Tides are much too complicated to understand without the help of a supercomputer. However, the book does a good job of laying out the main features. Along the way , we visit people whole lives revolve around the tides. ( )

A wonderful tour of some of the world's interesting tides.

White is a terrific guide for these stories.

Picked up on Orcas Island at Darvill's. ( )

NOTE: I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my honest opinion of the book.

Jonathan White is a sailor, surfer, writer, and active marine conservationist who takes his readers on an adventure around the world to discover the science and spirit of ocean tides.

Some of the fascinating topics covered in this book include tidal bores, tidal anomalies, the difference between spring and neap tides, the science and history of forecasting tides, resonance, geophysics, the different methods of harvesting energy from the ocean, and a rather poor attempt to describe the effects of rising tides on civilization.

The author provides a superficial explanation of tidal mechanics – I really was looking for more information on this, especially in a book subtitled “the science and spirit of the ocean”. The “spirit” part of the subtitle takes over the book in terms of personal anecdotes, “travel writing”, tangential stories and philosophical musings that didn’t particularly appeal to me.

The book was also arranged in an odd manner by explaining specific tidal anomalies before explaining tides in general. Trying to sift the interesting scientific information out of all the extraneous text didn’t help with the conveyance of information. However, the book does provide numerous black & white photographs, explanatory diagrams and sixteen colour photographs.

If you want to know more about tides and like personal, chatty stories mixed with your science, then you will probably enjoy this book. If you want more science and less “fluff”, you need to look elsewhere. ( )

I've never lived near water so I never gave much thought to tides. I figured it was just the water level rising and falling with the moon. Turns out there's a whole lot more to them than I'd known. Parts of this book are admittedly dry, but the variety in settings and cultures keeps the interest level up most of the time. I especially was interested to learn about the people who scavenge underneath the frozen surface of the sea when the low tide empties out beneath. ( )

Maintaining a pleasant, engaged pace, Dan Woren reads this sweeping yet very personal and intimate meditation on tides. Some of his accent work is off-putting, and he occasionally mispronounces a foreign or technical word. The audio production loses some of the impact by not including photos and figures from the printed work. Generally a good book, but I found the author a little too solipsistic. ( )