Leaving the Ocean Was a Mistake: Life Lessons from Sixty Sea Creatures

Sixty bizarre and beautiful marine creatures offer affirmations for self-confidence, serenity, and fulfillment—drawn from real-life facts about our fascinating natural world.

Feeling stressed, stuck, or simply tired of life on land? Take some advice from creatures who never left the ocean in the first place.

If you sometimes wish you could sink back into the depths of the ocean, great news: The strange little guys who still live down there will receive you with open arms (and fins, claws, and tentacles). But if you're not quite ready to take to the sea, these friendly denizens of the deep offer solid, often hilarious advice for living on dry land. Learn about a gloomy octopus that enforces its boundaries by throwing debris at unwelcome neighbors, a star tunicate that digests much of its own body, an anglerfish that takes romantic attachment to extraordinary extremes, and dozens other wonderfully weird inhabitants of the deep.

Beautifully illustrated with striking watercolor portraits of the ocean's most eccentric creatures, Leaving the Ocean Was a Mistake is a charming blend of nature, science, humor, and unconventional life advice made for ocean lovers, science nerds, stressed-out humans, and anyone who suspects the sea creatures may have figured out life better than we have. It will make you long to return to the seas – but it will also help you bring a freewheeling, relaxed, self-actualized ocean spirit to even the driest life.

• Meet 60 undersea oddballs: blobfish, anglerfish, mantis shrimp, immortal jellyfish, octopuses, bizarre deep-sea animals, and dozens of other creatures
• Discover strange-but-true animal facts from the sunlight zone all the way down to the abyss
• Find funny life advice about confidence, boundaries, resilience, relationships, self-acceptance, and more inspired by how ocean creatures actually live
• Full-color watercolor portraits capture the wonderfully strange personalities of 60 marine animals
• A funny, informative gift for marine-life fans, science nerds, weird-nature enthusiasts, and anyone who needs some unconventional encouragement

Dive in, meet 60 of the ocean's weirdest residents, and discover what their bizarre lives might teach you about surviving your own.

Cara Giaimo is a science journalist who loves writing about our fellow species. You can find her work in the New York Times, Atlas Obscura, The Plant, and elsewhere. Cara lives in Somerville, MA, above sea level.

Vlad Stankovic is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Sydney, Australia.