151 ratings | 10 reviews | avg rating:4.92

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Cynthia Barnett

Goodreads Author

Born

in Fort Myers, Florida, The United States

Website

http://www.cynthiabarnett.net

Twitter

cynthiabarnett

Genre

Nonfiction, Outdoors & Nature, Science

Influences

Rachel Carson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Timothy ...more

Member Since

April 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/cynthiabarnett

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Cynthia Barnett is the author of four books including "The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans" (WW Norton, 2021). Her most-recent previous book, "Rain: A Natural and Cultural History" (Crown-Random House, 2015), was longlisted for the National Book Award, a finalist for the PEN/E.O. Wilson award for literary science writing, and named a best book of 2015 by NPR's Science Friday, Kirkus Reviews, the Tampa Bay Times, the Miami Herald and the Boston Globe.

The Globe has described Ms. Barnett's author persona as "part journalist, part mom, part historian, and part optimist." The Los Angeles Times writes that she "takes us back to the origins of our water in much the same way, with much the same vividness and compassion as Mic ...more

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Cynthia Barnett’s books

Average rating: 3.9 · 2,899 ratings · 569 reviews · 10 distinct works • Similar authors

	Rain: A Natural and Cultural History 3.82 avg rating — 2,011 ratings — published 2015 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans 4.06 avg rating — 565 ratings — published 2021 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis 4.11 avg rating — 159 ratings — published 2011 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S. 4.11 avg rating — 152 ratings — published 2007 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Delicate Balance: Constructing a Conservation Culture in the South Carolina Lowcountry (Non Series) by Angela C. Halfacre, Cynthia Barnett (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 3.82 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2012 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Coastal Dune Lakes: Jewels of Florida's Emerald Coast by Nic Stoltzfus, Elam Stoltzfus (Photographer), Cynthia Barnett (Goodreads Author) (Preface) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Шalking Dead 2022 Calendar: OFFICIAL Calendar 2022, TV series & movie films calendar 2022-2023. Calendar planner 2022-2023. GIFTS, Decor for ... monthly. Kalendar Calendario Calendrier. 17 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Treasure 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MLT Study Guide: All-in-One ASCP MLT Exam Review + 300 Practice Questions with In-Depth Answer Explanation for the ASCP Medical Laboratory Technician Exam (Includes 3 Full-Length Practice Tests) by Cynthia Barnett (Goodreads Author), Georgia Sims 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Refire: A Roadmap for Teachers to Rediscover Purpose & Joy in Retirement 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Rain & Goodreads Choice Awards 2015

I'm honored that Rain: A Natural and Cultural History has made it to the semifinal round of this year's readers' choice awards in the Best Science & Technology Books category. If you haven't voted yet, please consider it. With many showers of thanks, Cynthia. Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 10, 2015 08:19 • Tags: goodreads-choice-awards, rain

Cynthia is Currently Reading

Cynthia Barnett is currently reading

True Nature: The Pilgrimage of Peter Matthiessen

by Lance Richardson (Goodreads Author)

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Oct 22, 2025 07:05PM

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Cynthia Barnett liked Lana’s status update Lana Hoover wants to read Ghosts
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Cynthia Barnett liked Lana Hoover's status update Lana Hoover is on page 83 of 288 of The Midnight Library
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Cynthia Barnett rated a book it was amazing Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Nov 22, 2025 02:49PM · 1 like · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Pipe Dreams by Chelsea Wald. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Pipe Dreams by Chelsea Wald <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
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Cynthia Barnett rated a book it was amazing Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Quotes by Cynthia Barnett (?)

“Rain brings us together in one of the last untamed encounters with nature that we experience routinely, able to turn the suburbs and even the city wild. Huddled with our fellow humans under construction scaffolding to escape a deluge, we are bound in the memory and mystery of exhilarating, confounding, life-giving rain.”
― Cynthia Barnett, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History

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“What’s exceptional about our blue marble is not that we had water. It’s that we held on to it, and that we still do. While the ancient oceans of Venus and Mars vaporized into space, Earth kept its life-giving water. Luckily for us, the forecast called for rain.”
― Cynthia Barnett, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History

2 likes

“Today, at any moment, more water rushes through the atmosphere than flows through all the world's rivers combined.”
― Cynthia Barnett, Rain: A Natural and Cultural History

tags: abundance, atmospheric, water, weather

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Reading Book Club: Cynthia Barnett, "Rain: A Natural and Cultural History"	1	5	Apr 22, 2015 05:44AM
What's the Name o...: SOLVED. Utopian Novel by poet Joaquin Miller [s]	6	23	Nov 05, 2015 06:33AM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS)	3254	600	Nov 30, 2015 09:01PM
Crazy Challenge C...: Books with "weather" on the cover	15	137	Aug 22, 2016 11:35AM
Book Riot's Read ...: Read Harder Challenge Plans	370	2648	May 21, 2018 12:53PM
The History Book ...: NATURAL HISTORY - NATURE WRITING - LANDSCAPE WRITING - OUTDOOR WRITING	32	146	Feb 03, 2019 07:32PM
The Seasonal Read...: * Completed Tasks: PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY POST IN THIS THREAD	3708	399	Nov 30, 2019 09:00PM
Wanderlust Challe...: Belgium Word Search	55	26	Nov 13, 2022 07:29AM

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Cynthia’s Quotes

“It had to be a mad dream, one that would give her the courage she would need to discard the prejudices of a class that had not always been hers but had become hers more than anyone’s. It had to teach her to think of love as a state of grace: not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end in itself.”
― Gabriel Garcia Marquez , Love in the Time of Cholera

tags: ageing, aging, love, spirit

401 likes

“So the story of man runs in a dreary circle, because he is not yet master of the earth that holds him.”
― Will Durant

tags: civilization, commanding-nature, eternal-recurrence, history, history-repeating-itself, science

51 likes

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