Audiobook6 hours
The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
Written by Amy Stewart
Narrated by Heather Henderson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
They destroy plant diseases. They break down toxins. They plough the earth. They transform forests. They#8217;ve survived two mass extinctions, including the one that wiped out the dinosaur. Not bad for a creature that#8217;s deaf, blind, and spineless. Who knew that earthworms were one of our planet#8217;s most important caretakers? Or that Charles Darwin devoted his last years to studying their remarkable achievements?Inspired by Darwin, Amy Stewart takes us on a subterranean adventure. Witty, offbeat, charming, and ever curious, she unearths the complex web of life beneath our feet and investigates the role earthworms play in cutting-edge science-from toxic cleanups to the study of regeneration.
Author
Amy Stewart
AMY STEWART is the New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed Kopp Sisters series, which began with Girl Waits with Gun. Her seven nonfiction books include The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Reviews for The Earth Moved
Rating: 4.432098765432099 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
81 ratings10 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I never thought I’ll give five stars to a book on earthworms, LOL, but here I am, doing it!
This is a marvelous book that got me so excited and taught me to love earthworms! Of course she was so motivating that half way through I ordered some earthworms on the internet and had them ship to my house. They now live in my basement, I moved them to a larger bin with drainage holes and I’m watching them grow because they arrived super tiny! By fall, with the frequent rains I will set them free in my vegetable garden to cooperate with me. This book has a lot of information in it but also and mostly passion, that is why I highly recommend it. It will change your outlook on earth’s order and what is most important.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Informative and entertaining. This book teaches you what you didn’t know you didn’t know.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is not intended to be a deep scholarly tome. This is a book for people who are curious about worms. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the book as I weeded my gardens.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Amy Stewart is not a professional oligochaetologist, but is a passionate gardener and in The Earth Moved, she distills down what little is known about earthworms into an accessible and enjoyable book. There isn't much in here about anatomy or evolution, but there is a lot about what they eat, how they eat, and what they do with and for the soil. Even though I don't have a garden, after reading this book I have been inspired to go out and get myself a worm bin to raise my own.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An amazing book of earthworm knowledge! An eye opener to what the earthworms do to help sustain nature.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book is all about earthworms and the work they do, which sounds sort of boring, but was actually fascinating. The author keeps a worm composting bin, and after reading this book, I really wish I had an outdoor space to keep one, too. She discusses earthworm behavior and "intelligence," the distribution of earthworms across the globe, their effects on farming and the ecosystem generally (mostly positive but occasionally problematic), and the potential for using earthworms to combat pollution (for example, in wastewater treatment). If you're interested in organic gardening or farming, this book may be of particular interest.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Interesting without being terribly substantial - it was perfect for my deeply sleep-deprived plane ride home. Lots of interesting tidbits about earthworms - for example, I had no idea that the common worms are not native to North America and are actually causing problems in forests in some places. And of course Australia has a giant earthworm. Australia has all the ridiculous creatures. A good read to encourage me to actually get my worm bucket going.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book changed the way I cultivate my garden. I now let the worms keep their original holes. I liked this book a lot and have a whole new appreciation for worms.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remember 7th grade science class, when you dissected the earthworm? Basically a tube inside a tube, right? I don't remember seeing a brain in there, or learning about one, but it turns out that earthworms possess a sort of intelligence. Darwin knew this - why didn't they tell us that in 7th grade? It might have made them that much more interesting!Amy Stewart spent a couple of years learning everything she could about earthworms, after becoming smitten with the crew in her worm bin. What she learned is that there's such a dearth of earthworm research that most of those who do study them (oligochaetologists) have to resort to a day job to support the habit. This is greatly due to the fact that there's no real good way to study them - they do not survive well outside of their habitat, and we do not survive in theirs. Since reading this book I've come to think of ground beneath me now as a whole new "ocean" of unseen and largely unexplored life - kinda cool and kinda creepy, all at the same time.This book does a good job of covering what we DO know about earthworms, and gives us an idea of what we could do with that knowledge to better our earth and our lives (the section on waste water treatment is fascinating). I learned how to keep a better garden (don't till!) and have a added a worm bin to my wishlist. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening, recycling or the earth sciences. It might be a tough sell for someone who doesn't have an inclination in that direction. All in all for me, though, a worthwhile read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What an amazing book. I never knew that worms could be so interesting.