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

[Woman Reading]

From the social sciences - Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth.

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3658935580

[Camelia Rose]

Two science or science-related books:

How to Walk on Water and Climb Up Walls: Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future : a fantastic introduction to comparative biology, the study of animal motion and the joint discipline of biology, engineering and robotics. My review

Underland: A Deep Time Journey Robert Macfarlane is one of my favorite nature writers. My review

[Brian]

I just finished An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. Hadfield really gives the reader an inside book on what it is like to be an astronaut. He also has an unique perspective on life, which we can all learn from. His writing can also be humorous at times, which makes it even more enjoyable. Here is my review.

[David]

Brian wrote: "I just finished An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. Hadfield really gives the reader an inside book on what it is like to be an astronaut. He a..."

I really liked this book. Highly recommended! Nice review, Brian. :-)

[Brian]

This was a little while back, but I read Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport. I think it is a great read for people nowadays who waste way to much time in the digital world. Here is my review.

[Brian]

David wrote: "Brian wrote: "I just finished An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield. Hadfield really gives the reader an inside book on what it is like to be an a..."
Thanks, David!

[Camelia Rose]

Finished Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think I find it very good, a very important book for critical thinking.

My reivew

[Kirsten]

The most recent science book was an audiobook by John Vaillant: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. It's a fascinating story of the life of the Siberian tiger and man's interaction with it. It was amazing. Tigers apparently have a great memory and even hold grudges.

[Jim]

Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution by Jonathan B. Losos was an excellent read full of new information. There are a lot of excellent studies going on now that are helped tremendously by relatively fast & easy DNA sequencing, but scientists came up with some awesome experiments before that was possible. Some are still running gathering more data all the time. Highly recommended. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Nancy]

Kirsten "keep calm there are only 29 days left" wrote: "The most recent science book was an audiobook by John Vaillant: The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. It's a fascinating story of the life of the Siberian..."

That was a FANTASTIC book! Glad you enjoyed it too.

[Woman Reading]

The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves by Eric R. Kandel who had won the Nobel prize.

This book whetted my appetite. I got the sense that Kandel was restraining himself. It could have been a much longer book.

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3648998200

[Jim]

I've finished up my 2020 on Goodreads & it was another great year of reading even though I read fewer books. Most were nonfiction, amazingly good with some stranger than fiction; mostly those on parasites, but some history makes the mark, too.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Betsy, co-mod]

Jim wrote: "I've finished up my 2020 on Goodreads & it was another great year of reading even though I read fewer books. Most were nonfiction, amazingly good with some stranger than fiction; mo..."

That's an interesting way to track books and reviews. Thanks for sharing. And here's hoping your health continues to recover.

[Jim]

Thanks, Betsy. GR has had their 'Year on Goodreads' book available now since 2013 & I started doing it the following year. I've set 2021 on Goodreads to currently reading & will update it as I read a great book. I've done that the past few years & it works out really well. I have to whittle them down by the end of the year so only the very best remain.

[Camelia Rose]

My first science-related book finished in 2021 goes to The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature’s Secret Signs

I just love Peter Wohlleben's style. My review

[David]

Jim wrote: "I've finished up my 2020 on Goodreads & it was another great year of reading even though I read fewer books. Most were nonfiction, amazingly good with some stranger than fiction; mo..."

I agree--this is a great way to keep a running summary of books read during the year. Thanks for pointing it out!

[Jim]

Camelia Rose wrote: "My first science-related book finished in 2021 goes to The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature’s Secret Signs..."

Interesting book. Living on a farm, it's something we watch closely, especially in regards to rain & how it effects the pasture. I've had a vegetable garden every year, too.

I'm still slowly making my way through A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day. It's right up my alley since I like to know how things work & am fascinated by the complex infrastructure that is so important to our society & yet is out of sight & mind for the most part. I tend to take utilities for granted even though I know quite a few who labor at them.

The chapter on recycling was most illuminating & the book is worth getting just for it. 'When in doubt, throw it out.' One of the biggest problems with recycling is people putting the wrong stuff in. Squishing bottles is bad, too. Lithium-ion batteries are responsible for far too many fires.

[Petra X]

Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA and Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, both by Neil Shubin. I thought they were absolutely mind-expanding. I rate a few books each year as 10 star, and these were. I did write reviews so I shan't repeat what I said here.

