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The Feather Thief
- Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
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Publisher's summary
As heard on NPR's This American Life
“Absorbing... Though it's non-fiction, The Feather Thief contains many of the elements of a classic thriller.” (Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air)
“One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever.” (Christian Science Monitor)
A rollicking true-crime adventure and a captivating journey into an underground world of fanatical fly-tiers and plume peddlers, for fans of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief.
On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London's Royal Academy of Music, 20-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin's obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins - some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin's, Alfred Russel Wallace, who'd risked everything to gather them - and escaped into the darkness.
Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man's relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man's destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.
Critic reviews
“Fascinating . . . a complex tale of greed, deception, and ornithological sabotage.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“Fascinating from the first page to the last - you won’t be able to put it down.” (Southern Living)
“A fascinating book . . . the kind of intelligent reported account that alerts us to a threat and that, one hopes, will never itself be endangered.” (The Wall Street Journal)
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Poached
- Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking
- By: Rachel Love Nuwer
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Our insatiable demand for animals - for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur - is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Rachel Nuwer, an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology, takes listeners on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to 10 countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving the demand.
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Fascinating
- By Annie on 11-30-18
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Provenance
- How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art
- By: Laney Salisbury, Aly Sujo
- Narrated by: Marty Peterson
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Here is a tautly paced investigation of one the 20th century's most audacious art frauds, which generated hundreds of forgeries - many of them still hanging in prominent museums and private collections today. Provenance is the extraordinary narrative of one of the most far-reaching and elaborate deceptions in art history.
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reads like a thriller
- By Andy on 04-26-10
By: Laney Salisbury, and others
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Here Is Where
- Discovering America's Great Forgotten History
- By: Andrew Carroll
- Narrated by: Andrew Carroll
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The centerpiece of a major national campaign to indentify and preserve forgotten history, Here Is Where is acclaimed historian Andrew Carroll’s fascinating journey of discovery in which he travels to each of America’s 50 states and explores locations where remarkable individuals once lived or where the incredible or momentous occurred.
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A Man who Loves his Country
- By Daryl on 03-12-17
By: Andrew Carroll
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The Lost Book of Moses
- The Hunt for the World's Oldest Bible
- By: Chanan Tigay
- Narrated by: Chanan Tigay
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the summer of 1883, Moses Wilhelm Shapira - archaeological treasure hunter and denizen of Jerusalem's bustling marketplace - arrived unannounced in London claiming to have discovered the world's oldest Bible scroll. When news of the discovery leaked to the excited English press, Shapira became a household name. But before the British Museum could acquire them, Shapira's nemesis, French archaeologist Charles Clermont-Ganneau, denounced his find as a fraud.
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Fascinating!
- By Deborah on 07-27-17
By: Chanan Tigay
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The Great Pearl Heist
- London's Greatest Thief and Scotland Yard's Hunt for the World's Most Valuable Necklace
- By: Molly Caldwell Crosby
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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In the summer of 1913, under the cover of London’s perpetual smoggy dusk, two brilliant minds are pitted against each other - a celebrated gentleman thief and a talented Scotland Yard detective - in the greatest jewel heist of the new century. An exquisite strand of pale pink pearls, worth more than the Hope Diamond, has been bought by a Hatton Garden broker. Word of the “Mona Lisa of Pearls” spreads around the world, captivating jewelers as well as thieves.
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Entertaining Read
- By Rodney on 12-18-12
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Maphead
- Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks
- By: Ken Jennings
- Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.
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A Romp through Maps
- By Lynn on 01-27-12
By: Ken Jennings
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Finders Keepers
- A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 7 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Is the archeologist who discovers a lost tomb a sort of hero - or a villain? If someone steals a relic from a museum and returns it to the ruin it came from, is she a thief? Craig Childs's riveting new book is a lyrical ghost story - an intense, impassioned investigation into the nature of the past and the things we leave behind. We visit lonesome desert canyons and fancy Fifth Avenue art galleries, journey throughout the Americas, Asia, the past and the present. The result is a brilliant book about man and nature, remnants and memory, a dashing tale of crime and detection.
