Will this be my last full log before the new year? Probably not. I’m on vacation and have a lot of books I want to read, and am currently going through them at a rate of about 1/day.
171. Beloved Beasts by Michelle Nijhuis. This book, about the history of the wildlife conservation movement, has gotten a lot of positive press, but I’m going to be a contrarian and say that I didn’t like it that much. My problem with it is its lack of focus. It starts out as biographical sketches of people important to the conservation movement (well, sort of. It actually starts with a biographical sketch of Linnaeus, which seems out of place). As it gets closer to the future, it starts being less biographical and more about current projects, and the philosophy of conservation. It also starts jumping around in time, sometimes within the same chapter. There’s definitely some good stuff in here, but I feel like a stronger through line and some reorganization would help make it a much better reading experience.
172. Stuff You Should Know by Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant, with Nils Parker. The best book I’ve read based on a podcast, and that’s not damning with faint praise. This book works because it’s not just a transcript of podcast episodes, but new topics covered on the same theme. And that theme is “random trivia”, which is always something I’m down for. Some of the topics included are the Jersey Devil, the history of demolition derbies, retro toys like Mr. Potato Head and the Pet Rock, a brief biography of Jack Kevorkian, and a look at the John Frum movement in Vanuatu. The first two names are the podcast host, and the third is an editor/ghost writer, who they acknowledge in the introduction as the person who really got the book off the ground (which is nice). Jokey footnotes take the place of host banter, and are generally amusing. And I liked the recurring pop-up boxes about word types and grammar.
173. Super Volcanoes by Robin George Andrews. This book is excellent. The first half is about interesting volcanoes on Earth and how they relate to our understanding of geology before pivoting to volcanoes active and extinct on other worlds in our solar system. Some topics covered include why Yellowstone’s lethal potential might well be hype, a history of the discovery of seafloor spreading, debates over why Mars is lopsided, and the possible evidence of life in Venus’ atmosphere. Andrews writes from a place of awe and reverence, and his enthusiasm for the subject is palpable. My one complaint is that if ever a book begged for a section of color plates in the middle, this is the one.
174. Darwin’s Fossils by Adrian Lister. This book is sponsored by the British Museum, going over the specimens collected by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle and how they informed paleontology of the era and were part of Darwin’s development of evolutionary theory. As Lister specializes in Ice Age mammals, there’s a strong focus on the mammal fossils he collected: the cover specimen is a giant ground sloth jaw. One thing that this book does a very good job with is putting the discoveries into context—who was working on them when they got back to England and how they were interpreted by different experts at the time. One piece of recurring dramatic irony is how entwined the careers of Darwin and Richard Owen were at this stage—they were destined to become academic rivals, but Owen’s early reputation was built on his work with Darwin’s specimens, and the two men were initially quite friendly with each other.
175. Dinner with a Cannibal by Carole A. Travis-Henikoff. Is this the worst book I’ve finished this year? Possibly. The subject is of course cannibalism, and I don’t even disagree with the author’s thesis. That is to say, many animals engage in cannibalistic behavior to increase their own survival in emergency situations, and humans are no exception. But since humans are cultural animals, in various times in various places, human cultures have incorporated cannibalism as normal parts of their society, from using human corpses as medicine to theophagy to eating enemies or deceased loved ones. But the author keeps getting sidetracked on long tangents, indulges in sweeping generalizations, makes mistakes regarding evolution and anthropology, and has her own obvious biases and blind spots (a belief in the biological reality of race and a fetishization of Pacific Islanders are the most blatant). The best chapters are the ones that focus on a specific case, typically in the form of reviewing a single book, and these typically just made me wish I was reading the book in question instead.