[Woman Reading]

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story by Angela Saini - an interesting overview of competing theories and evidence in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology .

my review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3741142714

[Herman]

On 1/5/21, I posted my 36th pair of reviews, 1 for Dixon's The Big Book of Dinosaurs: A Natural History of the Prehistoric World (which is great: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ) & 1 for Dixon's "If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today" (which is terrible: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )

[David]

I just finished Improbable Destinies: Fate, Chance, and the Future of Evolution by Jonathan Losos. It is all about evolutionary biology. The author emphasizes his own research, exploring the direction of evolution of lizards, and how quickly that evolution occurs. It's a fascinating book for the non-specialist. Here is my review.

[Camelia Rose]

Finished The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves

My review

[Betsy, co-mod]

Camelia Rose wrote: "Finished The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves"

Camelia, could you post the link to your review in the discussion thread for this book:

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

It's more likely to be found there than in this thread.

[Camelia Rose]

Betsy wrote: "Camelia Rose wrote: "Finished The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves"

Camelia, could you post the link to your review in the discussion thread for this bo..."

Thank you Betsy. I just did. I didn't know we had The Disordered Mind as group read last year.

[Woman Reading]

Sea Level Rise: A Slow Tsunami on America's Shores by Orrin H. Pilkey - a must read about the inevitable consequences

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3781247543

[Courtney]

I just finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019. This took me several months to get through. A good chunk of the book is focused on extinction/ habitat loss and is painful for me to read about.

Here is my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jim]

Courtney wrote: "I just finished The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019. This took me several months to get through. A good chunk of the book is focused on extinction/ habitat loss and is..."

That's a great series. I've read several of them, some specifically because of the guest editor. Dawkins & Roach each edited one & both were great.

[Courtney]

Jim wrote: That's a great series. I've read several of them, some specifically because of the guest editor. Dawkins & Roach each edited one & both were great.


I read the 2018 one and plan to read the 2020 one. I might go back and read a few of the others.

I know one of the 2019 authors (Conor Gearin) and really enjoyed his piece about a local nature preserve, Hitchcock.

[Justin]

I'm reading quite a few great books right now ("The Soul of the Octopus" is one) but the last one I reviewed is "The Great Influenza" as a way to wrap my head around the historical precedent of what we are all suffering through now. It is a great book about science overcoming culture, politics, and ultimately, the flu. Read my review on my profile. Well worth it if you can stomach more about deadly pandemics and world wide unrest!

[Woman Reading]

I consider this from the social sciences -
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson - an American experience

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3785886795

[Nancy]

I couldn't get through it. I got the point, then it just kept going on and on about it.
Also, I have some Indian friends and I asked them about caste and the way they described it ... and the way I had always defined it ... were not much like the class system described in the book. I think the book is mis-named, among other things.

[Woman Reading]

Nancy wrote: "I couldn't get through it. I got the point, then it just kept going on and on about it.
Also, I have some Indian friends and I asked them about caste and the way they described it ... and the way ..."

That's interesting - how did your Indian friends describe caste?

I agreed with her caste premise before I had begun the book.
Wilkerson's organization wasn't awful but I would have liked some things to have been moved about. In particular, she didn't mention the academicians' research until around the mid point, and I’m the type of reader who would have wanted it earlier.

[Nancy]

The way they describe it sounds much more rigid. Sounds like there's oodles of castes and even castes within castes. And you dare not marry out of your caste or your parents will freak out. That's if you downgrade...the ones who upgrade don't freak out ... yes, I am rude enough to ask this stuff! They see nothing like that in the US.
The author seems to equate caste with race and only race. And believe me, I am well aware that driving while black is not always the safest thing to do. People do face prejudices, sometimes fatally. But in reality the lines are much more blurred. Oprah is not of a lower caste (do we even HAVE castes here?) than my friends in the trailer park. OJ Simpson married a beautiful white girl and killed her and got away with it. The Just Us system is not operating purely on race factors.
Race was diminishing in importance in our society. In the past 50 years people have gone from scandalized to barely aware of racially mixed marriages.
Then some worthless white thug cop murders from worthless black thug druggie and suddenly it's all about race. 10 minutes to undo 50 years of civil rights progress. Sad.

[Woman Reading]

Nancy wrote: "The way they describe it sounds much more rigid. Sounds like there's oodles of castes and even castes within castes. And you dare not marry out of your caste or your parents will freak out. That's ..."

