-
Zoo Story
- Life in the Garden of Captives
- Narrated by: John Allen Nelson
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $15.47
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Elephant Whisperer
- My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
- By: Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
>When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them. In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.
-
-
Beautiful story, beautifully written
- By Tango on 01-12-13
By: Lawrence Anthony, and others
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Dragonflight
- Dragonriders of Pern, Book 1
- By: Anne McCaffrey
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the beautiful planet Pern, colonized for centuries, Land Holders and Craftsmen have traditionally tithed food and supplies to the dragonweyrs to which they are bound. In times past, the mighty telepathic dragons and their riders were the only protection from the dreaded, life-threatening Thread. Now those times may be returning....
-
-
Poor reading
- By Miles Gloriosus on 09-08-08
By: Anne McCaffrey
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
The Elephant Whisperer
- My Life with the Herd in the African Wild
- By: Lawrence Anthony, Graham Spence
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
>When South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony was asked to accept a herd of "rogue" wild elephants on his Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand, his common sense told him to refuse. But he was the herd's last chance of survival: they would be killed if he wouldn't take them. In order to save their lives, Anthony took them in. In the years that followed he became a part of their family. And as he battled to create a bond with the elephants, he came to realize that they had a great deal to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom.
-
-
Beautiful story, beautifully written
- By Tango on 01-12-13
By: Lawrence Anthony, and others
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
The Fifth Season
- The Broken Earth, Book 1
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the way the world ends...for the last time. It starts with the great red rift across the heart of the world's sole continent, spewing ash that blots out the sun. It starts with death, with a murdered son and a missing daughter. It starts with betrayal, and long dormant wounds rising up to fester. This is the Stillness, a land long familiar with catastrophe, where the power of the Earth is wielded as a weapon. And where there is no mercy.
-
-
The Nay-Sayers are Wrong.
- By Steve Groves on 02-10-20
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Seveneves
- A Novel
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Mary Robinette Kowal, Will Damron
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A catastrophic event renders the earth a ticking time bomb. In a feverish race against the inevitable, nations around the globe band together to devise an ambitious plan to ensure the survival of humanity far beyond our atmosphere, in outer space.
-
-
Odd narrator choice
- By Josh Mitchell on 05-30-15
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Dragonflight
- Dragonriders of Pern, Book 1
- By: Anne McCaffrey
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the beautiful planet Pern, colonized for centuries, Land Holders and Craftsmen have traditionally tithed food and supplies to the dragonweyrs to which they are bound. In times past, the mighty telepathic dragons and their riders were the only protection from the dreaded, life-threatening Thread. Now those times may be returning....
-
-
Poor reading
- By Miles Gloriosus on 09-08-08
By: Anne McCaffrey
-
The Golem and the Jinni
- A Novel
- By: Helene Wecker
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 19 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Helene Wecker's dazzling debut novel tells the story of two supernatural creatures who appear mysteriously in 1899 New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life by a strange man who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic. When her master dies at sea on the voyage from Poland, she is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York Harbor. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire, born in the ancient Syrian Desert. Trapped in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard centuries ago, he is released accidentally by a tinsmith in a Lower Manhattan shop.
-
-
Enchanting Debut Novel - Delicious!
- By Tango on 04-26-13
By: Helene Wecker
-
A Gift of Time
- By: Jerry Merritt
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Micajah Fenton discovers a crater in his front yard with a broken time glider in the bottom and a naked, virtual woman on his lawn, he delays his plans to kill himself. While helping repair the marooned time traveler's glider, Cager realizes it can return him to his past to correct a mistake that had haunted him his entire life. As payment for his help, the virtual creature living in the circuitry of the marooned glider, sends Cager back in time as his 10-year-old self.
-
-
The Gift of Time is a Gift!
- By As happy as a monkey with two bananas in his hands on 12-07-17
By: Jerry Merritt
-
The Sixth Extinction
- An Unnatural History
- By: Elizabeth Kolbert
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 9 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major audiobook about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes. Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on Earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.
-
-
Lifts you out of the ordinary
- By Regina on 04-28-14
-
The Lost City of the Monkey God
- A True Story
- By: Douglas Preston
- Narrated by: Bill Mumy
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior, called the White City or the Lost City of the Monkey God. Indigenous tribes speak of ancestors who fled there to escape the Spanish invaders, and they warn that anyone who enters this sacred city will fall ill and die.
-
-
Still Lost...
