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dlrowdimfoyo 's review for:
The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
by David Quammen
I received this book from my brother-in-law as I studied evolutionary biology in grad school.
It's been seven years since I was in the world of evolutionary biology, and while reading popular science books about the topic is a fun way to still connect to that world, I don't think I would enjoy rereading this book to do so.
It feels to me like this book is falsely advertised. The title and the "we'll get there, but I need to tell you some backstory" aspect of the book makes it seem like the main idea is that Darwin's conception of evolution is deeply flawed. I'm not sure Quammen really makes that point particularly clear. It feels like this book is purposely slanted as seeing more of a challenge to Darwin to draw more attention and shock value, even though Quammen really wanted to write about Woese and the other scientists who were involved with his work. I'm sure challenging Darwin sells more books than a scientist's biography.
It's been seven years since I was in the world of evolutionary biology, and while reading popular science books about the topic is a fun way to still connect to that world, I don't think I would enjoy rereading this book to do so.
It feels to me like this book is falsely advertised. The title and the "we'll get there, but I need to tell you some backstory" aspect of the book makes it seem like the main idea is that Darwin's conception of evolution is deeply flawed. I'm not sure Quammen really makes that point particularly clear. It feels like this book is purposely slanted as seeing more of a challenge to Darwin to draw more attention and shock value, even though Quammen really wanted to write about Woese and the other scientists who were involved with his work. I'm sure challenging Darwin sells more books than a scientist's biography.