The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
by Jonathan Weinerpublished
May 30th 1995
(first published 1994)
by Vintage
edit
binding
Paperback, 352 pages
literary awards
Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1995)
isbn
067973337X
(isbn13: 9780679733379)
description
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spend twenty years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos studying natural selection. The...more
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
discuss this book
friend reviews (0)
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
lists with this book
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 507)
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
looking for interesting, informative, and incredibly well-written non-fiction
Wow.
When I joined Goodreads a few months back, I set two rules for myself: first, to review books as I read or re-read them, and second, to be sparing with my ratings. I've not given any book five stars this summer. This is the first.
Weiner won the Pulitzer for general non-fiction with this book in 1995. He utterly deserves it. While it's not difficult to find an interesting non-fiction book, and not too hard to find a truly gifted writer (the market's competitive like that), finding som...more
When I joined Goodreads a few months back, I set two rules for myself: first, to review books as I read or re-read them, and second, to be sparing with my ratings. I've not given any book five stars this summer. This is the first.
Weiner won the Pulitzer for general non-fiction with this book in 1995. He utterly deserves it. While it's not difficult to find an interesting non-fiction book, and not too hard to find a truly gifted writer (the market's competitive like that), finding som...more
Like this review?
yes
(2 people liked it)
2 comments
Read in February, 2003
Peter and Rosemary Grant, both Evolutionary Biologists out of Princeton, have been relentlessly researching one topic since the 70s: the beaks of finches. After identifying a few isolated species of finches in Daphne Major, a small island in the Galapagos chain, the Grants have gathered data for the past 30 years trying to document finch evolution in Darwin’s own. Jonathan Weiner documents, in plain English, the most important evolutionary biology study conducted in the 20th century. He exp...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
Fascinating -- I learned a lot from this book. But ultimately it was probably just a little to science-y for my taste. In a few sections I got bogged down in the details, but in others the anecdotes and examples of evolution in action are pretty amazing and compelling and very easy to understand.
This book makes it pretty obvious that anyone who disputes that selection goes on in the world at least on a small scale (e.g. variation in finches beaks causing larger or smaller beaked animals to...more
This book makes it pretty obvious that anyone who disputes that selection goes on in the world at least on a small scale (e.g. variation in finches beaks causing larger or smaller beaked animals to...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in July, 2008
I've always loved Charles Darwin's writing, but the Origin of Species' major shortcoming is the complete lack of any evidence. It is a wonderful and sensible theory, but Darwin basically supports it with logic alone.
Beak of the Finch is a short book about Darwin's theory that focuses on recent research in the field of evolutionary biology. The book has three sections:
- Part 1 focuses on natural selection and profiles Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have spent 20 years collecting data o...more
Beak of the Finch is a short book about Darwin's theory that focuses on recent research in the field of evolutionary biology. The book has three sections:
- Part 1 focuses on natural selection and profiles Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have spent 20 years collecting data o...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
Creationists, believers of ID
Being raised by parents who believe the Young Earth Theory and in literal, Biblical creation has made me a little bit wary of evolution, although I am not in the least a religious person. After reading this book I'm absolutely convinced that natural and sexual selection drive speciation and are the sources of much of the variety on the planet. The book was not overly techinical or dreary, although at times it seemed a little bit scattered. It was not just opinion or hearsay, but actual facts fro...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
recommended to Shawn by:
Deborah
The book won a Pulitzer Prize. Well, it was good, but I have to say, not the best thing I've read this year. Really, I was thinking finch-sminch until the last two or three chapters. It is fascinating that the evolutionary scientists are on a first-name (or at least number) basis with every single finch in the Galapagos for the past 20 years, but author Weiner didn't have me on the edge of my seat over it. Toward the end of the book, I became more interested when the discussion turned to fas...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
This book is really important. The study of how micro-evolution happens from one year to the next to the next in the Galapagos gave me a lot of insight into how the environment shapes species. Traits are constantly changing, yet the graph jitters back and forth around some more-or-less average value. It's really not average, though, because climate, rainfall, etc. are all fundamentally chaotic systems. Organisms tend to track generation by generation the conditions as they fall out. Over ge...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2007
I am officially moving this book to the "read" shelf, even though I haven't finished it. I don't think I can read anymore details about finches and plants in the Galapagos. I enjoyed this book at first, and I learned a lot. I was suprised by how it made me question evolution more than it proved it to be true. I learned that evolution is much harder to prove than I thought. However, I just don't have the motivation finish it. Perhaps, the ending would have wiped away all of my conc...more
Like this review?