- By Mel on 01-12-17
By: Douglas Preston
-
State of Wonder
- A Novel
- By: Ann Patchett
- Narrated by: Hope Davis
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared in the Amazon while working on an extremely valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding answers to the questions about her friend's death, her company's future, and her own past.
-
-
Do yourself a favor and listen to this book!
- By F. B. H. In TN on 06-10-11
By: Ann Patchett
-
Red Mars
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 23 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel, Red Mars is the first book in Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling trilogy. Red Mars is praised by scientists for its detailed visions of future technology. It is also hailed by authors and critics for its vivid characters and dramatic conflicts.
For centuries, the red planet has enticed the people of Earth. Now an international group of scientists has colonized Mars. Leaving Earth forever, these 100 people have traveled nine months to reach their new home. This is the remarkable story of the world they create - and the hidden power struggles of those who want to control it.
-
-
very long
- By Dana on 07-17-08
-
The Zookeeper's Wife
- A War Story
- By: Diane Ackerman
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Germany invaded Poland, bombers devastated Warsaw - and the city's zoo along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into the empty cages. Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm, piano concerts.
-
-
Very Disappointing, Terrible Narration
- By jTacy67 on 07-16-08
By: Diane Ackerman
-
The Japanese Lover
- By: Isabel Allende
- Narrated by: Joanna Gleason
- Length: 9 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1939, as Poland falls under the shadow of the Nazis, young Alma Belasco's parents send her away to live in safety with an aunt and uncle in their opulent mansion in San Francisco. There, as the rest of the world goes to war, she encounters Ichimei Fukuda, the quiet and gentle son of the family's Japanese gardener. Unnoticed by those around them, a tender love affair begins to blossom. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the two are cruelly pulled apart.
-
-
My first negative review
- By Karen O'Byrne on 11-11-15
By: Isabel Allende
-
The Museum of Extraordinary Things
- A Novel
- By: Alice Hoffman
- Narrated by: Judith Light, Grace Gummer, Zach Appelman
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coney Island: Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a boardwalk freak show that amazes and stimulates the crowds. An exceptional swimmer, Coralie appears as the Mermaid in her father's "museum", alongside performers like the Wolfman, the Butterfly Girl, and a 100-year-old turtle. One night Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man photographing moonlit trees in the woods off the Hudson River.
-
-
Captivating historical fiction+Hoffman interview!
- By Brendolynne on 06-04-14
By: Alice Hoffman
-
Way Station
- By: Clifford D. Simak
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this Hugo Award-winning classic, Enoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he had done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars.
-
-
A very special novel that will inspire you.
- By Noe on 08-08-10
-
How to Be a Good Creature
- A Memoir in Thirteen Animals
- By: Sy Montgomery
- Narrated by: Sy Montgomery
- Length: 3 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Understanding someone who belongs to another species can be transformative. No one knows this better than author, naturalist, and adventurer Sy Montgomery. To research her books, Sy has traveled the world and encountered some of the planet's rarest and most beautiful animals. From tarantulas to tigers, Sy's life continually intersects with and is informed by the creatures she meets. This restorative memoir reflects on the personalities and quirks of 13 animals - Sy's friends - and the truths revealed by their grace.
-
-
Enchanting Start To 2019....
- By Rory on 01-02-19
By: Sy Montgomery
-
The Man-Eaters of Eden
- Life and Death in Kruger National Park
- By: Robert Frump
- Narrated by: John Skinner
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It was the winter of 1902; South African park ranger Harry Wolhuter was on horseback, patrolling the area for poachers at Kruger National Park. Little did he know, he was also being stalked. Out of nowhere, two huge male lions pounced on Harry's horse, knocking the man to the ground. The horse ran off, leaving Harry to fend for himself. One of the lions lunged at him - piercing deep into his flesh and bones - and began to drag him far into the jungle to finish him off.
-
-
Absolutely stunning
- By Jim on 06-19-16
By: Robert Frump
-
Cathedral of the Wild
- An African Journey Home
- By: Boyd Varty
- Narrated by: Boyd Varty
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Boyd Varty had an unconventional upbringing. He grew up on Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa, a place where man and nature strive for balance, where perils exist alongside wonders. Founded more than 80 years ago as a hunting ground, Londolozi was transformed into a nature reserve beginning in 1973 by Varty’s father and uncle, visionaries of the restoration movement. But it wasn’t just a sanctuary for the animals; it was also a place for ravaged land to flourish again and for the human spirit to be restored.
