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My Family and Other Animals |  | Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy Used: $5.25
as of 9/3/2010 08:05 PDT details
You Save: $9.75 (65%)
Seller: Morris Best Used Books
Rating:  114 reviews
Sales Rank: 29241
Media: Paperback
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.4
ISBN: 0142004413
Dewey Decimal Number: 508.4955
EAN: 9780142004418
ASIN: 0142004413
Publication Date: June 29, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780142004418 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
As a self-described "champion of small uglies," English writer Gerald Durrell (1925-1995) devoted his life to writing and the preservation of wildlife, from the Mauritius pink pigeon to the Rodriques fruit bat. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the Greek island of Corfu, but ended up as a delightful account of his family's experiences that were, according to him, "rather like living in one of the more flamboyant and slapstick comic operas." As a 10-year-old boy, Gerry left England for Corfu with "all those items that I thought necessary to relieve the tedium of a long journey: four books on natural history, a butterfly net, a dog, and a jam-jar full of caterpillars all in imminent danger of turning into chrysalids." Durrell's descriptions of his family and its many eccentric hangers-on (he stresses that "all the anecdotes about the island and the islanders are absolutely true") are highly entertaining, as is the procession of toads, scorpions, geckos, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, the puppies Widdle and Puke, and the Magenpies. This is a lovely book.
Product Description
When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. My Family and Other Animals was intended to embrace the natural history of the island but ended up as a delightful account of Durrells familys experiences, from the many eccentric hangers-on to the ceaseless procession of puppies, toads, scorpions, geckoes, ladybugs, glowworms, octopuses, bats, and butterflies into their home.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 114
 Delightfully Entertaining August 3, 2010
Robert R. Mendenhall (Keene, TX USA)
Gerald Durrell originally intended this book to be primarily about the flora and fauna of Corfu, the island off the northwestern Greece mainland to which his family moved from England when he was a child. As it turned out, however, this delightfully entertaining series of mishaps includes a great deal of local color, including rather interesting (read "wacky") Corfian characters and experiences. A great believer in "You Are There" reading, I timed my own to coincide with a trip to Corfu in late May, where I finished the book at a villa set among olive trees above a stunning little bay overlooking the Ionian Sea on Corfu. Absolutely delightful! By the way, this is a wonderful book to share by reading aloud.
The best book I have ever read in my life!!!! May 20, 2010
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am not the kind of person who reads a book twice. I enjoy reading a good book and then moving on to another good book. But, I have to say I read My Family and Other Animals at least fifteen times. Every time is better than the next.
Gerald Durrell never fails to make me laugh, no matter how many times I read his book. I laugh so loud that my parents come into the room to check if I am alright.
This is a great copy of what has to be my favorite book.
A must-read book THIS year! April 26, 2010
Crystal M. Toegel (Swanzey, NH United States)
I am sometimes hesitant to read books that were written in the 1950's. I have a bias that says perhaps the book will be irrelevant or somehow dated. While this book was written in that time period, it is an absolutely timeless book! This book can be read anytime, anywhere, by anyone regardless of age, reading preferences or genre preference. I just loved this book. Never before has a book made me laugh out loud as this one did. The author has a story-telling style that will reel you right in. He tells stories about his very unique family in a very respectful, albeit hilarious way. When you read the book, (and yes, you absolutely SHOULD read it) pay special attention to the stories about the scorpion and magpies. I had to read these excerpts out loud to my family as I just had to share the hilarity. Aside from the outstanding humor, the author writes with exquisite detail about the flora, fauna and landscapes on Corfu. At times, while reading the descriptions of the ocean or olive grove or mountain lake, I wished I could step into the imagery and experience the loveliness. The author is unsurpassed in descriptive writing. This quality, paired with the humor and light-heartedness, makes this book a one-of-a-kind must read book. Read it! You really will not be disappointed.
One of my All Time Favorites February 19, 2010
ariemay (Meadow Vista, CA)
I first read this book at age thirteen and proceeded to re-read it when ever I wanted a lift. Some of the stories made me laugh out loud and I found myself in love with Greece and even Dung Beetles.
I recommend this book to everyone I know.
On the Radical Nature of Happiness February 15, 2010
Glacier Mom
If you're lucky, an acquaintance loans you this book and thereby becomes a good friend. That's what happened to me, anyway. I was not in the mood to read a "romp" or an "idyll" (such patronizing terms!) and was in a particularly dark mood when this book was pressed on me. I was heavily reading and researching electromagnetic pollution after my daughter began exhibiting curious neurological symptoms and was brooding about topics like altered DNA and blood-brain barrier permeability. And this happy little book seemed like something to get through quickly and return.
And then I found I couldn't not read it. I began reflecting on the radical nature of happiness and in particular on the link between empathetic intelligence (a young boy's loving gaze on the natural world) and wholeness. As I alternated between my readings on EMFs and Gerry Durrell's "idyll" or lost world, there seemed to be a link, on the one hand, the joyful specificity of flora and fauna on the island, on the other, the cognitive impairment of people in our fragmented wireless world who lack "awareness of the fragile dimensions of living systems."
I'm an unlikely nature lover. (I remember an ill-fated "English Department hike" during which I cursed nature and longed to see it all paved over and replaced with P.F. Chang's bistros. I never liked the curious mix of kill-joy Marxism, Puritanism and Environmentalism I found in English departments, and I remember how the English prof who led that hike wanted us all to pose for an arty photo holding rocks in front of our faces, and I just hated that symbolism.) But having children radically changes one's awareness of the fragile dimensions of living systems.
Can you imagine a child ranging over an entire island like Gerry Durrell does, feeding himself from the land, living with such intensity? I guess I'm saying, this is a funny, funny book, but I take it seriously. Not seriously enough to sell my possessions and move to Corfu, as I've heard some have done.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 114
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