Yes, Wilkerson did mention that the caste system in India was far more complex than probably anywhere else.

Personally I believe that we do have a caste system in the US, and that it factors in "race" and socioeconomic levels. But on first glance, the "race" is far more visible and people use it as a proxy variable.

I don't believe that Wilkerson is blind to the examples you mention, but they are anomalies and would still be outliers even if they weren't black. This is just one in many areas in which I believe that Wilkerson fell short in her explanations. Overall, her analysis of caste wasn't deep, and it's why I only rated it 3.5 ☆.

[Woman Reading]

A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough - articulate and science-based

My review for my first 5☆ nonfiction of 2021 - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3812856977

[David]

Woman Reading wrote: " A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by [author:David A..."

Thanks for the suggestion--it looks like a great book; I've reserved it at the library!

[Camelia Rose]

Woman Reading wrote: " A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by [author:David A..."
That's on my TBR. Definitely will read it

[Camelia Rose]

Just finished Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, one of the best nature books. Highly recommended for animal lovers or anyone who is interested in biology. My review

[Camelia Rose]

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, the natural history of dinosaurs. I enjoyed it a lot. The author is very passionate about his research subject.
My review

[Betsy, co-mod]

Camelia Rose wrote: "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, the natural history of dinosaurs. I enjoyed it a lot. The author is very passionate about his research subject."

We read that book as a group for March 2019. Here is the discussion thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Herman]

Camelia Rose wrote: "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, the natural history of dinosaurs. I enjoyed it a lot. The author is very passionate about his research subject.
My..."

I previously reviewed that book & also gave it 4 stars ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). If I may ask, what problems kept you from giving it 5 stars? Just wondering.

[Camelia Rose]

Herman wrote: "I previously reviewed that book & also gave it 4 stars ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). If I may ask, what problems kept you from giving it 5 stars? Just wondering."

Obviously different people rate their books based on different criteria. To me, the difference between 4 star and 5 star is the level of my own enjoyment, which is not science and hard to be objective. So my 4 star books may or may not mean they are less valuable or less virtuous compared to my 5 star books. I can tell you objectively (I hope) why I rate a book 3 star and below, but I can't do so for 4 star and 5 star because the reason may or may not be too personal.

[Herman]

Camelia Rose wrote: "Obviously different people rate their books based on different criteria. To me, the difference between 4 star and 5 star is the level of my own enjoyment, which is not science and hard to be objective."

Oh, I see. Just 1 more thing: If you want the best natural history of dinos for adults, get the newest edition of Naish/Barrett's "Dinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved" ( https://www.goodreads.com/work/editio... ). I reviewed the 1st edition ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ).

[Camelia Rose]

Herman wrote: " ..."

Thank you for the recommendation!

[Camelia Rose]

Betsy wrote: "Camelia Rose wrote: "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World, the natural history of dinosaurs. I enjoyed it a lot. The author is very passionate about his..."

Thank you Betsy. I must have missed the group discussion

[Herman]

Camelia Rose wrote: "Thank you for the recommendation!"

Anytime! Many thanks for liking my review!

[David]

I just finished reading The Genome Odyssey: The Promise of Precision Medicine to Define, Detect, and Defeat Disease, by Dr. Euan Ashley. It is a wonderful book about how genomics is being used to diagnose and treat rare diseases. Besides being actively involved in the field, the author is able to make very complex stories understandable. He traces the context and background of these engaging detective stories, and uses analogies to help explain difficult concepts. I highly recommend the book! Here is my review.

[Camelia Rose]

David wrote: "I just finished reading The Genome Odyssey: The Promise of Precision Medicine to Define, Detect, and Defeat Disease, by Dr. Euan Ashley. It is a wonderful book about how genomics is..."
Thank you for sharing. Adding it to my TBR....

[Woman Reading]

The Gulf: The Making of An American Sea by Jack Emerson Davis

This took a little effort to get into. But by the end, I could see why it had been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2018. Davis is an environmental historian and focuses on the 5 Gulf states, but especially on Florida and Texas.

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3848182224

[Woman Reading]

The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society by Debra Soh

This is about gender politics from a scientist's perspective. I read this as a follow-up because two previous science books held opposing positions on whether human brains display differences based upon sex.

My review - www.Goodreads.com/review/show/3871258474