrifying to read! The harsh realities of the penguins' struggle to survive was eye-opening.
Davis's quest to understand Levick and the mystery of the suppressed research takes him across the world, snooping into libraries and museums.
Even though I know the stories, I was riveted, especially since Davis includes the explorer's personal lives. As Davis writes, "Our idols are never so virtuous as we make them out to be."
The next visit I make to the Detroit Zoo Penguin Conservation Center I will be looking at the penguins with more appreciation.
I was given access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.… (mais)
My first introduction to Antarctica was Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater, which an elementary school teacher read aloud to my class. I read it many times. When I was about eleven years old I picked up The Great White South by Herbert Ponting, the photographer on the Scott Expedition to the South Pole. Scott's story caught my imagination. He was a tragic, flawed hero. Ever since, I have been drawn to read books about Polar expeditions and explorers.
A Polar Affair by Llyod Spencer Davis is a highly readable and entertaining book about Davis's career in penguin research and the stories of the explorers who first encountered the Antarctic penguins. Specifically, George Murray Levick, physician with the Scott expedition, who became the first to record the habits and lives of penguins.
Levick wrote a book but it was never made public. When Davis discovered a copy he was shocked to learn that he was not the first to observe what Levick had already documented.
The book is a wonderful blend, offering science and nature, history, first-person account, and adventure. He vividly recounts the story of the men who vied to be the first to reach the South Pole, including their human frailties and ill-thought decisions.
The story of Levick and two other men trapped over an Antarctic winter in an ice cave is especially horrifying to read! The harsh realities of the penguins' struggle to survive was eye-opening.
Davis's quest to understand Levick and the mystery of the suppressed research takes him across the world, snooping into libraries and museums.
Even though I know the stories, I was riveted, especially since Davis includes the explorer's personal lives. As Davis writes, "Our idols are never so virtuous as we make them out to be."
The next visit I make to the Detroit Zoo Penguin Conservation Center I will be looking at the penguins with more appreciation.
I was given access to a free ebook through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.… (mais)
1 nancyadair | 2 outras críticas | Aug 9, 2019 |
nancyadair | 2 outras críticas | Aug 9, 2019 | Listas
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Estatísticas
- Obras
- 10
- Membros
- 123
- Popularidade
- #162,201
- Avaliação
- 3.3
- Críticas
- 7
- ISBN
- 23