A review by meanypanini
The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean

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.