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willardk's review against another edition
5.0
This book mentions F. Scott Fitzgerald. In the end notes and briefly, yes, but that's enough to make it pretty damn awesome for me.
Besides that little spoiler, though, this was a fantastic book, and I would've given it five stars whether or not my dear old friend Fitzy was mentioned at all.
EDIT: I can't in good conscience keep this book on my favorites shelf. Sam Kean and I had a long-standing affair (I say that even though neither of us are married), and he really hurt me. Maybe this isn't the appropriate space to vent about this, but I feel like I've never been able to tell anyone other than my closest friends about it, since he was quite embarrassed to be "dating" me. (I use the term "dating" VERY euphemistically.) He really hurt me. I don't want to discourage people from reading his books, but just remember: writers can be shitty people. I've lived too long with the illusion that good writing can make up for anything, but it quite simply can't make up for the current wretched state of my love life.
Besides that little spoiler, though, this was a fantastic book, and I would've given it five stars whether or not my dear old friend Fitzy was mentioned at all.
EDIT: I can't in good conscience keep this book on my favorites shelf. Sam Kean and I had a long-standing affair (I say that even though neither of us are married), and he really hurt me. Maybe this isn't the appropriate space to vent about this, but I feel like I've never been able to tell anyone other than my closest friends about it, since he was quite embarrassed to be "dating" me. (I use the term "dating" VERY euphemistically.) He really hurt me. I don't want to discourage people from reading his books, but just remember: writers can be shitty people. I've lived too long with the illusion that good writing can make up for anything, but it quite simply can't make up for the current wretched state of my love life.
mrs_v's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
4.5
I learned so much about DNA, chromosomes, and genes! But, it didn't feel like reading a science textbook! I did keep my phone nearby to research diseases, vocabulary, or images while I read.
flooey's review against another edition
4.0
A solid layman's introduction to DNA and genetics. I was a little disappointed it didn't have more technical content, but I'm probably not the target audience. It is chock full of amusing and fascinating genetic stories, though.
alliylau's review against another edition
It's SOO boring. It took me 3 weeks to read 2 chapters. I got the book years ago as assigned reading in my high school science class, and I never read it until now. My teacher kept saying how it was interesting, narrative non-fiction, but it just reads like a textbook.
mefoster07's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
4.25
meanypanini's review against another edition
3.0
The book has lots of interesting stories and I learned a lot about how genes function (and microbes *shudder* don't ask about the microbes). I would have rated the book higher if it wasn't so comedic. I felt the book could rarely take a single thing seriously. I know the jokes are a form of strengthening the retention of what I'm reading, but I'm reading this for the knowledge, less for the dick jokes. Furthermore, I felt that some of the information was kinda useless (to me) and gross. Admittedly, most of these critiques are based on taste, but it's why I didn't rate it higher. A good science/non-fiction book to me is one that either explains difficult concepts to someone not as knowledgeable in that area, or robust deconstructions of concepts. This book was half simplified explanations and half sex jokes.
daumari's review against another edition
5.0
Greatly enjoyed this. Part explanation for the lay person, part historical journey through the history of genetics, this book and its notes were a joy to read. The DNA acrostic was fun, too- flashbacks of BIOCH 301.
dillonbrantley's review against another edition
4.0
It's well-written and filled with fascinating case studies (many of which I was unfamiliar with despite my background in the subject matter). However, the overall structure left something to be desired. It felt like a series of case studies and histories rather than an overall journey of what we have learned about DNA.