-
-
One of my favorite audiobooks
- By Kindle Customer on 03-19-17
By: Boyd Varty
Publisher's summary
Welcome to the savage and surprising world of Zoo Story, an unprecedented account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants, both animal and human. Based on six years of research, the book follows a handful of unforgettable characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: an alpha chimp with a weakness for blondes, a ferocious tiger who revels in Obsession perfume, and a brilliant but tyrannical CEO known as El Diablo Blanco.
Zoo Story crackles with issues of global urgency: the shadow of extinction, humanity's role in the destruction or survival of other species. More than anything else, though, it's a dramatic and moving true story of seduction and betrayal, exile and loss, and the limits of freedom on an overcrowded planet - all framed inside one zoo reinventing itself for the 21st century.
Thomas French, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, chronicles the action with vivid power: Wild elephants soaring above the Atlantic on their way to captivity. Predators circling each other in a lethal mating dance. Primates plotting the overthrow of their king. The sweeping narrative takes the listener from the African savannah to the forests of Panama and deep into the inner workings of a place some describe as a sanctuary and others condemn as a prison.
All of it comes to life in the book's four-legged characters. Zoo Story shows us how these remarkable individuals live, how some die, and what their experiences reveal about the human desire to both exalt and control nature.
Critic reviews
More from the same
Author
What listeners say about Zoo Story
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laurel
- 03-21-16
Zoo Politics, Zoo Tragedy, Zoo Dreams
Much of my adult life has turned within the world of animal medicine and ecological and environmental issues have always been close to my heart. I am a bunny lover but also a realist who has labored inside the financial and heart rending constraints of rescue work. Even so, I found parts of this book brutal and more than I could bear. I want to believe that with enough caring people and enough sacrificial giving we can find ways to treat all animals with the dignity and bounty they deserve. This book wants me to accept that there is no solution but the heartless culling of thousands of our apex species because space and resources demanded by explosive human population growth demands it. I was still living in ignorance - blissful, hopeful ignorance. The subtitle for this book might as well have been, The death of Zoo dreams.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anastasia
- 02-20-12
A very good Zoo Story
What made the experience of listening to Zoo Story the most enjoyable?
The story was just that - a story about a Zoo and all the fabulous animals.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- A. Sisk
- 06-10-12
The complicated world of zoos
What did you love best about Zoo Story?
This was a very exciting book, which explores the complicated relationship of zoos to conservation and the blurry grey areas of good and bad zoo keeping, and the problem of wild natural animals in civilized engineered human spaces. I really enjoyed the book and was pleased that it was very balanced in how zoos are good and bad.
What other book might you compare Zoo Story to and why?
Monsters of God By David Quamman
What about John Allen Nelson’s performance did you like?
it was not annoying. Nothing worse than a narrator who has an annoying voice.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
It had me from the beginning, when they were transporting a herd of elephants on a plane.I cried several times throughout the book.
Any additional comments?
This book answers many questions and raises some as well, as far as how humans deal with and preserve animals.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gotta Tellya
- 03-21-16
Not as good as I had hoped.
Would you try another book from Thomas French and/or John Allen Nelson?
Probably not.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
Still trudging through the Audible version--might or might not finish it. If I have to use the word "trudge," that's not a good sign.
How could the performance have been better?
The narrator's style had a repetitive rhythm to it that grew annoying. He also was too matter of fact. His style would suit a more dramatic book, such as a biography of Eliot Ness, or other nonfiction history, like tales from WWII. The narrator's predictable tone and dry delivery caused my attention to drift more than once. Subsequently I feel that I missed important facts, but there is no way I can slog through a re-listen. I might pick up a print copy for that purpose.
If this book were a movie would you go see it?
I doubt it.
Any additional comments?
The narrator wasn't the only disappointment in this Audible book. The author, in a scattered, non-linear fashion, tried to cover too many aspects of zoos, wildlife, habitat loss, animal sentience, administrative politics, and more. He held forth at length on each topic, to the point where it seemed that if one word would have sufficed, the author felt compelled to use ten. Between the irritating narration and the rambling story line, I started to lose interest in this book. That's particularly sad, as I just finished orientation as a volunteer at a zoo in a major U.S. city. I had hoped to gain a few insights through this book--and I have, but at the cost of wading through piles of verbiage that were not well presented.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Catherine
- 09-06-10
I don't buy it
Zoos = conservationists? I don't buy it. Suffering, not death, is the worst thing that can happen to these animals. There's clear evidence they suffer in zoos and how often do these majestic creatures end up in circuses, where they suffer even more?
I looked forward to learning about the animals and about how well they are cared for in a zoo environment. What a disappointment.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful