A review by bob_muller
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen

5.0

This is one of those truly amazing books you encounter every few years that make you understand what great writing is about. The science may be (potentially) dated, but the underlying stories and characters and controversies (history of science rather than exposition of science, in other words) remains current. I've found myself bringing the stories in this book into wide-ranging conversations as they became relevant, always relevant, to one concern or another about the world and the ways things work in it. He's not Jared Diamond, but he plays him off well against his competition. The main point of the book, if there is one, is the continuing extinctions in our world and why they happen or don't happen, but the understanding of that meanders around the archipelagos of science in a way that is truly unique among the histories of science that I've read. It's well worth the adventure. It's a great beach book, in every possible sense.