Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars | 55 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 09-10-2024


About this item

A book to sweep you away from the shore, into a wild world of water, whale, storm, and starlight―to experience what it’s like to sail for weeks at a time with life set to a new rhythm.

As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her midtwenties, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea, and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters. Why is it, she asks, that she and so many others have been drawn to life at sea―and what might the water around us be able to teach us?

Braiding her powerful and deeply personal narrative with stories of six keystone marine creatures―the fire crow, sperm whale, wandering albatross, humpback whale, shearwater, and the barnacle―Stowe invites listeners to fall in love, as she has, with the sea and those that call it home, and to discover the majesty, wonder, and vulnerability of the underwater world.

For fans of Rachel Carson and Annie Dillard, Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea is an inspiring, heartfelt hymn to the sea, a testament to finding and following a dream, and an unforgettable introduction to a deeply gifted nature writer of a new generation.


Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Move Like Water
Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2024
I loved everything about this book! Great story, full of facts and information about a world few of us will ever really know. Exquisitely written, the author paints pictures with her words.highly recommend.
ET
4.0 out of 5 stars Lovely blend of memoir and natural history
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2024
Beautifully written and blended exploration of life by, on and with the sea for both the author and other sea creatures. Having grown up by the ocean I found it brought back many experiences of the salt, wind and waves. My only disappointment is that the publisher doesn’t seem to have bothered with having a human proofread the text and there were quite a few spots w glaring errors, e.g, a reference to macaroni living alongside penguins on Bird Island rather than a correct reference to Marconi penguins! This seems to be more and more common and I assume publishers are relying on a program to do this and it isn’t an effective approach.
Raleigh
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely incredible writing
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2024
Love love love this book. Every sentence is a treat. It’s such a joy to read. Feels like poetry.
Mary M. G.
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic and moving
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2023
Move Like Water is an exquisitely written memoir about Hannah Stowe’s lifelong love of, and work for, the sea. This book resonated with me because I’m a “daughter of the sea” myself, although not nearly as brave as Hannah is….I love the sea from the water’s edge and have never swam in the cold waters. This book also hit home as she describes how chronic pain affects your life: body, soul and mind and how you can still achieve your dreams by giving in to the pain when needed and doing what you want inspire of the pain when you can. Do not skip the very last chapter. In this chapter you learn how, with choices that you make, YOU can help the sea regardless of where you live.
This poem by my favorite poet Pablo Neruda came to to mind often while reading this book and I want to add it to my review and dedicate it to the author, Hannah Stowe.

Sonnet XXXIV (You are the daughter of the sea) by Pablo Neruda

You are the daughter of the sea, oregano's first cousin.
Swimmer, your body is pure as the water;
cook, your blood is quick as the soil.
Everything you do is full of flowers, rich with the earth.

Your eyes go out toward the water, and the waves rise;
your hands go out to the earth and the seeds swell;
you know the deep essence of water and the earth,
conjoined in you like a formula for clay.

Naiad: cut your body into turquoise pieces,
they will bloom resurrected in the kitchen.
This is how you become everything that lives.

And so at last, you sleep, in the circle of my arms
that push back the shadows so that you can rest--
vegetables, seaweed, herbs: the foam of your dreams

#MoveLikeWater. #netgalley #HannahStowe
Rachel B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful memoir about life and the ocean
Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2023
Really impressed with the maturity and introspection of this young author. She has a real way with words and weaves a beautiful story that manages to be both a memoir and an ode to the sea. I was fascinated by her personal life and the ups and downs that she has gone through but I was equally as invested in her descriptions of the various marine life that she has chosen to spotlight.

I think this book is for anyone who loves the ocean, conservation, art, and a well-written memoir.
RF
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2023
Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea by Hannah Stowe is a beautifully written memoir and journal full of nature, the open waters, and all of the unknown.

This book is a wonderful combination of personal memoir, nature journal, nonfiction, and brings to light not only the author’s own story and path, but the fundamental questions we all reflect upon while we are surrounded by nature and the ever vast seas.

The author does a wonderful job portraying her personal experiences and observations, but also the world and our relationship with it, when looking at several creatures that she has encountered and learned from in her travels and studies.

The images she creates on paper became very emotional and vivid for me, and I found myself more than once almost feeling as if I was experiencing what she has and finding myself reflecting on my life, my purpose, my path, and how my faith guides me in these issues.

Very lovely and though-provoking.

5/5 stars

Best Sellers in

 
 

Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 225
11.81
 
 

Becoming Batman: The Possibility of a Superhero

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 234
15.3
 
 

The Universe in a Box: Simulations and the Quest to Code the Cosmos

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 26
13.78
 
 

Birds and Us: A 12,000-Year History from Cave Art to Conservation

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 80
23.89
 
 

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 485
18.8
 
 

The Open-Air Life: Discover the Nordic Art of Friluftsliv and Embrace Nature Every Day

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 65
15.75
 
 

The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 96
23.85
 
 

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 540
14.32