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Reading Thursday
Dec. 7th, 2017 03:54 pmWhat did you just finish?
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford. A nonfiction book intended for a general audience about human DNA and what it tells us about our history and current existence. It's extremely up to date – I believe Rutherford even manages to cite studies from 2017 a few times – but also goes all the way back to the beginning, covering Darwin and Mendel and similar pioneers. It's nice that Rutherford doesn't spare his own field any criticism; he goes fairly thoroughly into the story of Francis Galton (the inventor of eugenics) and the problems with other scientists who have tried to use DNA to bolster their racist beliefs. He also does not have a lot of patience for 23andMe or similar 'analyze your heritage through DNA!' companies, arguing that they're too imprecise to give real answers.
The book is split in roughly half, with the first part covering human history (the evolution of Homo sapiens; how we mixed with closely related species like the Neanderthals and Denisovans; the movement of groups of people across the world, particularly Europe and Britain; and the evolution of traits like red hair and milk drinking), and the second half covering DNA in the modern world (does race exist genetically?; do genes predispose some people to becoming violent criminals?; how easy – or hard – is it to identify genetic diseases?; and the story of the Human Genome Project).
I found the writing to be dense and hard to get through, though I couldn't say exactly why; Rutherford certainly drops in plenty of jokes and references to the Simpsons or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He's at his best when he's telling a specific story rather than a general point of scientific principle. His descriptions of the attempt to use historical DNA to uncover mysteries like the identities of Richard III (successful!) or Jack the Ripper (hugely failed!) were very well-done, as was the chapter on why race doesn't work as a genetic concept. I think a lot of people are familiar with that general point, but he really digs into why with specific examples and many details and it was a fascinating read. But reading the rest, I often found my attention drifting, and had to yank it back to the page again and again. Unfortunately this problem seems to be worst in the opening chapter, making it hard to get into the book.
Overall, there's plenty of worthwhile information here, but the writing itself didn't work for me.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
Death Trick by Richard Stevenson. I wanted something light and simple after A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived turned out to be a bit of a slog, so I picked this up off a rec: a murder mystery starring a gay private eye, set in 1979 in Albany (which means: rural, upstate New York). it is very much meeting my needs so far, though gay books written pre-AIDS always end up feeling a bit alien to me. I had the same reaction to Armistead Maupin's first Tales of the City.
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford. A nonfiction book intended for a general audience about human DNA and what it tells us about our history and current existence. It's extremely up to date – I believe Rutherford even manages to cite studies from 2017 a few times – but also goes all the way back to the beginning, covering Darwin and Mendel and similar pioneers. It's nice that Rutherford doesn't spare his own field any criticism; he goes fairly thoroughly into the story of Francis Galton (the inventor of eugenics) and the problems with other scientists who have tried to use DNA to bolster their racist beliefs. He also does not have a lot of patience for 23andMe or similar 'analyze your heritage through DNA!' companies, arguing that they're too imprecise to give real answers.
The book is split in roughly half, with the first part covering human history (the evolution of Homo sapiens; how we mixed with closely related species like the Neanderthals and Denisovans; the movement of groups of people across the world, particularly Europe and Britain; and the evolution of traits like red hair and milk drinking), and the second half covering DNA in the modern world (does race exist genetically?; do genes predispose some people to becoming violent criminals?; how easy – or hard – is it to identify genetic diseases?; and the story of the Human Genome Project).
I found the writing to be dense and hard to get through, though I couldn't say exactly why; Rutherford certainly drops in plenty of jokes and references to the Simpsons or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He's at his best when he's telling a specific story rather than a general point of scientific principle. His descriptions of the attempt to use historical DNA to uncover mysteries like the identities of Richard III (successful!) or Jack the Ripper (hugely failed!) were very well-done, as was the chapter on why race doesn't work as a genetic concept. I think a lot of people are familiar with that general point, but he really digs into why with specific examples and many details and it was a fascinating read. But reading the rest, I often found my attention drifting, and had to yank it back to the page again and again. Unfortunately this problem seems to be worst in the opening chapter, making it hard to get into the book.
Overall, there's plenty of worthwhile information here, but the writing itself didn't work for me.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
What are you currently reading?
Death Trick by Richard Stevenson. I wanted something light and simple after A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived turned out to be a bit of a slog, so I picked this up off a rec: a murder mystery starring a gay private eye, set in 1979 in Albany (which means: rural, upstate New York). it is very much meeting my needs so far, though gay books written pre-AIDS always end up feeling a bit alien to me. I had the same reaction to Armistead Maupin's first Tales of the City.
