Hoare’s paeon to whales is rhapsodic at times, but human. He loves these big ol’ mammals, so big, so mysterious, and, yes, so loveable in their mystery and big-ness. He kinda made me love them too, but I had been primed by Ishmael. So their’s a century and a half of scholarship since Moby Dick. But do we really know that much more? Maybe the whales like it exactly that way. [11/10]