Tag Archives: nonfiction

The Soul of an Octopus – Sy Montgomery

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The Soul of an Octopus
A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
Sy Montgomery

Genre: Nature

Price: $11.99

Publish Date: May 12, 2015

Publisher: Atria Books

Seller: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc.


Finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction New York Times Bestseller “Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk did for raptors.” — New Statesman , UK Starred Booklist and Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick “One of the best science books of the year” — Science Friday , NPR A Huffington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year One of the Best Books of the Month on Goodreads Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of 2015 An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year Another New York Times bestseller from the author of The Good Good Pig , this “fascinating…touching…informative…entertaining” ( Daily Beast ) book explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food. Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” ( Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.

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The Soul of an Octopus – Sy Montgomery

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"Cosmos" Just Got Nominated for 12 Emmys

Mother Jones

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It was a truly groundbreaking moment in television. Educationally driven science content was once anathema on primetime television, but earlier this year, Seth Macfarlane, Neil deGrasse Tyson and company set out to prove that wrong with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, a remake of the classic Carl Sagan-hosted show from 1980.

And if today’s Emmy nominations mean anything, the result is a major triumph. Cosmos has received 12 of them.

That’s not quite as good as the 19 for Game of Thrones, or 16 for Breaking Bad, but it’s a very significant number, and it includes nominations for “Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series,” “Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming” (for writers Ann Druyan and Steven Soter), “Outstanding Direction for Nonfiction Programming” (for director Brannon Braga).

In fact, that’s actually a tie with HBO’s True Detective, which also got 12 nominations.

Recently, I interviewed Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the face of the new show, who remarked on how to interpret its success. “You had entertainment writers putting The Walking Dead in the same sentence as Cosmos,” said Tyson. “Game of Thrones in the same sentence of Cosmos. ‘How’s Cosmos doing against Game of Thrones?’ That is an extraordinary fact, no matter what ratings it earned.”

The Emmy nominations will certainly give entertainment writers another such opportunity. In fact, it’s already happening. And when a science television show is celebrated by the deacons of popular culture, that can only be good news for the place of science in American society. (Note: the Showtime climate change documentary Years of Living Dangerously also received 2 Emmy nominations.)

The Cosmos nominations are for:

Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series

Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Direction for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Art Direction for Variety, Nonfiction, Reality or Reality Competition Program

Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming

Outstanding Main Title Design

Outstanding Musical Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)

Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music

Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single or Multi-Camera)

Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming and

Outstanding Special and Visual Effects.

The full list of Emmy nominations can be found here.

To listen to our Inquiring Minds podcast interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, you can stream below:

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"Cosmos" Just Got Nominated for 12 Emmys

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