Sy Montgomery has 9 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 10 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 30 ratings. The most-rated is Soul of an Octopus.
Soul of an Octopus
Summary
Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orion magazine piece, "Deep Intellect", about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think? The intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees was only recently accepted by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of their color-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds.
©2015 Recorded by arrangement with Atria, a Division of Simon and Schuster, Inc. (P)2015 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
How to Be a Good Creature
Summary
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. It also explores vast themes: the otherness and sameness of people and animals; the various ways we learn to love and become empathetic; how we find our passion; how we create our families; coping with loss and despair; gratitude; forgiveness; and most of all, how to be a good creature in the world.
©2018 Sy Montgomery (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books
The Good Good Pig
Summary
A naturalist who spent months at a time living on her own among wild creatures in remote jungles, Sy Montgomery had always felt more comfortable with animals than with people. So she gladly opened her heart to a sick piglet who had been crowded away from nourishing meals by his stronger siblings. Yet Sy had no inkling that this piglet, later named Christopher Hogwood, would not only survive but flourish. The Good Good Pig celebrates Christopher Hogwood in all his glory, from his inauspicious infancy to hog heaven in rural New Hampshire. At first his domain included only Sy's hens and border collie, Tess. Then the neighbors began fetching Christopher home from his unauthorized jaunts, the little girls next door started giving him baths, and the villagers brought him delicious leftovers. His fame increased along with his girth. He was featured in USA Today and on several National Public Radio programs. But as this enchanting book describes, Christopher Hogwood's influence extended far beyond celebrity. Sy reveals what she learned from this generous soul who just so happened to be a pig - lessons about self-acceptance, the value of community, and the pleasures of the sweet green Earth.
©2006 Sy Montgomery (P)2016 Tantor
Tamed and Untamed: Close Encounters of the Animal Kind
Summary
Extraordinary new insights into the minds and lives of our fellow creatures from two of the world's top animal authors, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas and Sy Montgomery. Tamed and Untamed - a collection of essays penned by two of the world's most celebrated animal writers, Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas - explores the minds, lives, and mysteries of animals as diverse as snails, house cats, hawks, sharks, dogs, lions, and even octopuses. Drawing on stories of animals both wild and domestic, the two authors, also best friends, created this book to put humans back into the animal world. The more we learn about what other animals think and do, they explain, the more we understand ourselves as animals, too. Writes Montgomery, "The list of attributes once thought to be unique to our species - from using tools to waging war - is not only rapidly shrinking, but starting to sound less and less impressive when we compare them with other animals' powers." With humor, empathy, and introspection, Montgomery and Thomas look into the lives of all kinds of creatures - from man's best friend to the great white shark - and examine the ways we connect with our fellow species. Both authors have devoted their lives to sharing the animal kingdom's magic with others, and their combined wisdom is an indispensable contribution to the field of animal literature.
©2017 Sy Montgomery and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (P)2017 Chelsea Green Publishing
Temple Grandin
Summary
When Temple Grandin was born, her parents knew that she was different. It wasn’t until years later that she was diagnosed with autism, a brain disorder that makes communication difficult. Today, Dr. Temple Grandin is a brilliant scientist and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Her world-changing career has revolutionized the livestock industry - each year, half the cattle in the United States are handled in cruelty-free facilities she has designed. She is also a passionate advocate for autism, using her experience to prove that people with this disorder can have “normal” lives. To achieve this unprecedented success, Temple used a unique ability: she thinks visually, the same way animals do. Because she thinks in pictures, she can see the world as a cow, or a dog, or a pig might see it. And so she knows that animals raised for food deserve good lives and should be treated with respect. Now she gives them their voices.
