Review REVIEWS "A wonderfully paced account.... White offers clear explanations of how tides work and scientific giants such as Aristotle, Copernicus ... and others helped us get where we are today." Wall Street Journal "Conservationist Jonathan White combines scientific investigation with personal memoir in this solid examination of the nature of tides and waves." Publishers Weekly "Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean offers a grand mix of science history, ocean lore and literary travel writing." Oregonian "A fascinating work of literary nonfiction, rich with characters, stories and scenes from around the globe." Bangor Daily News "White's research makes Tides a fascinating read." Portland Press Herald "Tides is a circumnavigation - tides are simultaneously the protagonist and antagonist. Wrecker of havoc and deus exmachina. And perhaps what's most interesting is White's narrative surrounding how each part of the world has adapted to their unique tidal variations. Tides aspires to inspire a new appreciation for a global natural process that most ocean enthusiasts take for granted." The Internia "As a surfer and sailor, Jonathan White pays attention to tides. But he didn't really understand them until he traveled around the world to meet people and see places where the ebb and flow, the rise and fall, shape lives and tell epic stories. His new nonfiction book, Tides, is the result." San Diego Union-Tribune "Anyone inclined to take the movement of the tides for granted will think twice after reading this wide-ranging study from a conservationist and avid sailor... White's heightened awareness of the planet's "cosmic beat" is bound to make readers more sensitive to the mysteries of what might otherwise seem commonplace." Kirkus Reviews PRAISE FOR TIDES "This is not really a book 'about' tides, though tides are a main character. It's about life's literal ups and downs. About mysterious pulls and invisible forces. About rhythms and pulses and seasons and the flowings of vast living migrations along coasts and through deep oceans. Along the way, you learn a lot of things about actual tides. Astounding things that you never knew you didn't know. A wondrous book, full of heart." Carl Safina, author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Beyond Words. "Jonathan White has the ocean in his veins, and with Tides he has written a gorgeous elegy to its monumental presence, its ageless mystery. A sailor, a surfer, a scientific mind, and a seeker, White goes deep beneath the surface with the grace of a poet. Be prepared for some serious magic when you read these pages." Susan Casey, author of The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean "Jonathan White's tidal explorations drew me in with just the right mix of science, history, and storytelling, propelled throughout by the author's infectious curiosity and sense of wonder. Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and filled with unexpected connections and discoveries, Tides is a splendid book highly recommended." Thor Hanson, author of Feathers and The Triumph of Seeds "I loved this book. Jonathan White weaves the science throughout his travel stories so that the reader is not inundated with mathematical and scientific theories. I recommend it to both scientists and nonscientists." Sally Warner, PhD in physical oceanography, Oregon State University "One of the most fascinating, engaging, relevant, and impeccably brilliant books I have ever read. It has profoundly changed my sense of the earth, the oceans, the sky, and how they are deeply interwoven with the course of human thought and history." Richard Nelson, author of The Island Within "Newton's death mask, bore tide waves on a Chinese river, a grounded sailboat in Alaska, a French monastery, the slowing of the earth's rotation, world-class surfing, alternative energy, and more come together in Jonathan White's wonderful Tides, a book for every lover of the sea and for those who think mistakenly that tables and charts contain everything worth knowing about the perpetual rise and fall of the sea." Bill Streever, author of And Soon I Heard a Roaring Wind: A Natural History of Moving Air "Tides is easy to read, easy to follow, erudite. White beautifully integrates his personal experience into the science, keeping me grounded in the present as a reader and making the tides not just personal but passionately alive. I expect to read it again and again. Pass it on, recommend it, give it as a gift!" Pam Loew, Turtleback Books "Jonathan White provides us in this fine, fascinating book with a clear understanding of the infinitely complex and wild nature of our planet's tidal forces in all their mystery and beauty." Peter Matthiessen, from the foreword About the Author Jonathan White is an active marine conservationist, a sailor, and a surfer. His first book, Talking on the Water: Conversations about Nature and Creativity, is a collection of interviews exploring our relationship with nature and features Gretel Ehrlich, David Brower, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gary Snyder, Peter Matthiessen, and others. White has written for the Christian Science Monitor, The Sun, Orion, Surfer's Journal, and other publications. He holds an MFA in creative nonfiction and lives with his wife and son on a small island in Washington State. Peter Matthiessen (May 22, 1927 April 5, 2014) was an American novelist, naturalist, wilderness writer, and CIA agent. A co-founder of the Paris Review, he was a 2008 National Book Award winner. He was also an environmental activist. His nonfiction, notably The Snow Leopard, featured nature and travel, as well as American Indian issues and history, including his study of the Leonard Peltier case, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. His early story story "Travelin' Man" was made into the film The Young One directed by Luis Bunuel, and his novel At Play in the Fields of the Lord was made into a 1991 film. He lived in Sagaponak, New York.