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I roam the deserts
- By matt hewman on 08-21-19
By: Craig Childs
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Hellhound on His Trail
- The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Hampton Sides
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray -drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel.
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History Comes Alive
- By L. Lyter on 06-29-10
By: Hampton Sides
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Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
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The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
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The Skeleton Crew
- How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases
- By: Deborah Halber
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Skeleton Crew provides an entree into the gritty and tumultuous world of Sherlock Holmes-wannabes who race to beat out law enforcement-and one another - at matching missing persons with unidentified remains. In America today, upwards of forty thousand people are dead and unaccounted for. These murder, suicide, and accident victims, separated from their names, are being adopted by the bizarre online world of amateur sleuths.
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I Don't Understand
- By Hannah Wallner on 08-07-18
By: Deborah Halber
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The City of Falling Angels
- By: John Berendt
- Narrated by: Holter Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil returns to give us an intimate look at the "magic, mystery, and decadence" of the city of Venice and its inhabitants.
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Do Yourself a Favor and Skip This Book!
- By AUDIBLE on 10-08-05
By: John Berendt
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Between Man and Beast
- An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure that Took the Victorian World By Storm
- By: Monte Reel
- Narrated by: Bob Walter
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In 1856 Paul Du Chaillu marched into the equatorial wilderness of West Africa determined to bag an animal that, according to legend, was nothing short of a monster. When he emerged three years later, the summation of his efforts only hinted at what he'd experienced in one of the most dangerous regions on earth. Armed with an astonishing collection of zoological specimens, Du Chaillu leapt from the physical challenges of the jungle straight into the center of the biggest issues of the time.
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Extraordinary book! Masterpiece.
- By BVerité on 04-23-13
By: Monte Reel
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To See Every Bird on Earth
- A Father, A Son, and a Lifelong Obsession
- By: Dan Koeppel
- Narrated by: John McDonough
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From well-known nature and adventure writer Dan Koeppel, whose work has appeared in Audubon and National Geographic Adventure, comes this true story of one bird watcher's incredible achievements.
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Reader is Ancient
- By Caroline on 06-18-05
By: Dan Koeppel
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More filler than Joan Rivers’ face.
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Making a living reproducing famous artworks for a popular online retailer and desperate to improve her situation, Claire is lured into a Faustian bargain with Aiden Markel, a powerful gallery owner. She agrees to forge a painting - a Degas masterpiece stolen from the Gardner Museum - in exchange for a one-woman show in his renowned gallery. But when that very same long-missing Degas painting is delivered to Claire's studio, she begins to suspect that it may itself be a forgery. Her desperate search for the truth leads Claire into a labyrinth of deceit where secrets hidden since the late 19th century may be the only evidence that can now save her life.
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The Art Forger
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In The Optimist, David Coggins makes a case for the skills and sensibility of an enduring sport and shares the secrets, frustrations, and triumphs of the great tradition of fly fishing, which has captivated anglers worldwide. Written in wry, wise, and keenly observed prose, each chapter focuses on a specific place, fish, and skill. Few individuals, for example, have the visual acuity required to catch the nearly invisible bonefish of the Bahamas flats.
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But the hard copy.
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On February 15, 2003, a group of thieves broke into an allegedly airtight vault in the international diamond capital of Antwerp, Belgium and made off with over $108 million dollars worth of diamonds and other valuables. They did so without tripping an alarm or injuring a single guard in the process.
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The art world is a much dirtier, nastier business than you might expect. Tony Tetro, one of the most renowned art forgers in history, will make you question every masterpiece you’ve ever seen in a museum, gallery, or private collection. Tetro’s “Rembrandts,” “Caravaggios,” “Miros,” and hundreds of other works now hang on walls around the globe.
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Incredibly interesting!
