What is your most recently read science book? What did you think of it? Part 3

[Courtney]

I finished When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon about a month ago. It's a brief history of transplant surgery and some notable cases from the authors career. He also discusses some ethics about transplanting (a big one is giving transplants to alcoholics with ruined livers). I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to those that like medical history.

[Jim]

Courtney wrote: "I finished When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon about a month ago. It's a brief history of transplant surgery and some notable cases from the authors career. He ..."

Good to know. I've been eyeing that one at the library.

[Camelia Rose]

Just finished The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. It has been sitting on my TBR for 5 years but I am glad I have read it. Excellent book, very educational.
My review

[Jim]

Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leonard Sax made a lot of sense. Highly recommended as I said in my 5 star review

[Camelia Rose]

Finished Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior. A good summary of the unconscious mind and our behavior. I have read some of the topics elsewhere, nevertheless still find the book useful. The book is published in 2012, so not very up to date. Also I think the word "rule" in the title is misleading. My review

[Jim]

The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge by Matt Ridley started out really good. It got a bit too preachy toward the end, but it's still really worth reading. There's a lot of interesting material & ideas. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Betsy, co-mod]

I recently finished The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America and really enjoyed it. I like Steven Johnson's style, but not everyone does. If you read reviews you'll see that they are mixed. But I like his philosophical digressions. Here is a brief review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Joel]

Betsy wrote: "I recently finished The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America and really enjoyed it. I like Steven Johnson's style, but not everyone does...."

Excellent book. I've read three of his (The Ghost Map, Where Good Ideas Come From, and The Invention of Air). I really like his philosophical discussions.

This book had a really interesting digression about Earth's early atmosphere. Another book about this is Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean.

[Courtney]

I finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018 a few weeks ago. I liked most of the essays. Wasn't a big fan of the astronomy session, save for the two essays about spiders and space.

[Betsy, co-mod]

Joel wrote: "Another book about this is Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean. "

Yes, I've been wanting to read that too. And also, Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World by Nick Lane

[Joel]

Betsy wrote: "Joel wrote: "Another book about this is Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean. "

Yes, I've been wanting to read that too. And also, book:Oxygen: The Molecule..."

Thomas S. Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions also talks about the Priestley-Lavoisier debate. I should have read The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America before reading that to get the historical background.

[Jim]

I wrote up reviews for a couple of nonfiction books this morning.

Ruler and Compass: Practical Geometric Constructions has been a real boon & I've been pouring over it for more than a month. Very dense with tiny text, but a really great shop reference. Here's my 5 star review.

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris was really good, but it is preaching to the choir, so is only a 4/5 star read. My review is here.

[Jim]

Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist by Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, is one of The Great Courses & well worth listening to. Not much new to me, but it was interesting. He's a good speaker. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jimmy]

I have just finished The Poison Squad. A great history of the fight for better food and drugs. It's a fight that still goes on.

Here is my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

by

[Jim]

Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes by Nathan H. Lents was really good & shows how evolution rewards the 'good enough', not perfection. I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Camelia Rose]

I finished two books on ecology, a topic I am interested in recently:

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History and The World Without Us

Both are very good. The Sixth Extinction is more scientific and more to my liking.

My review of The Sixth Extinction

My review of The World Without US

[Jim]

When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon by Joshua D. Mezrich was fantastic. Book blurbs often suck, but this one is dead on. Read it. Set your expectations by it & then be prepared to be blown away. By combining the history of organ transplantation with an autobiography & biographical information from his patients, Mezrich made this come alive, complete with victories, failures, & warts. Highly recommended in any format. Well written & narrated. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jim]

Ah-Choo!: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold was a timely read with some good info, if not as well written as I would have liked. It was very well narrated & I gave it a 4 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Steve]

Prehistoric Investigations: From Denisovans to Neanderthals; DNA to stable isotopes; hunter-gathers to farmers; stone knapping to metallurgy; cave art to stone circles; wolves to dogs.

A very accessible book on the subject human pre-history, with 50 relatively short chapters, each about a separate investigation.

Covered a lot of ground from previous books I'd read but did learn some new things like the reason that mitochondrial DNA is only passed down the mother's line is because the male mitochondria in sperm is in the tail, which is discarded at the moment of fertilization.

Worth it if you like paleoanthropology.

[Jim]

The Wonder of Birds: What They Tell Us about Ourselves, the World, and a Better Future by Jim Robbins got a 4 star review from me, but I almost gave it 3. There's a lot of good information & some really iffy philosophy along with some pseudoscience.

[Camelia Rose]

Finished Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. The best science book I've read this year. David Quammen actually takes part in those scientific field works. Very engaging. The chapter about the AIDS reads like a detective story. Perfect read for a time like this.

My review

[Jim]

The Seeds of Life: From Aristotle to da Vinci, from Sharks' Teeth to Frogs' Pants, the Long and Strange Quest to Discover Where Babies Come From by Edward Dolnick was a fascinating look at the history of science. It's amazing how recently we discovered where babies come from & Dolnick does a great job explaining why. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Betsy, co-mod]

I just finished The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen. It was rather depressing for a future of technology. Here is my review.

[tana]

I am reading “ the Body” by Bill Bryson. It’s typical Bryson, fun, interesting, well written and basic.

