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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Climb aboard "The Magic Schoolbus"....for adults!,
By Nancy McNamara (Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Natural History of the Senses (Paperback)
Do you remember the day in second grade when your teacher taught the lesson of the five senses? You felt around for some mysterious object in a brown paper bag for touch, you had lemon squeezed on your tongue for taste, you made Styrofoam cup telephones for hearing, you shut your eyes and stumbled around "blind" clinging to the arm of the kid next to you for sight, and you sniffed mothballs for smell. That was about it, subject covered. Now, just imagine if you could learn the lesson over again with the zany fictional teacher Ms. Frizzle of "The Magic Schoolbus" fame, except this time she's teaching adults. Welcome to the world of Diane Ackerman. In a Natural History of The Senses Ms. Ackerman enthusiastically, patiently, and most of all exuberantly reintroduces us to the sensual world from her perspective and shows us how it is so much more alive and kicking than what we learned in grade school.This book is still broken down into five familiar sections of smell, touch, taste, hearing and vision, but in total it is so chock full of intimate detail of the world the reader can't help but see things in a different light for having read it. It is written with the intelligence of a scholar, the fluidity and grace of a poet, and well, as I've mentioned above the enthusiasm of the one and only Ms. Frizzle (and I mean this as the nicest compliment!) This book will certainly appeal to people who love detail as it is well referenced for those wishing to delve deeper into the literature of the senses. Diane Ackerman shares, teaches and reminds us of some of the most simple things in life. Do you know how a butterfly "tastes" sweetness? Can you explain the electrical significance of the corpuscles strategically placed throughout your own body responsible for great sex? If you are saying "so what?" then I ask that you just give it a try. It is a fun romp of a read that may take you places you haven't been for a long time. A good portion of the book is written in the first person, where the author has juxtaposed what she knows with how she lives, and I believe her detractors would comment that she appears self-absorbed for it. Just get over that and realize at the very last she reminds us life can be steered away from its sometimes predictable, even boring, path by something as seemingly insignificant as adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla to the muffin batter. Who knows, you may even dab some on your pulse points and let the rest of the world wonder why you smell so...exuberant. I'm sure Diane Ackerman would expect nothing less.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry and Science,
By czimm@sfsu.edu (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Natural History of the Senses (Paperback)
When I first read Diane Ackerman's book it opened my eyes, just as these other reviews testify. It does seem to be a book people either love or hate (I have some friends who thought it was sentimental babbling) but that doesn't change how extravagantly Ackerman uses language itself to convey the lush world of the senses. I teach a creative writing course at SFSU and I use the book to promote both that poetic description and the possibilities for experience and awareness the book evokes. An excellent example of the ways poetry can be used to explain science and experience.
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A cultural, creative, and sensory delight,
By
This review is from: A Natural History of the Senses (Paperback)
After reading a few of Ackerman's New Yorker pieces, as well as The Moon by Whale Light and her contribution to Sisters of the Earth, I knew I would eventually read all of her books. A Natural History of the Senses does not disappoint. It flows like cool water through literature, history, music, politics, philosophy, and poetry. As a writer, I appreciate this book as a resource of my own, a way to deepen my understanding of our sensory appreciation of the world - but also as an example of beautiful writing by a master of the craft. In a nutshell, I wish Diane Ackerman lived next door to me.
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