yes
1 comments
Read in January, 1999
This book follows the extensive research of two scientist on the Galapagos Islands as they track generations of finches, discovering that adaptability happens in small, distinct ways over a relatively short period of time. The book illustrates the connectivity of all living things, and the author's enthusiasm over the workings of the natural world is contagious. Reading this won't have you arguing 'Darwin vs Creationism' but rather marveling at God's brilliance in bestowing all creatures with...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2008
I thought that this book explained the beautiful complexity of evolutionary biology (which, actually, I think that all science has) and spirit of fieldwork well in layman's terms. I did think that it did become monotonous and that the author's writing style was a little unnecessarily florid and over dramatic in his attempts to communicate the wonder of nature. Some of his metaphors were more suited to a TV PBS special than a book.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1999
This book took my understanding of evolution from bookish theory to something that happens every day, in every competitive exchange or choice. Excellent book that should be read by anyone with the pretension to discuss biology.
I read it ages ago, but I found myself raving about it just last week to an undergraduate having trouble with concepts in her pop-bio class.
I read it ages ago, but I found myself raving about it just last week to an undergraduate having trouble with concepts in her pop-bio class.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in December, 2006
recommends it for:
Biology/ecology/ornithology enthusiasts.
Read this book in preparation for a trip to the Galapagos. Easy flowing account of research done over the years by the Grants to support Darwin's theory of evolution. Explains results in a understandable story-like way with plenty of quirky details about the researchers and students involved to make anyone want to drop what they're doing and go to Las Encantadas.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2007
Using Peter and Rosemary Grant's annual studies on
the Galapagos Islands as a jumping-off point,
fleshes out the idea that Darwin didn't begin to
understand the power of his own theory. Evolution happens
on short, observable, human-sized time scales; it's not
just something that shows up in fossils and stopped 10
million years ago.
the Galapagos Islands as a jumping-off point,
fleshes out the idea that Darwin didn't begin to
understand the power of his own theory. Evolution happens
on short, observable, human-sized time scales; it's not
just something that shows up in fossils and stopped 10
million years ago.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Understanding evolution isn't easy, but seeing the fuel of a concept unfold through the eyes of the hard working biologists at the forefront of a revolution is amazing. Weiner really captures the essence of what Darwin based his ideas on, but never witnessed himself. This is a must read for the aspiring biologist and the closet critic.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2007
recommends it for:
people who don't beleive in evolution (particularly those in united states congress)
This is a rare gem of scientific reading. Two scientists spend 20+ years on the Galopagos islands studying evolution and the foundations of evolutionary theory that Darwin proposed years ago but never cemented with data. Written very well... it is even funny and suspensful at times, but not dumbed-down or pop in the least.
Like this review?
yes
2 comments
recommends it for:
Biologists, naturalists
Published in 1995, this Pulitzer-winning novel makes me wish the story had been kept up to present day. The Grants travels and studies in the Galapagos are incitefully captured by the author, Jonathan Weiner, who brings a new light to evolution in real time for those both familiar or new to the theories presented here.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
I went to a private parochial school that did not teach evolution. We skipped those chapters in our science books, so I thought I'd teach it to myself. This was the first book I chose and I loved it. It's clearly written, more journalistic than scientific, but that's probably what makes the book most readable.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1998
recommended to Lafcadio by:
Peter
I had to read this book for a few different classes in college. Each time, I bought the book and then sold it back at the end of the semester. Now I wish I had a copy. This book outlines how evolution can happen, not just in geologic time, but in the course of a couple of seasons in a measurable way.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
Someone who wants to learn science without feeling like you're reading a textbook feel
I was required to read this book in college for some bio class, but actually read the whole thing--which really surprised me. It is an easy read and you learn a ton about birds and evolution. I enjoyed it because I am not a scientist, and it explained ideas in a way for me to understand them.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in March, 2008
This was a well told and well researched narrative about a 20 year long study of evolution in the Galapagos Islands. It included great description about the lives of the Finches and researchers who studied them (the Grants et al). It told a much more compelling story than my Biology class!
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