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The Art Detective
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What separates a masterpiece from a piece of junk? Thanks to the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and its American spin-off, everyone is searching garage sales and hunting online for hidden gems, wondering whether their attics contain trash or treasures. In The Art Detective, Philip Mould, one of the world's foremost authorities on British portraiture and an irreverent and delightful expert for the Roadshow, serves up his secrets and his best stories.
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The Art Detective was Interesting
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The Art of the Heist
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How did the son of a decorated policeman grow up to be one of Boston's most notorious criminals? How did he survive a decades-long feud with the FBI? How did he escape one jail sentence with a fake gun carved out of soap? How did he trade the return of a famous Rembrandt for early release from another sentence? The Art of the Heist is a roller-coaster ride of a life, the memoir of America's most infamous art thief Myles Connor.
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It was cool
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The Art Thief
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For centuries, works of art have been stolen in countless ways from all over the world, but no one has been quite as successful at it as the master thief Stéphane Breitwieser. Carrying out more than two hundred heists over nearly eight years—in museums and cathedrals all over Europe—Breitwieser, along with his girlfriend who worked as his lookout, stole more than three hundred objects, until it all fell apart in spectacular fashion.
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A book that's steals your attention!
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In Vino Duplicitas
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After bursting onto the scene in 2002, Rudy Kurniawan quickly became the leading purveyor of rare wines to the American elite. But in April 2008, his lots of Domaine Ponsot Clos Saint-Denis red burgundy - dating as far back as 1945 - were abruptly pulled from auction. The problem? The winemaker was certain that this particular burgundy was first produced only in 1982.
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Fascinating read for lovers of wine history
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By: Peter Hellman
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The Art of the Con
- The Most Notorious Fakes, Frauds, and Forgeries in the Art World
- By: Anthony M. Amore
- Narrated by: Michael Johnson
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Art scams are today so numerous that the specter of a lawsuit arising from a mistaken attribution has scared a number of experts away from the business of authentication and forgery, and with good reason. Art scams are increasingly convincing and involve incredible sums of money. The cons perpetrated by unscrupulous art dealers and their accomplices are proportionately elaborate. Anthony M. Amore's The Art of the Con tells the stories of some of history's most notorious yet untold cons.
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Monotone performance
- By Texantothebone2500 on 12-17-19
By: Anthony M. Amore
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The Stranger in the Woods
- The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit
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- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
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Many people dream of escaping modern life, but most will never act on it. This is the remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality—not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own.
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Captivating Then Exasperating
- By Gillian on 03-10-17
By: Michael Finkel
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The Library Book
- By: Susan Orlean
- Narrated by: Susan Orlean
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Overall
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On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. As one fireman recounted later, “Once that first stack got going, it was good-bye, Charlie.” The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more.
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Had To Turn It Off
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What listeners say about The Feather Thief
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- Sylvia
- 04-28-18
Unusual and true natural history mystery!
This is a fascinating book that not only explains about the particular theft of feathers and bird skins, but also about the function of museums and other institutions keeping actual collections of these and why people would want to steal these things. As I said, not just birds but also things like elephant tusks and turtles and all types of animals. The reason I gave the story only four stars is because the detailed theft story began but then diverged off into speaking about all these other topics marginally related to the actual feather theft. Once it got back to the actual feather theft, I was a little confused about who was who and the wheres and whens and so on. But I eventually got back on to the gist of things. Although I have a degree in biology and have both used and contributed to various collections myself, of reptiles/amphibians, not birds, I did not know a good number of things covered by this story. If you have an interest in biology or natural history or ecology or conservation or museums or even just history, I think you would enjoy this audiobook because it is rather unique and presents facts and stories that you may never have heard and relates them together in a way you may not have been aware that they relate. So I have spoken this into my phone rather than typed it and I hope that it makes sense to you. I enjoyed this audiobook. P. S. If you are interested in flyfishing or fly tying, you would probably really, really get into this book!!!
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53 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 05-04-18
A good author can write about anything.
Who would have thought there would be drama in fly tying! Highly recommend, if a bit obscure.
