The Rarest of the Rare - by Diane Ackerman (Paperback)

About the Book

With the insatiable curiosity she brought to her bestselling A Natural History of the Senses, intrepid naturalist/poet Diane Ackerman journeys from the Amazon rain forests to a forbidding Japanese island in search of endangered creatures and their habitats. What ensues is both a rapturous celebration of other species and a warning to our own. "Startling and humbling".--The New York Times Book Review.

Book Synopsis

In The Rarest of the Rare, Ackerman sets off on journeys that lead to, among other places, the habitats of the golden lion tamarind in the rain forests of Brazil, the monk seals of the Pacific's French Frigate Shoals, and the endearing short-tailed albatross on an almost inaccessible island off Japan, as well as the vital but threatened layover sites of the vastly traveled monarch butterfly. She weaves together her own poetic observations of such invaluable creatures and landscapes with the informed, entertaining, and sometimes quirky or compulsive voices of the men and women who know them best. The result is a book that broadens our horizons by carrying us across them. It sings to us in the voice of that uncommon bird herself, Diane Ackerman.

Review Quotes

"A life-changing excursion, pleasing, and provocative to mind, body, and soul."--San Francisco Chronicle

"This reader was left wondering which was more impressive, Ms. Ackerman's meticulous prose or her intrepid spirit."--New York Times Book Review

"A work to savor...Ackerman brings to her work a poetic sensitivity that enchants while it informs...entrancing."--Philadelphia Inquirer

About the Author

Diane Ackerman has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction in addition to garnering many other awards and recognitions for her work, which include the bestselling The Zookeeper's Wife and A Natural History of the Senses. She lives in Ithaca, New York.