S**R
A watermilling enthusiast's quiet indulgence
This book consists of carefully crafted, easy to relax with chapters chronicling the author's explorations (and mishaps) in getting to grips with the enigmatic subject of tides. I came to it via his trip to Eling Tide Mill, beautifully recounted, and stayed with it throughout his other enjoyable episodes as I could imagine many other readers who have an affiliation to and fascination with the interrelated movement of oceans, moon and tides.He writes just as though he is alongside the armchair, personally telling the story, and I like that. The photographs would be improved with semi gloss paper but acknowledgement to environmental printing standards is well founded and accepted. The whole transports me on the ebb tide..
S**Y
Truly captivating
Fascinating and truly captivating.....I never knew I wanted to know so much about the Sea....
D**D
I was disappointed by the authors rambling writing style which left me ...
I purchased this book after hearing the author being interviewed on a NPR radio program. I was disappointed by the authors rambling writing style which left me wondering if the 5 star reviews were all from friends and relatives. The subject matter has the potential to really capture the readers attention, but left me wanting to just plod through this prose so I could pass the book on to Goodwill. Three stars is a very generous rating in my opinion. Maybe the author's contributions to surfer magazines are more entertaining? This one misses the mark.
A**A
Way too much boring irrelevant detail -- I returned this for a refund
When a non-fiction author is telling you what he ate for multiple meals, you know you have come across a book that was grossly inadequately edited. Unfortunately, most of this book is boring irrelevant details and long-winded barely relevant ancient myths about tides.I heard the author interviewed on NPR on Rick Steve's Travels, and the material summarized there was fascinating and scientific. Unfortunately, Rick Steves did not mention the fact that that interesting stuff is less than 1% of the book.In short, this book could have been edited by 30% to excellent effect. The author is not a bad writer, he is simply too long-winded and too convinced that the unedited daily trivia of his own life and his own thoughts are interesting to others. They are not, at least not at this absurdly endless length. Get a rigorous editor.
K**I
A glory of a book
This book is a treasure that can’t quite be categorized. In plain language and clear drawings, it teaches quite a lot about the tides, how they work, and why they are so much stronger and weaker at different times and at different places. Yet the book is so much more: a travel memoir of adventures to faraway places (the coast of Normandy, a river in China, an Inuit village near the Arctic Circle, to name a few) and cultural history that deepens our understanding of the scientific discoveries and, for this non-scientist reader, makes the science accessible and a pleasure to learn. And finally, the book opens into questions of energy consumption and climate change, leaving the reader pondering our human capacity to solve problems, perhaps in part through the energy of the tides.Jonathan White has clearly gone where few of us would dare: over a river wall to await the arrival of a 25-foot wave, where he will have 10 seconds’ notice to make a climb back out that requires 7 seconds; under a thick ceiling of ice in the Arctic to gather mussels with an Inuit hunter at low tide; venturing along on a small skiff into churning waters in the Pacific Northwest. The tales he tells are gripping, wonderful to read aloud to family members. Yet the voice in which he writes is not so much that of a bold adventurer but of a humble and curious seeker. His reverence for the natural world and his wonder at the role of the tides within it will vibrate with the reader after the last paragraph has been read.
J**E
Tides is a fun collection of anecdotes that makes for an enjoyable read
Tides is a fun collection of anecdotes that makes for an enjoyable read. Some asides (such as seeing St Mark's from the Lido, and speculation as to why Monday starts the week) are superfluous and sadly incorrect, but the preponderance of the anecdotes are enjoyable and informative. Tides is at its best when White sticks to his accounts and their immediate ramifications. With some more careful editing and fact-checking, this could have easily been a four, or even five, star review.
J**N
Surprisingly enlightening....made me see the ocean in a new light. But it can be a sloppiness read.
This is a surprising read. For a non-science person, like myself, I learned new things. But it is a slow read and some of the graphics seemed redundant. However, it teaches conceptually important things...things you would teach to your own children.
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