Tag Archives: reading

TBL List Review: The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being, written and read by Alice Roberts

Format: 392 pages, Paperback
Published: January 1, 2014 by Heron Books
ISBN: 9781848664791 (ISBN10: 1848664796)
Language: English

Alice Roberts takes you on the most incredible journey, revealing your path from a single cell to a complex embryo to a living, breathing, thinking person. It’s a story that connects us with our distant ancestors and an extraordinary, unlikely chain of events that shaped human development and left a mark on all of us. Alice Roberts uses the latest research to uncover the evolutionary history hidden in all of us, from the secrets found only in our embryos and genes – including why as embroyos we have what look like gills – to those visible in your anatomy. This is a tale of discovery, exploring why and how we have developed as we have. This is your story, told as never before.

My Review

The book takes the foetal development from before ovum and sperm meet to birth, and going from head to toe, to discuss both foetal development and evolution. The author is uniquely place to write this sort of book, having spent years as both a scientist and a science communicator. I enjoyed Alice Roberts’ documentaries that I’ve seen, and this book from ten years ago holds up well, although the science continues to move on.

I found this book really interesting. I have some background in biology, but not a huge amount, I only did a year of university chemistry, mostly biochemistry and molecular biology. I suspect if you didn’t manage to pass GCSE biology and don’t watch documentaries, you might struggle with this book, but for the reasonably educated, it’s a good book. It’s a foundation at least, for university study. It’s not a textbook however, it is written with a general audience on mind. If you enjoy Dr Roberts’ documentary series’ you’ll be fine with this book.

I giggled at the occasional digs at creationists, because they deserve it for their wilful ignorance. If you’re sensitive about that, you probably need a slightly less advanced book before you get to this one. And you need to escape whatever cult you’re in that’s stopping you from getting an education…

I’m listening to Ancestors, by Alice Roberts next.

Coming up

Hey, dear readers, there’s going to be a bit of a change, due to the current pandemic. I have, as many know, a brain weasel issue that makes reading ebooks hard. (I also have various lurgies making me cough, snotty and generally feel rubbish, but as far as I know, it’s not COVID-19.) Unfortunately, due to the dreaded lurgy going around, many blog tours are now digital only.

So, much of this months content will be extract posts, with the odd review booked months ago thrown in.

  • Wednesday (6th) there will be an audiobook review of The Road Not Taken, by Paul Dodgson. This is a memoir of a musical life.
  • 16th – a book review of Black blood, by Jane Eddie. This is a post-Brexit dystopian novel of crime, murder and oil.
  • 22nd – sci fi in translation, The City Among The Stars, by Francis Carsac. I understand this is a Golden Age classic, first time in English. I’m looking forward to it, although the book hasn’t arrived yet.
  • 23rd – These Lost and Broken Things, by Helen Fields. Historical crime, looking forward to getting my teeth into it.
  • 26th – Girl with a gun, by Diama Nammi and Karen Attwood. A biography of Diama, a Kurdish woman who really upset the Iranian government (good for her!). I was originally getting a book for this but SARS-COV-2 decided to unleash itself on humanity so it’s the only ebook I’ll read this month. And that’s because I like Anne and had already agreed to do the review.
  • Currently, June and July are sparsely populated with extracts and promo posts. I apologise for the slow down in my usual review content. I have also had to refuse indie author reviews if they can’t send physical books, because of said disease and brain weasels. It’s a shame because I like supporting them.
  • Pen & Sword reviews will appear intermittently as I get through the towering piles.
  • There may be other books, I’m working my way through my personal TBR pile. I’m working through some of the ones I’ve already started but had to put down to complete blog tour obligations.

Ode to my TBR pile

I keep reading,

One, two, three, books on the left of my chair, books on the right of me

Books in the loo, books in the bedroom, books waiting to be read,

On the TBR pile.

I read and I read,

But it just keeps getting bigger.

There are so many good books, so many authors I need to read and support.

So many indie bookshops and publishers I want to help.

It is inevitable.

I will die surrounded by the books I never had the time to read.

What a cruel world!

So, random reviews might pop up. And, I promise, very little poetry.

January 2015 Reviews

Hello, and welcome to the first review post of 2015. There’s a lot of variety in this month’s post, but I’ll let you get on with reading the actual reviews now.
Continue reading “January 2015 Reviews”

Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever

I was at the day job yesterday, casually writing a short story on my break, when I was accosted by one of my co-workers wanting to know why I only worked weekends now and what was I writing. Apart from the great impertinence, although I suspect it was her way of making conversation, I couldn’t really see why I shouldn’t tell her the truth: I’m working part time to fund my reviewing habit, since nobody’s paying me in anything but books at the minute. She then asked about my writing, which is fair enough, but then she shocked me by admitting that she’d never read a book.

I asked why?

Continue reading “Why would you boast about that? Or, admitting you have never read a book is not clever”

Currently reading…

I borrowed this book from the library last week and I’m making my way through it. I’ve never read any Dean Koontz books before, and I’m enjoying it. Proper review to follow when I finish it.

[EDIT: I couldn’t finish it. But the bit I read wasn’t bad, I just couldn’t get on with the writing style.]

I really should finish reading what I’ve started first, but still…

This morning I took my nephew to the library to get some more books and to take my book back. I had no intention of getting another book, since I still have two other books to finish reading, but then I saw this book, ‘The Wisdom of the Shire’ by Noble Smith.

I don’t generally go in for ‘self-help’ books but I have a thing for the works of JRR Tolkien and the book seemed to be a different take on the whole world of Middle Earth. So I’m going to read it. But first I’m going to follow Mr Smith’s advice and get some sleep because I’m tired.

I’ll let you know what I think of the book when I finish it. Have a nice afternoon, and I hope you’re all safely in your Hobbit-holes nice and warm in this cold weather.

Bye,

Rose