Sitting with Elephants

By: Ronald Dulek

Narrated by: David Pappas

Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

A middle-aged American professor and his wife decide to add spice to their lives by purchasing a remote South African bush house. Sitting with Elephants shares the couple's adventures and insights after they buy the house online, move in, and then find themselves encountering lions and leopards in front of the house, zebras in the garage, baboons hiding in the loft, and hyenas stealing and eating their flashlights. They also encounter poachers looking for rhinos and a herd of wild elephants who regularly appear at the thin wire fence separating the house from Kruger National Park. These elephants become the centerpiece of the narrative as the couple learns how to humbly approach, sit down, and communicate with the elephants. Emails sent to the couple's adult children tie the narrative together. Intermixing funny with dramatic stories, these emails provide inspirational insights that provide guides for living in the bush as well as contemporary society.

©2020 Waldorf Publishing (P)2021 Waldorf Publishing

a paean to humility

Despite some factual errors (Ghana did not play Paraguay at the 2010 World Cup), this is a wonderful book. Only about half of it is about elephants and trying to approach and sit with them, while the other half is stories about other animals and native Africans with whom the author interacts. While the stories might not be super exciting, they all teach a lesson, many of them about humility. In fact, the author ties in several insightful observations about how easy it is for arrogance to creep into our mindset without us even noticing it. This is an important lesson which I humbly appreciated, as I could relate the situations to my own life and my unperceived arrogance. So this is one of those books that helped me grow and inspired me to be a better person, which is rare. The author also has a Ted talk available online and it is evident from watching it that he is a thoughtful and wonderful human being. Highly recommended.

Amazing book and narrator is awsome.

Loved the book. The narrator brang the story to life. He has an incredibly clear strong voice, who puts you into the story. I will definitely look for other books narrator by David Pappas

a very different elephant encounter recollection

excellent story and recollection of an elephant encounter. not what I expected at all.
definitely a different take on us humans always wanting to be friends with the wild animals, and not understanding that we and they are where we are all supposed to be in this huge world. we can study them and respect them for their place in this beautiful earth, but we can never be on the same level as them or them with us.

My Review Of Sitting With Elephants

I think I enjoyed the story so much because the narrator's voice was soothing and kept me entranced during the entire journey! I would definitely recommend Sitting With Elephants to everyone.

A+

The narrator was great. He kept me interested in the story with his cool soft spoken voice.

Great story diminished by not-so-great narrator

I really wanted to give this title 5 stars. The story of intimate encounters with these amazing creatures is wonderful, filled with heart-warming moments and humorous anecdotes. But the narrator....? It sounds like someone just invited him in from the street to read the story. It was an amateurish production at best, not at all like the superb narration that defines all the Audible editions I've listened to so far. The poor reading really diminished this audio book for me. Disappointed that Audible couldn't find a much better narrator for such a good story.