Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day

Diane Ackerman

Oct 2009 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Laural Merlington

About this audiobook

In an eye-opening sequence of personal meditations through the cycle of seasons, Diane Ackerman awakens us to the world at dawn-drawing on sources as diverse as meteorology, world religion, etymology, art history, poetry, organic farming, and beekeeping. As a patient and learned observer of animal and human physiology and behavior, she introduces us to varieties of bird music and other signs of avian intelligence, while she herself "migrates" from winter in Florida to spring, summer, and fall in upstate New York. Humans might luxuriate in the idea of being "in" nature, Ackerman points out, but we often forget that we are nature-for "no facet of nature is as unlikely as we, the tiny bipeds with the giant dreams." Joining science's devotion to detail with religion's appreciation of the sublime, Dawn Light is an impassioned celebration of the miracles of evolution-especially human consciousness of our numbered days on a turning earth.

About the author

Diane Ackerman is a bestselling author and poet whose many books include A Natural History of the Senses, A Natural History of Love, and The Zookeeper's Wife, winner of the 2008 Orion Book Award.

Laural Merlington has recorded well over one hundred audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards, including one for Never Say Die by Susan Jacoby.