Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein

Beyond This Horizon by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This reads like a draft by an exceptionally interesting though potentially dangerous teenage boy.

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Who Do You Think You Are? by Dan Waddell

Who Do You Think You Are?: The Genealogy Handbook: The Essential Pocket Guide to Tracing Your Family History by Dan Waddell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Accidentally picked this one up. It mostly focuses on English-speaking Europe and Australia, but that's helpful for my husband's side of the family.

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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It's a very entertaining history of scientific discoveries in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, biology, oceanography, anthropology, and evolution. Bryson attempts to familiarize the reader with the actual science as well, and not just the history. Most of the new things I learned were in the weather section- or if I'd learned them before I'd long ago forgotten them. I borrowed this from the library but I enjoyed it enough that I just bought my own copy.

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The Genius Factory by David Plotz

The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank by David Plotz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fun read, but it's more history and entertainment, with many personal stories about sperm bank donors, recipients, and resulting children. It's not a science book, and as such discusses genetics very little and in very vague terms. Read if you're curious about the "Nobel Prize Sperm Bank," skip if you're not.

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Breasts by Florence Williams

Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book that I recommend to all woman and to all parents. Discusses the purpose and evolution of breasts. She discusses issues important to feminism, breast health, and wider environmental issues. It's heaviest on the latter, but overall a very interesting, educational, and alarming book.

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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is excellent. It's not just another eat-real-food book to make us feel bad about the horror of the food industry in our country. This book is inspirational, scientifically accurate, apolitical, and beautifully written. She practices what she preaches too (though she's not very preachy), so the book is full of her own challenges and reflections on eating locally. Her daughters have clearly gained a lot from this way of life as well. This is a new nonfiction favorite for me.

It remains to be seen if I can implement some of the changes she's inspired, but I'm very optimistic I'll at least make some small but meaningful changes thanks to the book.

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The Gene by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is part history of the development of genetics, part explanation of the working of genes, and part explanation of how genetics influences or causes certain diseases or traits. There is also a discussion of current capabilities in gene-editing and its ethical implications, though this feels too brief especially as it leans on a familiarity with the movie Gattica, which I have not seen. I regularly read science news and listen to science podcasts so I didn't feel like I learned much from this book, though I think it's a good general overview for someone who doesn't follow science in the news. I found the sections on individual diseases and traits to be the most interesting and would like to read more about that. Overall, not as in-depth or engaging as Emperor of All Maladies, Mukherjee's tome on cancer.

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Undeniable by Bill Nye

Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I didn't need to be convinced about the veracity of evolution but I found the numerous fields of study that are evidence of it really interesting. He also talks about the many applications of the study of evolution. So here's a short break down of some of the specifics fields he discussed: physics (including Thermodynamics, and measuring the age of the earth and universe), the desirability of sexual selection versus asexual reproduction, biodiversity, geology, the fossil record, mass extinction events, population bottlenecking and DNA mutations, drug resistance, vaccines, the genetic basis of altruism, genetically modified foods, cloning, and racism. Though I had some familiarity with some of the topics and studies he mentioned there was so much I learned in this one. This was a wide survey of some of the most interesting aspects of biology.

My only small criticism is that he doesn't talk about how some of Lamarck's ideas have been reconsidered in the field of epigenetics.

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The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is amazing. It's informative: even with all I know about cancer (unfortunately) I still learned so much. It's interesting: I was eager to go back to this long book and learn more about the disease and the people who changed the landscape of the battle against cancer. I was afraid to read it because I thought I would find it horribly depressing (especially after reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande) but it wasn't. It was hopeful in a practical realistic way, explaining what is being done currently all that remains to be done.

My only critique is that the book rambled on at the end quite a bit. It should have had a shorter tighter ending. The ending seems to have dragged on from Chapters 46-49, and an epilogue.

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The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In order to illustrate the very close relationship between certain plants and humans, Pollan uses the examples of apples (I will be drinking more hard cider), tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. It's a bit slow in places, especially the tulip chapter. The marijuana chapter is very entertaining and informative, and the potato chapter is the most terrifying.

I might reread Omnivore now as it's been a decade since I read it, and I didn't then have the same background info I have now. Also, this book encourages a lot of Pinker and Dawkins reading, so I might do that as well.

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