The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Genes are not only the key to life, but holds the details of our history and our future too. In this book, Mukherjee takes us on a journey to uncover the origins of this master code and the story of discovering and deciphering it. It is a story that spans world history, but begins with a monk in an Augustinian monastery who discovers a unit of heredity in his study of peas. Mendel may not have been one of the first to be fascinated but the ideas of heredity, and he certainly wasn’t going to be the last. Darwin was one of the next with his discovery of evolution and the way that certain traits established themselves in the populations of finches on each of the Galapagos Islands.
As science advanced during the latter part of the 19th century and into the 20th century, cells started to give up their secrets to the scientists that were studying them. Each discovery added to the knowledge of how each of us carries traits and characteristics from our parents. This dream of making the perfect human from good parents became the spectre that is eugenics, culminating in the horrors with the Nazi obsession with creating the perfect Aryan race and eliminating those that were deemed to be sub-human. Post world war two we knew more about the way that RNA and DNA worked, but no one could work out just how it did it. The brilliant X-ray images of DNA that Rosalind Franklin took gave Francis Crick and James Watson the insight to work out the construction of the beautiful double helix that is DNA. He describes the quest to map the entire human genome, a feat achieved by scientists working across the globe, who just beat a private company who had designs on patenting it.
He is eminently qualified to write this, as he is the assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University. He brings us up to date with the latest research and discoveries in genetic research as well as posing the questions that we need to ask and answer as we learn how to change and write to the human genome. To cover all that we have found out about the gene, the book needs to be broad in scope. It is fairly detailed and occasionally baffling and incomprehensible to a non-scientist like myself, but thankfully not very often. Woven through the book too is the story of Mukherjee’s family and their reoccurring history of mental illness as it moved through the generations; it adds a nice personal touch to the book, showing just how our genes can affect us all. If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.
I am slowly but surely building up my collection of natural history books. These are ones that I have read in the past but have never owned. Over the weekend bought:
Waterlog by Roger Deakin
Wildwood by Roger Deakin
The Moth Snowstorm by Michael McCarthy
The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (courtesy of Nudge)
If you have’t read (or heard) of them, they are all worth reading
Words of Mercury by Patrick Leigh Fermor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Patrick Leigh Fermor is probably best known for the walk he undertook from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople in the early 1930’s. He was only 18 at the time of departure and the Europe that he saw and described was still as it had been for decades, as well as being of the cusp of dramatic change with the rise of the far right in Germany and other countries. He had a knack for languages and his infectious enthusiasm meant he could mix with the lowest peasant to the highest landowner all across Europe. He was active during the Second World War mostly in Crete and was the instigator behind a dramatic abduction of a German general. After the war, he moved to his beloved Greece settling in the Peloponnese region.
This book is a lovely collection of articles grouped into various sections, travels, Greece, people books and the wonderfully titled flotsam. Some are drawn from his earlier books and others are articles that have appeared in various magazines and newspapers. The subjects are diverse, varying from bicycle polo to Gluttony, Bryon to Andalucía and are written in his indomitable style. Whilst I have read a number of the pieces before, there are several that I haven’t. Most of the articles are really good, not all of them are. It would be a good introduction to one of my favourite writers for those that are interested.
The Human Factor by Graham Greene
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Castle is approaching retirement from MI6 where he has been an officer in the Africa section for a number of years following active service in the continent. He is married to a black South African lady who he helped escape from the apartheid regime. He is enjoying his quiet and uneventful life, when him and his assistant, Davis, are interviewed following the discovery of a leak in the service that has been traced back to his department. The investigation concludes that Davis is the source of the leak and action is taken, but the cloud of suspicion still hangs over Castle and he realises that he may have to make a greater sacrifice to save all that he cherishes.
To write this tense thriller Green drew on all his experience and knowledge from his time at MI6 during the Second World War. It is a bleak story, that is very cleverly written too, as he has managed to get across the mundaneness of the bureaucrat’s job in the service, whilst examining the larger question of loyalty to family or to country. I really liked the subtlety of the writing too. It doesn’t have the glamour and excitement of some spy fiction, but it does have the drama.
The Penguin Lessons by Tom Michell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Tom Michell has reached his twenties and seeks adventure. Heading to the South American continent to work at a prestigious boarding school in Argentina and dreams of travel and exploration. The country that he arrives in is turbulent and in the grip of military control and rampant inflation after the collapse of the Perón regime. The allure of travelling during the long summer holidays prompts him to acquire a motorbike, hoping to see the landscape at his own pace.
Time to live the dream. Except that dream didn’t involve getting a pet penguin…
Whilst on a short break in Uruguay he comes across a beach with hundreds of dead penguins covered in oil from the wreck of a tanker. As he walks through the devastation, he sees one alive and picks it up and sneaks it back into the hotel. After a minor altercation involving a cut finger, he manages to clean the oil off the penguin and when he realises that it really doesn’t want to leave him, so begins a relationship with a bird, Juan Salvador. He just needs to work out how to get the creature across the border and back to school. S begins a story of a penguin that transformed Mitchell’s life and many of those in the school that he taught at.
It is a heart-warming story of a foolhardy decision that in the long run had so many positive benefits for all those that came into contact with Juan Salvador. There are some genuinely funny moments in the book and the tale he tells has a certain charm too. It is a serious commitment that he has made to care for an animal that needs company and attention and he tells it as it is. I really would have liked much more of the travelling that he undertook in the region, but that was not the focus of the book. Occasionally the writing is a bit twee and stilted, but it is a nice heart warming story.
Had two books arrive courtesy of Quercus today:
Citizen Clem: A Biography of Atlee by John Bew
The Particle Zoo: The Search for the Fundamental Nature of Reality by Gavin Hesketh
Got Off The Map by Alistair Bonnett from the library
Got Caught by the River as a late, late birthday present
And bought:
Notes from Walnut Tree Farm by Roger Deakin
Sahara by Michael Palin
Around the World in 80 Days by Michael Palin
Full Circle by Michael Palin
As well as getting a book to review I also got to ask Francis Pryor some questions about his latest book:
http://halfmanhalfbook.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/review-stonehenge-story-of-sacred.html
Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Complete Peter Cook by Peter Cook
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
In his time, Peter Cook was one of the funniest men around, he was a little before my time, but I remember him with Dudley Moore. In his time, he was considered one of the great comedy writers, even though he had a reputation for idleness. He wrote countless skits and articles and was a leading figure in the boom in satire in the 1960’s. This collection draws from his very earliest works, including his best known sketches a selection of his columns that appeared in the Daily Mail, Private Eye and the Evening Standard and even includes some TV pieces that have never been seen in print before.
There are some very funny sketches in here, and I was chuckling as I was reading every now and again. The ones with Dud as Derek & Clive, two blokes putting the world to rights are hilarious and are my particular favourites. Some of the others he wrote are now very dated, mostly because the world has moved on and these were relevant then. I skim read it at times as it got a bit tedious; really one for the collector of his works.
Just received through the post The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird’s Egg by Tim Birkhead. Thank you #Bloomsbury
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