Stranded, Maddalena Bearzi
Stranded, Maddalena Bearzi
List: $12.99 | Sale: $9.10
Club: $6.49

Stranded
Finding Nature in Uncertain Times

Author: Maddalena Bearzi, Carl Safina

Narrator: Nicol Zanzarella

Unabridged: 4 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/06/2024

Categories: Nonfiction, Nature


Synopsis

Marooned in LA by the pandemic, a marine biologist rediscovers the delights and wonders of the natural world in her own backyard.

Conservationist and marine biologist Maddalena Bearzi made her career studying the wild creatures of the deep, but when COVID-19 made landfall on the California coast this seafaring scientist found herself shuttered up ashore, her wide blue world constricted by pandemic lockdown. Never good at sitting idle, she despaired at the confines of her Los Angeles flat—until she began to find wonder in the wilderness of her own backyard.

Stranded charts Bearzi's discovery of both rapture and resilience in the unsung wildlife of urban LA. With a green thumb and a canine sidekick, she finds as much to marvel at in her garden's singing blackbirds, night-blooming cacti, and industrious wasps as in the whales, dolphins, and sea lions at the center of her maritime adventures. Discovering in the quotidian an antidote to the grief occasioned by captivity and climate chaos, Bearzi reveals how each of us can take heart, find courage, and discover inspiration in the thrumming systems of life that surround us. With a scientist's precision and a poet's instinct, she invites us to look at, listen to, and revel in the everyday grandeur of the natural world—and to embrace, with urgency, our responsibility to sustain it.

About Maddalena Bearzi

Maddalena Bearzi is president and cofounder of Ocean Conservation Society. She holds a PhD in biology and a postdoctorate from UCLA, and she has been involved in studying marine mammals, with a conservation bias, since 1990. Her research on dolphins and whales off California represents one of the longest investigations worldwide. She has published several scientific peer-reviewed papers, and she is coauthor of Beautiful Minds and author of Dolphin Confidential. Her work has been covered by CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera America, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Huffington Post, American Scientist, and National Geographic, among others. Born and raised in Italy, she now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and dog.


Reviews

Goodreads review by AJ on October 15, 2023

Please note: I won my copy of the book in a GoodReads giveaway. I enjoyed this short series of observations and musings that came from Dr. Bearzi’s time in lockdown during COVID 19. Her style of writing and insights on nature, particularly animals, were fun and soothing to read. As someone who took u......more

Goodreads review by Lucia on April 25, 2023

One of my favorite reads of all times! Realistic, optimistic, and fascinating in how it revolves around the unchartered waters of experiencing a pandemic away from both her native and ocean homes, Maddalena Bearzi's book paints a captivating, very relatable picture of how we can still observe Nature......more

Goodreads review by Kamakshi on August 12, 2023

I am amazed that English is not Ms. Bearzi's first language as her use of it is stunning. I was drawn in to her vulnerable and personal story and uplifted by her knowledge of the natural world and her dedication to saving our wildlife and wild creatures through her research and writing. Give your he......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on August 07, 2024

Maddalena's Bearzi's collection of linked essays written during COVID lockdown takes readers outside to explore this celebrated biologist's backyard through her singular scientific and human lens. Bearzi's professional work is as an ecologist who studies cetaceans: dolphins and whales. COVID forced......more

Goodreads review by Elaine on October 13, 2023

adult This was an interesting author to get to know and she has done some really interesting things. This book was kind of a collection of essays about being stranded at home during covid and rediscovering her love for nature from her backyard and memories of childhood. The detail was super interesti......more