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28 people found this helpful
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- Rosekeet
- 03-01-19
Great telling of an absolutely BONKERS event
The story told in this book is absolutely BONKERS. A salmon fly tying flute prodigy breaks into a museum to steal feathers collected by a famous naturalist to sell so he can buy a new flute. You can't make this stuff up. The story is engaging already and Johnson paints a vivid picture of the events of the heist, the thief (Edwin Rist), and community surround it. I didn't know anything (or frankly have any interest in) fly tying before reading this book, but its actually really fascinating with a fascinating history. Johnson's description of the heist and its aftermath is very compelling and so is his final interview with Edwin (who is absolutely THE WORST). I listened to this book on a long road trip with my dad and we both (a 30 year old woman and a 67 year old man) really enjoyed it and have recommended it to others. If you enjoyed "the Orchid Thief" you'll enjoy this.
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24 people found this helpful
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- Bonny
- 05-08-18
Weird, fascinating, & engrossing story!
I've fished, tried to cast with my son's fly-fishing rod, and admired some of the flies that he has tied, but I never imagined I could be so captivated by the story of a young man so obsessed with Victorian salmon-fly tying that he would resort to stealing hundreds of rare and exotic bird feathers and skins from the Tring Natural History Museum.
Truth really is stranger than fiction in The Feather Thief, and Kirk Johnson has written this weirdly fascinating story so well that I couldn't help but become immersed in it. He presents his research so the reader can understand the background and development of salmon-fly tying as an elite and expensive hobby in the 19th century. He also writes about Darwin's rival Alfred Russel Wallace and his quest to gather rare birds for scientific study and 19th century women demanding exotic birds and feather for their hats. On the surface, The Feather Thief is about exactly what its title states, but it's also about protecting endangered species and those who exploit those species for pleasure and money.
The author says that after he heard about the feather thief from a fly-fishing guide in New Mexico, “I became obsessed with the crime within moments. The more I found out, the greater the mystery grew, and my own compulsion to solve it.” I felt the same way about this engrossing book.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Morgan
- 05-03-18
Surprisingly Riveting
I heard about this book on an NPR interview. Surprisingly riveting. the author takes subject matter that is relatively obscure and turns it in to truly interesting story.
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15 people found this helpful
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- C Johnson
- 10-26-18
best book of 2018
loved this book, it has everything: history, true crime, great writing and captivating tale. buying it for friends and family.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Evie M
- 09-24-18
Fantastic Story, Obscure Topics
I loved the subjects covered within this book--whole societies of people focused around a shared, often obsessively consuming hobby. the crime itself seems almost an invention, but it is SUCH a good, well-researched (very very well!) book and even though it is nonfiction, the surprises are enthralling. The narrator does an excellent job of affecting the moods and personalities of all the individuals in the book (there are plenty!!!) but I bristled a bit at his unfamiliarity with some words' correct pronunciations. for me, that is almost physically painful to hear, and I think if one is pursuing a career of any sort in narration, one really ought to become more familiar with pronunciation. still, it was a great enough book that those were fleeting distractions (there were five or six!).
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- HT
- 11-04-18
Parts Were Interesting
The parts about fly tying I found very interesting to learn about and the lengths people go to in getting feathers to recreate lures from the Victorian era. I kind of felt that the author involved himself a little too much into the story and that, to me, detracted from what it was about.
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10 people found this helpful
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- Moviegoer
- 10-15-18
Plucked Feathers
I was really looking forward to this book after hearing it discussed on NPR. I had it ready to play when I set off on trip out of town. Unfortunately I did not make it very far in the book as the reader’s narration is so annoying. He is trying to add too much emphasis and excitement. It is like something for Saturday morning kids documentary. Very unfortunate. I have spoken with friends who have read the text version and absolutely loved it. If you want to listen, I would suggest pulling up the episode on fresh air.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-22-19
Top of my list!
Not only is this a compelling true story with all the elements of a thriller/mystery, but it is read by one of the very best narrators in the biz!
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5 people found this helpful