©2012 Sy Montgomery (P)2012 AudioGO
The Hummingbirds' Gift
Summary
From the beloved New York Times best-selling author of the “fascinating...entertaining” (The Daily Beast) National Book Award finalist The Soul of an Octopus, a charmingly perfect gem of a book about the most exquisite and extraordinary of winged creatures - hummingbirds. As one of the most beautiful and intriguing birds found in nature, hummingbirds fascinate people around the world. The lightest birds in the sky, hummingbirds are capable of incredible feats, such as flying backwards, diving at speeds of 61 MPH, and beating their wings more than 60 times a second. Miraculous creatures, they are also incredibly vulnerable when they first emerge from their eggs. That’s where Brenda Sherburn comes in. With tenderness and patience, she rescues abandoned hummingbirds and nurses them back to health until they can fly away and live in the wild. In The Hummingbird’s Gift, the extraordinary care that Brenda provides her peanut-sized patients is revealed and, in the process, shows us just how truly amazing hummingbirds are. With Sy Montgomery’s signature “joyful passion” (Library Journal), and including 16 pages of gorgeous color photos, this inspiring little book celebrates the profound gift that hummingbirds are to our planet and is the ultimate gift for nature lovers and bird watchers everywhere.
©2021 Sy Montgomery (P)2021 Simon & Schuster Audio
Kakapo Rescue
Summary
On remote Codfish Island off the southern coast of New Zealand live the last 91 kakapo parrots on earth. These trusting, flightless, and beautiful birds - the largest and most unusual parrots on earth - have suffered devastating population loss. Now, on an island refuge with the last of the species, New Zealand’s National Kakapo Recovery Team is working to restore the kakapo population. With the help of 14 humans who share a single hut and a passion for saving these odd ground-dwelling birds, the kakapo are making a comeback in New Zealand. Follow intrepid animal lovers Sy Montgomery and Nic Bishop on a 10-day excursion to witness the exciting events in the life of the kakapo.
©2010 Sy Montgomery (P)2011 Recorded Books
Der Ruf der rosa Delfine
Summary
Sy Montgomery ist mit ihrem Bestseller Rendezvous mit einem Oktopus in die erste Liga der Nature Writer vorgestoßen, auch in Deutschland. Doch nicht nur Oktopoden liegen der Naturforscherin und Autorin am Herzen - sie hat für viele faszinierende Kreaturen Leib und Leben riskiert, aber insbesondere für die rosa Amazonas-Delfine. Viermal ist sie ins Amazonas-Delta gereist, um ihnen auf die Spur zu kommen, wurde von Ameisen gebissen, teilte mit Spinnen das Quartier und schwamm mit Piranhas. Schnell wird ihr klar: Man kann den rosa Delfin nicht erfassen, wenn man nicht begreift, wo er in der Evolution steht und welche Rolle er im Ökosystem Regenwald spielt - es ranken sich zahlreiche Mythen um die "Botos", die Amazonas-Bewohner verehren und fürchten sie. Sy Montgomery begegnet allen auf Augenhöhe: Den "Indigenas", die mit dem ständigen Schwund ihres Lebensraumes ringen müssen, den Forscher*innen, die ihr Leben dem Studium des Amazonas-Deltas gewidmet haben, und nicht zuletzt den Tieren und Pflanzen der Region. Ihre Liebe zu den Geheimnissen unserer Natur ist ansteckend - und in Zeiten des Klimawandels notwendiger denn je!
©2020 Eden Books. Übersetzung von Gertrud Bauer (P)2020 Bonnevoice Hörbuchverlag GmbH
Guys Read: True Stories
Summary
Visiting the dentist - in ancient Egypt Spending a night in the jungle - with giant tarantulas Wrestling with a grizzly bear - and living to tell the tale The fifth installment in the Guys Read Library of Great Reading features 10 stories that are 100% amazing, 100% adventurous, 100% unbelievable - and 100% true. A star-studded group of award-winning nonfiction authors and journalists provides something for every listener, all aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Compiled and edited by real-life literature legend Jon Scieszka, Guys Read: True Stories is a mind-blowing collection of essays, biographies, travelogues, and more, all proving that the truth is most definitely out there. The full list of narrators includes: Bruce Thomas, Hillary Huber, Robin Weigert, Thaao Penghilis, Greg Itzin, Freda Foh Shen, George Newbern, MacLeod Andrews, Jim Beaver, Jack Garrett, Ethan Sawyer, and Adam Conner.
©2014 John Scieszka (P)2014 HarperCollinsPublishers