I was really looking forward to this book, but after reading it, I feel I really haven't learned much about dolphin cognition and communication. First, the book is extremely repetitive. For example, in the first two chapters, the authors says that dolphins are "egregious" animals, again and again and again. And then in the middle of the book they say how they touch with pectoral fins and how this can mean different things in different contexts, again and again and again. And in the last chapter they say how loud noises can adversely affect dolphins, again and again and again. The book could have been shortened by a factor of a few without any loss of information. Second, the style is really annoying: the book was obviously written by two people as it is a bit incoherent at times and they often say things like "I (Toni) observed this and that" and then Kathleen thinks this and that and then we are served a thick dose of emotional stuff about how they love dolphins and oceans. I bought this book to learn about dolphins and not about Toni and Kathleen, so passive voice with some information might be more helpful. Finally, when they come to the really interesting stuff, they don't go into any detail. For example, they explain the false belief task challenge and then they say that there is some reason to believe that dolphins have passed this task, without any elaboration whatsoever. Sure, I could go and find the source paper, but I bought the book precisely because I don't have time to do things like that...
