2019-11-25

"Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice To All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex" by Dr. Olivia Judson PhD



Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Copyright: 2002
ISBN: 0805063315
Subject: Evolutionary Biology

Dr. Tatiana's Guide is an absolutely wonderful look at the wild and crazy world of evolutionary biology. It is written in the style of an advice column like you would see in a typical newspaper, but the topics are definitely not what you would expect. With chapter titles such as "How to Make Love to a Cannibal" (which deals with certain insects that kill their mates either during or shortly after they mate), it is a totally unique method of explaining sex to the general public.

As should be expected the author does use proper terminology when talking about sex, and doesn't use silly phrases that humans seem to favour for their bodily parts. I find this quite refreshing, as the last thing a reader needs is to be talked down to because an author, reviewer, or whomever finds it necessary to call the male sexual organ a wee-wee, rather than a penis.

Of course there are some people that I'm fairly sure it will tend to upset, after all she is talking about sex, but for the most part she doesn't mention humans a lot, except when a particular topic can be related directly to humanity to provide clarification. This book would be a great introduction to biology in most classrooms at a senior high or first year university level.

Highly recommended.

2019-11-18

"101 Dalmatians" by Dodie Smith (1886-1990)



Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright: 1956
ISBN: 0140340343

"101 Dalmatians" is a classic children's story that tells of the adventures of two dogs who have had their 15 puppies stolen by Cruella De Vil. De Vil's intention is to make the puppies into fur coats as her husband is a furrier.

Following the theft of their puppies the two dogs Pongo and Missis set out on a journey from London to Suffolk to rescue them. When they arrive they are somewhat shocked to find that there are actually 97 puppies (the majority of which had been purchased by De Vil). Pongo takes it upon himself to rescue all the dogs and bring them back to London for safety.

This book has been made into two movies, both by Disney. The first was animated (1961) and the second live action (1996). Both are nowhere near as good as the book, and those that have previously read my comments with regard to the movie industry will realize that this is one of my pet peeve's.

I first read this book many years ago when I was in elementary school. The book I read at the time was noted as being an abridged version, but having just read the unabridged version after these many years I don't notice much of a difference between the two of them but to determine that I would have to do a line by line comparison.

Ms. Smith's works total nine novels, eleven plays, and two screen plays, although she is best known for "101 Dalmatians". I haven't read any of her other work but will attempt to do so in the future.

This is an excellent book for children, young adults, and adults as the writing is high-quality and the characterization even though the characters are dogs is extremely well done.

2019-11-11

"Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology" by Dr. John Long PhD.



Publisher:New York : Basic Books, [2012]
Copyright Date:©2012
ISBN: 9780465021413
Characteristics: 273 pages :,illustrations ;,25 cm

This book is a fascinating look into the life of what a not so typical researcher into the biological sciences has to go through both to prove their hypotheses and both learn from their mistakes and their successes at the same time.

I first came across Dr. Long's work when watching The Teaching Company's series called "Robotics", in which he is the presenter. For those people interested in robotics this series is well worth viewing as it gives a lot of information to the viewer. This series led me to his book.

Dr. Long's basic research is the study of evolution, and the book explains how he has chosen to do this with the help of robots. He tells the detailed story of his experiments in both robotics and evolution. He describes how he came to choose to use robots in the first place, the various stages he had to go through with regard to designing the robots in the first place, plus both his successes and failures.

Even though his robots were simple, they adequately approved through his experiments their ability to illustrate the power of evolution to solve difficult technological challenges autonomously.

Darwin’s Devices is without a doubt a heavy duty look at the world of robotics, the concepts and theories behind how they work, and in some cases why they don't work. It is definitely not light reading, but is well worth reading if you have any interest in electronics, robotics, the biological sciences, and likely a host of other pursuits.

2019-11-04

"The Cuckoo's Calling" by Robert Galbraith



Publisher: Little, Brown and Co.
Copyright: 2013
ISBN: 9780316206846 

I found this book to be an absolutely fantastic mystery novel, that follows the investigation of the apparent suicide of a high fashion model. Her brother however doesn't believe it was a suicide and hires a private detective to investigate and find out what really happened.

The detective is one Cormoran Strike, a former member of the British Army who left the service after being severely wounded in Afghanistan. His assistant Robin Ellacott is a young lady from a Temp Agency, who essentially falls in love with the detective business, and helps Strike with the case, while at the same time looking for a permanent job and fending off her Temp Agency.

There is a whole boatload of red herrings (I couldn't resist the pun), that will keep the reader reading and intrigued and the final solution will likely surprise them.

This novel has all the key elements of a classic hard-boiled detective novel. The characters in this novel are a given to the reader in amazing detail, that makes you know them right away. This is evidence that the author has a great deal of experience in writing, character design, plotting and research. For those who are unaware Robert Galbraith is a pseudonym for J. K. Rowling, but this book is definitely not anything like the Harry Potter series, so you may be somewhat shocked by the language and certain scenes if that's what you were expecting.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and can't wait to read the second in the series.

Going on Hiatus

 Greetings, I have decided to put a hold on doing further book reviews for a while. In fact I'm not sure if I will resume doing reviews ...