[Camelia Rose]

Just finished Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are, very fascinating new take on what's nature and what's nurture. A lot of intriguing arguments on IQ, personality traits and sex differences.

My review

[David]

Camelia Rose wrote: "Just finished Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are, very fascinating new take on what's nature and what's nurture. A lot of intriguing arguments on IQ, personality..."

Camelia, thanks for the tip. I put the book on my to-read list. I cannot reserve a copy at my library, as it is closed now :-(

[Betsy, co-mod]

David, are you sure you can't reserve a copy of a book online? I can do it via Overdrive. Both e-books and audible.

[David]

Betsy wrote: "David, are you sure you can't reserve a copy of a book online? I can do it via Overdrive. Both e-books and audible."

Betsy, unfortunately the book is only available at my library in printed format. And the library system is "closed until further notice." If the book were available through Overdrive either in audiobook or ebook formats, I would certainly download it.

[Betsy, co-mod]

Oh. That's really unfortunate. I really think libraries should have been allowed to stay open, even if on a limited basis. Even before the pandemic people in libraries tended to social distance. And I think they serve such an important function that they should have been excepted.

[Nancy]

You know what's weird? I know a lady who works at a prison library. And it is OPEN.

[Jim]

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan was incredibly relevant even though it is almost 25 years old. I gave it a 5 star review here.

[[deleted user]]

I've just finished astronomer Carl Sagan's ' Billions and Billions : Thoughts on Life and Death at the brink of the Millennium.' I agree with Jim that what Dr. Sagan wrote more than 20years ago is still so relevant today: the burning problems changed their names till then but our only planetary home is devastatingly drifting towards the darkness.

[Jim]

I just listened to The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman & gave it a 5 star review. Absolutely fantastic & highly recommended, especially for anyone who makes anything. Even if you don't, you'll feel a lot better about yourself when you find out that you're not an idiot because you can't use a common item, it was probably poorly designed! Great, real world examples. I wish manufacturers would read this.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jeff]

Jim wrote: "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan was incredibly relevant even though it is almost 25 years old. I gave it a 5 star review here."

I agree. I've devoured both the Audible audio book and paper copy. It might be my all-time favorite. I read this book at an important juncture in my life, when I was slipping away from religion and it really framed how the world really worked, and how to be critical of supernatural nonsense. The audio book is a great listed with its narration by Cary Elwes and Seth MacFarlane. Like you said, it still holds up. It's too bad Carl isn't around to give it an update.

[George P.]

Just finished The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert and found it to have a lot of great info in a fairly easily-read style. 4 stars.

[Jim]

I was surprisingly unhappy with The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal by Jared Diamond. I really liked G,G,&S, but this one was old & pretty bad overall. I only gave it a 2 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Camelia Rose]

Finished The Truth About Animals: Stoned Sloths, Lovelorn Hippos, and Other Tales from the Wild Side of Wildlife. Misunderstandings and myths about 13 animals throughout the history. A lot of fascinating facts. I enjoyed it.
My Review

[Camelia Rose]

Jim wrote: "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan was incredibly relevant even though it is almost 25 years old. I gave it a 5 star review here."

I read it two years ago. I had the same feeling. Sad that certain things never change. Or, perhaps it takes more than 25 years to change things.

[Camelia Rose]

Also finished Curious Minds: How a Child Becomes a Scientist, not a science book, but a collection of autobiographical essays from an assortment of scientists. Some pieces are great read, some less so. My review

[Jim]

I finally read The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature & really liked it. I'm somewhat bemused by the negative reviews. I thoroughly enjoyed it & gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Woman Reading]

I read The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance by Laurie Garrett. For a book that's 26 years old, Garrett's primary warning is still relevant as current events illustrate.
My review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/3347686475

[Woman Reading]

I just finished Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen.

In my review, I included a comparison with The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance -

Www.goodreads.com/review/show/3365331829

[Camelia Rose]

Woman Reading wrote: "I just finished Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen.

In my review, I included a comparison with [book:The Coming Plague: Newly ..."

I haven't read The Coming Plague, but I loved Spillover.

[Camelia Rose]

Finished Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, a beautifully written science book. I love it. My review

[Betsy, co-mod]

Looks interesting! I've been fascinated by mycelium networks since I read Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World several years ago. I'd like to read something more up to date and it sounds like this might do the trick.

[Staci]

Just finished Deon in the Freezer by Richard Preston. Researched very well. Lots of information and some of which was quite chilling.

[Staci]

I’m sorry that I did not edit the above/below post before submitting. I’m sure there’s a way to go back and edit but I cannot find the steps to do so. Anyway, the book I mentioned in the post was, Demon in the Freezer.

[Jim]

Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn was a really good look at what lives in our houses with us & why we want to foster biodiversity not clean it out of existence. In these paranoid days, it's a must-read. I knocked it a bit for repetition, but that's probably just me. Call it a 4.5 star read. Review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Larry]

Jim wrote: "Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live by Rob Dunn was a really good look at what lives ..."

Jim, I've had that book sitting unread on my Kindle since it was first published. Your great review makes me want to read it as soon as I can fit it in to my reading schedule.

[Jim]

Super! Hope you enjoy it, Larry.