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The Big Oyster
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 210
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 184
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Havana
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 46
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Story4 out of 5 stars 48
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 8
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
In this passionate, playful, and indispensable guide, oyster aficionado Rowan Jacobsen takes listeners on a delectable tour of the oysters of North America. Region by region, he describes each oyster's appearance, flavor, origin, and availability, as well as explaining how oysters grow, how to shuck them without losing a finger, how to pair them with wine (not to mention beer), and why they're one of the few farmed seafoods that are good for the earth as well as good for you.
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Inhabiting the small corner where France meets Spain, the Basque speak their own language, Euskera. Evidence of their culture showed up as early as 218 BC, and now, with a population of 2.4 million, their influence on our world has been all-pervasive. In this "delectable portrait of an uncanny, indomitable nation," listeners will be enthralled as Kurlansky delves into the roots of an intriguing population, and shows us why they continue.
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Our relationship with the ocean is undergoing a profound transformation. Just three decades ago nearly everything we ate from the sea was wild. Today rampant overfishing and an unprecedented biotech revolution have brought us to a point where wild and farmed fish occupy equal parts of a complex and confusing marketplace.
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4 Reasons to Read "Four Fish"
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Shucked
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3
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In March of 2009, Erin Byers Murray ditched her pampered city-girl lifestyle and convinced the rowdy and mostly male crew at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Massachusetts, to let a completely unprepared, aquaculture-illiterate food-and-lifestyle writer work for them for a year to learn the business of oysters. The result is Shucked - part love letter, part memoir, and part documentary about the world's most beloved bivalves.
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The Last Fish Tale
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Fishing at sea, an ancient trade and a way of life that has defined coastal towns throughout history, may be coming to an end. The culture and traditions of coastal Britain and of seagoing nations everywhere are now threatened with extinction. Celebrated author Mark Kurlansky explores the fate of our oceans and the decline of our most ancient coastal enterprise.
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Gotham
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In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
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THANK YOU!!!!!
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The Secret Life of Lobsters
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In this intimate portrait of an island lobstering community and an eccentric band of renegade biologists, journalist Trevor Corson escorts the listener onto the slippery decks of fishing boats, through danger-filled scuba dives, and deep into the churning currents of the Gulf of Maine to learn about the secret undersea lives of lobsters.
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Fascinating look at lobsters, Maine lobstr fishery
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Broadway
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Broadway takes us on a mile-by-mile journey that traces the gradual evolution of the 17th century's Brede Wegh, a muddy cow path in a backwater Dutch settlement, to the 20th century's Great White Way. We learn why one side of the street was once considered more fashionable than the other; witness construction of the Ansonia Apartments, Trinity Church, and the Flatiron Building and the burning of P. T. Barnum's American Museum; and discover that Columbia University was built on the site of an insane asylum.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Give My Regards To Broadway!
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Sugar
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 23
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 17
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Story4 out of 5 stars 18
How did a simple commodity, once the prized monopoly of kings and princes, become an essential ingredient in the lives of millions, before mutating yet again into the cause of a global health epidemic? Prior to 1600, sugar was a costly luxury, the domain of the rich. But with the rise of the sugar colonies in the New World over the following century, sugar became cheap, ubiquitous, and an everyday necessity. Less than 50 years ago, few people suggested that sugar posed a global health problem.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I should have listened to the other reviews
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Away Off Shore
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- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 31
In his first book of history, Away Off Shore, New York Times best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals the people and the stories behind what was once the whaling capital of the world. Beyond its charm, quaint local traditions, and whaling yarns, Philbrick explores the origins of Nantucket in this comprehensive history. From the English settlers who thought they were purchasing a "Native American ghost town" but actually found a fully realized society, the story of Nantucket is a truly unique chapter of American history.
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3 out of 5 stars
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There once were some (wo)men in Nantucket...
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Birdseye
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- By: Mark Kurlansky
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- Unabridged
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Overall3.5 out of 5 stars 55
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Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 52
Break out the TV dinners! From the author who gave us Cod, Salt, and other informative bestsellers, the first biography of Clarence Birdseye, the eccentric genius inventor whose fast-freezing process revolutionized the food industry and American agriculture.
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2 out of 5 stars
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I just couldn't get past the narrator
- By K. Lawrence on 01-02-13
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American Catch
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- By: Paul Greenberg
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 87
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 75
In 2005, the United States imported 12 billion dollars' worth of seafood, nearly double what we had imported 10 years earlier. During that same period, our seafood exports rose by a third. In American Catch, our foremost fish expert Paul Greenberg looks to New York oysters, gulf shrimp, and Alaskan salmon to reveal how it came to be that 91 percent of the seafood Americans eat is foreign.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent personal view and excellent facts
- By Dog andus on 07-18-14
Publisher's Summary
For centuries New York was famous for its oysters, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city's economy, gastronomy, and ecology that the abundant bivalves were Gotham's most celebrated export, a staple food for the wealthy, the poor, and tourists alike, and the primary natural defense against pollution for the city's congested waterways.
Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight, along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos, this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the island hunting ground of the Lenape Indians to the death of the oyster beds and the rise of America's environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan's Gilded Age dining chambers.
Kurlansky brings characters vividly to life while recounting dramatic incidents that changed the course of New York history. Here are the stories behind Peter Stuyvesant's peg leg and Robert Fulton's "Folly"; the oyster merchant and pioneering African American leader Thomas Downing; the birth of the business lunch at Delmonico's; early feminist Fanny Fern, one of the highest-paid newspaper writers in the city; even "Diamond" Jim Brady, who we discover was not the gourmand of popular legend.
Critic Reviews
"Kurlansky's history digresses all over the place, and sparkles." (Publishers Weekly)
"Kurlansky's real gift is that, in uncovering biological quirks and forgotten social customs, he makes the ordinary extraordinary." (Booklist)
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What members say
Average Customer Ratings
Overall
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars103
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4 Stars77
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3 Stars26
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2 Stars5
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars81
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4 Stars44
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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5 Stars80
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4 Stars48
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3 Stars14
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Frank H.
- 03-22-17
Ok, but not as good as his "Salt", or "Cod".
A different take on the history of NewYork city. I found ot informative and interesting.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Ruth
- Chestertown, MD, United States
- 05-17-11
If you are in to history...
this is a very interesting book. I enjoyed it immensely. It got a little slow toward the end, but it was really good.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 09-03-18
Great read...
mixed the scientific with romance of nature. Spoiler alert...get tissuse read for the ending. Great performance by reader
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Claire Warren
- 07-05-18
time line confuses
read and listen hard to follow timeline on audio and some wonderful photos are in the print version . not to be missed
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- PixelBrine
- Henrico, Va, United States
- 08-27-12
One of Kerlansy's best
What made the experience of listening to The Big Oyster the most enjoyable?
The side stories were very enjoyable and you can tell in the writing that Kurlansky not only finds Oysters and New York city history interesting but he really dug in to unearth their shared experience.
What did you like best about this story?
The subject matter
Any additional comments?
I would only add that the narration could have been a bit more conversational. It is great overall but there are some small spots where it feels like your being read a textbook.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lnsy
- 06-08-16
Fascinating Tale
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, I already have, to other people that like to eat oysters. I had no idea about the history of oysters in New York, or how vital they were to the water there. It's strange to imagine it now, New York being the dirty disgusting place that it is. That contrast is what is so fascinating to me; that people all around the world once dreamed of eating oysters in New York, when now doing so would make you extremely ill.
The discussion on the ethics of eating oysters was also interesting, as it was never really something I had considered before. I have to say it hasn't stopped me wanting to eat oysters, but it's interesting nonetheless.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful