"Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" by Richard Wrangham

 

Publisher: Basic Books

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 9780465020416

Even though this book shares the first part of its title with one of a relatively popular series of novels, this book has absolutely nothing to do with "The Hunger Games", although cooking does typically satisfy hunger. It is in fact an anthropological investigation into the revolutionary history of humans and how we possibly might have teamed fire, and thereby learned to cook food, allowing us to evolve into what we have today.

The book starts off by examining the theories behind eating raw food, which at the time of writing was somewhat of a fad. Following this Dr. Wrangham looks into amongst other things the energy theory of cooking, how cooking began, what foods best affect brain development, the social structure of hunter-gatherers, how we differ from the great apes in both social structure and feeding habits, how domestication possibly influenced the male role in life, and much more.

In one chapter Dr. Wrangham looks at the social inequity between males and females, and it is rather surprising to see how much that parallels the inequality seen even today in certain cultures.

This book has 46 pages of reference notes, and a 30 page bibliography. Both of which are extremely valuable in understanding this topic. For the most part when I was taking my anthropology courses ideas such as this were not part of the curriculum but then again this was many years before this book was published.

An extremely book that is well worth reading.

"Sleipnir" by Linda Evans

 

Publisher: Baen Books

Copyright: 1994

ISBN: 0671875949

Sleipnir is I believe Linda Evans first book, and it is an extremely interesting one to say the least. We first meet the protagonist Randy Barnes when he is in the process of negotiating a Norwegian cave on his way to confront Odin, whom he intends on challenging to a duel and hopefully killing.

So why you might ask is Barnes looking to challenge Oden? Well Barnes himself is an ex-soldier who was recently discharged shortly after the death of his best friend Gary in a traffic accident. However, very shortly after his death he witnessed Sleipnir retrieving the body and taking it to Valhalla. Now for those of you who do not know Norse mythology, Sleipnir does not collect bodies of people who die accidentally, nor are they welcome in Valhalla, as this is where warriors who are killed in battle are taken, accident victims etc. go to Niflheim to serve the goddess Hel.

So what is going on? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out as I don't want to spoil it for you. But suffice it to say the story is well written, and well researched too. I reviewed another of Ms. Evans' books a while ago "The Far Edge of Darkness" which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. Unfortunately Ms. Evans hasn't published any books recently, but we can always hope she'll return to writing soon.

"Paleofantasy: what evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live" by Marlene Zuk

 

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780393081374

Paleofantasy is a very interesting book that goes into the great detail debunking the Paleo diet and other such pseudo scientific silliness. Dr. Zuk is a professor of ecology evolution and behaviour at the University of Minnesota, and she has researched this topic extremely well.

She uses the disciplines of anthropology, physiology, psychology, medicine and history to explain why the Paleo diet is not what proponents believe it is or promote it as i.e., a cure-all for societies ills, weight loss, etc.

In this book she examines the lifestyles that proponents of the Paleo lifestyle follow, and examines how actual science debunks this system of nutrition, and living. She gives a good overview on evolution, and how it works and then examines other concepts of the Paleo lifestyle such as exercising, love, sickness and health and much more.

Dr. Zuk's writing is clear and comprehensive, and the examples she uses are easily understandable by anyone. Or at least anyone who wants to understand them, as I am sure there are many paleo-fans out there who will dispute her findings as they have little or no scientific training.

Highly recommended

"West of Eden" by Harry Harrison (1925-2012)

 

Publisher: Bantam Books

Copyright: 1984

ISBN: None listed

I hadn't read this book for many years (actually probably closer to a few decades), and found it to be extremely interesting especially with regard to the world building that Mr. Harrison did.

The overall premise of the book is that the comet that struck the earth 65 million years or so ago and that established the end of the Cretaceous Period did not hit the Earth. Because of this the dinosaurs evolved intelligence, and the mammals also evolved in parallel (but somewhat slower as they hadn't had as long). The dinosaur evolutionary track produced a race of beings that were essentially lizard like in their overall appearance, while the humans were likely to be about the level of something like Homo erectus.

The dinosaurs developed a technology based on genetics, well the "humans" were still at the hunter gatherer stage.

Due to the advancing ice and glaciation the dinosaurs were being forced to move westward and colonize new lands. This is where they met the humans for the first time, and where ultimately war was declared between the two forces for the same land.

There are two other books in the series "Winter in Eden" and "Return to Eden", but I haven't read either of these to date.

With regard to the world-building, I felt that the humans were were portrayed quite well with regard to their hunter gatherer skills, language etc. however, I found the dinosaurs to be a little too advanced, in their ability to manipulate genetic materials and creatures to serve their purposes.

All in all, this was a very interesting book and I hope to be able to read the next two in the series sometime in the near future.

"My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and our favourite dinosaurs" by Brian Switek

 

Publisher: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780374135065

An interesting book that traces the history of the dinosaur formerly known as the Brontosaurus, that was renamed Apatosaurus, and then renamed Brontosaurus in 2015, and now has I believe three species. This happened two years after this book was published, which I'm rather sure Mr. Switek is happy about.

This book does an extremely good job of both the history of palaeontology, and that of the Brontosaurus itself. It goes into the details of discovery, the people involved, and the naming controversy. The naming of species of dinosaur is a complicated process that was unfortunately not too well regulated in the past, as it was common for different names to be given by different discoverers to what turned out to be the same species. This was due in part to lack of communications, pride, and many other things. Now-a-days things are much more established and many of the previous errors have been corrected.

As I work in the field of palaeontology myself I found it to be an interesting read, and quite enlightening as I haven't looked into the history as much as I likely should. I am grateful however that our lab is primarily concerned with cretaceous dinosaurs, as it is nowhere near big enough to have to deal with something the size of brontosaurus (but then again we didn't have these guys around here anyway).

A well written and researched book. However, I differ with Mr. Switek's opinion as I believe Styracosaurus is definitely the better dinosaur.

"Lethal White" by Robert Galbraith

 

Publisher: Mulholland Books

Copyright: 2018

ISBN: 9780316422734

Lethal white is the fourth installment in the Cormoran Strike detective series by Robert Galbraith the synonym for JK Rowling. As with the other three books this one is excellent. The development of the two main characters of Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott continues, with new challenges for the two of them both professionally and privately. Robin is now a partner is the detective agency, and proves invaluable to Strike, but her fiancee still is not happy that she works there, which causes some tension to say the least.

This instalment takes place a short time following the third novel "Career of Evil" which details the investigation of the Shacklewell Ripper. Robin is recovering from the wounds she received during the investigation, but is still experiencing PTSD from the attack, and Strike wants her back with him at the agency but finds it difficult to ask her to return.

Their new case begins with an extremely distressed and mentally ill young man visiting Strike and describing a murder he witnessed as a young boy. This one thing leads Cormoran and Robin into a maze of intrigue with twists and turns that involve government officials and their families, and over twenty years of history to be searched to find out the truth, a truth that nobody wants anyone to find out about.

An excellent addition to the series, looking forward to reading number five.

"Dinosaurs: A Field Guide" by Gregory S. Paul

 

Publisher: A. & C. Black

Copyright: 2010

ISBN: 9781408130742

This was a very well written book that gives a lot of valuable information to the reader, unfortunately it is also extremely difficult to find and I had to obtain it through interlibrary loan.

Mr. Paul takes you on a very informative journey through pretty much all aspects of the science of palaeontology, and provides the reader with lots of information. This area of science however is constantly changing, so I sincerely hope that he will consider doing an update to this book as many of the books on palaeontology are either too technical for the layperson, or are primarily geared towards younger enthusiasts. These younger enthusiasts are our future palaeontologists  and this book spans the gap in material.

Highly recommended, but be prepared to have to hunt for it.

"Far Edge of Darkness" by Linda Evans

 

Publisher: Baen Books

Copyright: 1996

ISBN: 0671877358

Historical time travel novels are likely one of the more difficult stories to write (at least in my opinion), as the author needs to do something called research. In "Far Edge of Darkness" Linda Evans comes through as a star in the field as her research is impeccable.

The story revolves around three main characters:

Sibyl, a PhD student in Classical Archaeology who had recently discovered a something while digging in Pompeii that shouldn't have been there. This one little thing changed her life dramatically as we next see her in ancient Rome where she is being sold as a slave. 

The second, is Charlie a Miami Vice cop who was deep under cover, and is now a slave in the house of a cruel Roman master, after spending a few years in the Circus Maximus fighting for his life.

The third is Logan a psychiatric patient on day leave who disappears in a monstrous lightning storm in Florida and reappears five years later in Alaska.

These three characters, and many secondary ones interact in a truly believable way and I believe this is mainly due to the great job the author did in setting the stage, and painting the world of ancient Rome in a detail that will delight virtually all readers.

Ms. Evans has written a number of other books as well, which I will review, but this was the first of her I read (a number of years ago), and it is well worth it. She unfortunately hasn't written much lately, but hopefully this will be corrected in the near future.

Highly recommended.