Welcome to Litsy!

An engrossing book! Voigt takes the reader through her journey in search of an Asian arowana in the wild, a rare fish and becoming even more rare as aquarists jack up the price. It‘s nonfiction, but reads like fiction. You‘ll learn about the haphazard way endangered species are listed, and I loved how she presented some of the real quandaries of protecting wild and rare species. Highly recommend!

Whilst it meandered a bit at times - this was hugely readable and Voight synthesised a huge amount of info and players across the globe in search for this elusive fish. She gets draw into the addiction to find the fish and demonstrates huge levels of bravery, resourcefulness and courage!

Woodford is obliging me and letting me get a few sneaky morning chapters in! Loving this so far @Soubhiville

I got to a little over halfway and decided to set this one aside. It's not a bad book, and the topic is interesting, I'm just not in a space where I want to listen/read about the wealthy and their disturbing animal fetishes. Chapter 6-7 dived into the lives of "explorers" (my read: exploiters and poachers) and that was enough for me.

This is between a pick and a so-so for me. I thought a lot of the book was really interesting and sad, but the author takes a lot of tangents. I think the most impactful part of the book is when the author tries to find the fish in the wild, and even in places where the fish was only recently discovered, it‘s extremely difficult to find and speaks to the devastation that humankind is bringing to the planet and the animals we share it with. 2.5/5

A very interesting book: interweaving themes of legal and illegal global pet trade, cultural insights from Asia and South America, biology, and a hard look at human greed, especially that of wealthier countries, leading to a decrease in species and habitats. The “dragon” is the wildly valuable arowana aquarium fish, which the author unexpectedly finds herself tracking and researching almost obsessively.
#Nonfiction2021 #somethingaboutanimals

5/5. Enjoyable on so many levels. Voigt's ambition to discover why the arowana is the most coveted fish propels us on an adventure so engaging and descriptive, you won't want to put this book down. Honestly, this book does an amazing job mixing adventure, discovery and the history of FRESH WATER fish (Heiko Bleher style). The best part is that it's all Nonfiction and extremely informative. Take me to Singapore, Burma and the Amazon now! #NFN2020

A really interesting story about the arowana fish - about the fish in nature and the “trade“ of it. I knew it was highly prized but I had no clue that there was so much intrigue around it. Alot of the story was in my country which was really eye-opening for me.
Read this for #nonfiction2020 #somethingaboutascandal and #letterv

My husband has been involved in some biological fieldwork in SE Asia for several years now. Some of the complications and hurdles encountered in this book remind me of his frustrations...with permits, remote locations, declining populations of the turtle he's looking for, being American, etc. I live in fear the entire time he's away.
#Booked2020 #ArmchairTravel @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage

#bookspinBINGO! 🥳

If you like fascinating adventure stories, shady characters, armchair travel, & exotic animals, this is the book for you!

Emily became obsessed with finding the Arowana, a much-prized tropical fish, in the wild. A thriving trade in aquarium Arowana specimens, some of which fetch more than $100,000, has led to some farm breeding, while truly wild ones have become rare. The search for Arowana leads her to Myanmar and the Amazon.

This is my favorite nonfiction I‘ve read in a while! I picked it up at a library sale because the cover and title called to me, but I wasn‘t sure I‘d enjoy it. Of course it‘s about the Arawana, the beautiful and sought after fish for aquarium enthusiasts worldwide. But there is also a ton of info about wildlife and environmental conservation, as well as the political challenges of traveling to Indonesian and Asian countries.

No #LitsyWalkers ⬇️

The Feather Thief meets the aquatic set. This book was beyond fascinating. The narrator did a fantastic job of keeping the story absorbing and all the scientific details and jargon easy to understand. Traveling from Asia to South America and back again, journalist Emily Voight joins a cast of real life Indiana Jones types on a quest to capture the rare arawana fish. Such a wild ride...loved it 🐠🐟🐠🐟🐠 #audio #Hoopla

Listening to the final hour of this aquatic adventure while I do some Passover cleaning💁‍♀️what a crazy fish tale...the narrator is so good. And there is something deeply satisfying about emptying your entire refrigerator and giving it a good cleaning!!! Not to mention checking the expiration dates on the 7 bottles of opened bbq sauce😬

I loved this! I went in knowing nothing about the market for exotic fish, and Voigt's account of her quest to find the rare arowana, a fish that has driven people to murder, takes her to the Amazon River. (continued in comments)

@Cinfhen spent my last credit on it! You‘re very persuasive! 🤩🤩😘 #audible #audiobook

Loving my new #AudioBook ‼️ Who knew fish thieves were a thing??? This true crime is super fascinating and oddly entertaining. I think you‘d really like it @Megabooks and the narrator is really good ❤️

Another catch up review from last month. I listened to this thinking it would relax me and help me sleep, two hours later I was clutching my sheets whispering to myself “there‘s a fish mafia?!”
I didn‘t know I was interested in fish let alone this one before this book. I didn‘t shut up with arawana facts for a weekend away with my friends and now my iPad is full of books about fish and squid. I loved this!

Here is a review of a book I finished 2 weeks ago 🙄 I love true crime and I love books about nature so this was the perfect read for me. I learned a lot about fish and about the illegal animal trade, while also being entertained by the story of the author‘s quest to find a rare fish in the wild, and her reckoning with the best way to protect biodiversity. Great companion read to The Lost City of Z.

5 ⭐ I loved this book. It was everything I could have asked for, personal, adventurous, informative, relevant. And it was about fish 🐡. The audio book narration was also excellent.

My tiny little book haul from my tiny little library branch book sale. 😊📚

If you want to discover an exotic, new species, either find a new insect or find a new fish.

This was a nice listen... Following along while the author travels the world in search of the "rare" dragon fish. Not the most riveting read, but therapeutic, just like watching the slow, elegant swimming of a fish in an aquarium.

#litsypartyofone

#litsypartyofone #audiobook

I love books like this. And I'm just realizing this is probably the third fishy nonfiction I've read this year and loved. Emily Voight has does a great job making the topic interesting and readable. She manages to be funny and sober at turns. I really related to her so hard when she talked about her feet sweating when she broke rules. If you love pets or fish or even conservation this might be a fun one to pick up!

Holy crap, she's right, don't do it. It's horrible, oh my god.

I listened to this book on audible read by my favorite Xe Sands. I don't know if I would have finished it without her. It was an ok book but it didn't focus on any of the parts that I thought it would be about (exotic pet smuggling, the intrigue of the pet fish world). It was still a crazy story and fascinating story just not what I was wanting.

#nonfiction

I'm not into fish as pets, but it turns out that the aquarium trade is a very interesting - and very dangerous - world. This is especially true with the arowana, "the most expensive aquarium fish in the world." Voigt's journey to understand the arowana's mystique takes her from glitzy fish shows to jungle depths, and along the way, she learns how the human desire to control Nature complicates everything. Full review here: http://wp.me/p21txV-x2

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I wasn't at all sure I was interested in the aquarium fish industry but Emily Voigt changed my mind with her opening chapter. Murder! Aggressive rare fish and Shadowy Fish mafia ! - I was hooked
She writes about this world as a curious outsider helpfully taking the reader along on her investigative sojourns to Singaporean fish farms, the heart of Borneo and off-limit rivers in Burma. This is such an engrossing and surprising read !

I'm not a fish person myself, and even if I was I think I'd prefer to keep koi or tropical fish (or stingrays!), but I still find this book intriguing, not least because of what it might have to say about conservation and the pet trade in Asia.

With this cover and subject, this book is going straight on my TBR list. Truth is stranger than fiction indeed! 🐠