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A review by mundinova
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Stephen Brusatte
5.0
Finally! A pop science book that isn't dumbed down or lacking sources!
I hold nonfiction books, especially science books, to a higher standard than most. Readers trust that the "nonfiction" category will teach them something they don't know. The implicit requirement is that the conclusions resulted from scientific theory. Sadly, many pop science books, especially anything on the soft sciences like sociology or behavioral psychology, lack such rigorous follow through. There's assumptions and correlations without proof of causation. Then, if a book does fulfill the scientific theory requirements, the writing will be dumbed down so much that the details are lost. It's a hard tightrope to walk, but Brusatte accomplished this with a subject many people are interested in; something an average reader may pick up and read. I applaud the success!
You will learn more about dinosaurs that you ever thought possible. As an added bonus, you'll also learn about the academic field of paleontology and what it's like to be a paleontologist today. All the travel and working with colleagues all around the world is fascinating to read about. It's a small community and Brusatte pulls in the lives of scientific rock stars we, the outsiders, want to know more about.
Message/Argument: 5 stars
Prose/Language: 5 stars
I hold nonfiction books, especially science books, to a higher standard than most. Readers trust that the "nonfiction" category will teach them something they don't know. The implicit requirement is that the conclusions resulted from scientific theory. Sadly, many pop science books, especially anything on the soft sciences like sociology or behavioral psychology, lack such rigorous follow through. There's assumptions and correlations without proof of causation. Then, if a book does fulfill the scientific theory requirements, the writing will be dumbed down so much that the details are lost. It's a hard tightrope to walk, but Brusatte accomplished this with a subject many people are interested in; something an average reader may pick up and read. I applaud the success!
You will learn more about dinosaurs that you ever thought possible. As an added bonus, you'll also learn about the academic field of paleontology and what it's like to be a paleontologist today. All the travel and working with colleagues all around the world is fascinating to read about. It's a small community and Brusatte pulls in the lives of scientific rock stars we, the outsiders, want to know more about.
Message/Argument: 5 stars
Prose/Language: 5 stars