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Title details for The Museum of Whales You Will Never See by A. Kendra Greene - Available

The Museum of Whales You Will Never See

And Other Excursions to Iceland's Most Unusual Museums

by A. Kendra Greene
A. Kendra Greene
Audiobook
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Mythic creatures, natural wonders, and the mysterious human impulse to collect are on beguiling display in this poetic tribute to the museums of an otherworldly island nation.
Iceland is home to only 330,000 people (roughly the population of Lexington, Kentucky) but more than 265 museums and public collections—nearly one for every ten people. They range from the intensely physical, like the Icelandic Phallological Museum, which collects the penises of every mammal known to exist in Iceland, to the vaporously metaphysical, like the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft, which poses a particularly Icelandic problem: How to display what can't be seen? In The Museum of Whales You Will Never See, A. Kendra Greene is our wise and whimsical guide through this cabinet of curiosities, showing us, in dreamlike anecdotes, how a seemingly random assortment of objects—a stuffed whooper swan, a rubber boot, a shard of obsidian, a chastity belt for rams—can map a people's past and future, their fears and obsessions. "The world is chockablock with untold wonders," she writes, "there for the taking, ready to be uncovered at any moment, if only we keep our eyes open."

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 12, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593295014
      • File size: 225636 KB
      • Duration: 07:50:04

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      A. Kendra Greene's love for Iceland, its hundreds of quirky museums and private collections, and the people behind these diverse institutions is obvious in her delightful narration of this unusual travel book. Greene's voice is rich and expressive, and she rolls through the Icelandic words with authenticity. (She thanks her language coach in the acknowledgments.) Her curiosity and enthusiasm are contagious, and the listener is swept along a magical landscape. Greene is impressed and amused by the world's only phallological museum; a sorcery and witchcraft museum that features necropants, pants made from skin; and collections dedicated to the herring that no longer come to Iceland, stones collected by a factory worker on her daily hikes, and other assortments of objects that don't seem to have a theme at all. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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