I used to keep lists on post-it notes of books that I wanted to read in the near future. I would hold on to the list for some time, until it got crumpled and eventually vanished with all of the other pieces of paper that pass through your life. Then I would start a new list, with different books from the old list, which I had never gotten around to reading anyway. If you strung together the titles of all the books on the lists over the years that I haven’t read, you’d probably be able to fill a new book. I know I’m not alone in this because the writer Nick Hornby has a column in The Believer entitled “Stuff I’ve Been Reading,” which is accompanied each month by a list of “Books Bought” and a separate list of “Books Read”. The overlap between the two lists is minimal, and one can only imagine that Mr. Hornby’s book-free living space is getting smaller all the time.
In any event, here are some books that I’ve come across recently that seem list-worthy.
The first is No Two Alike, by Judith Harris, to be published in March. This is the follow-up to her controversial 1998 book, The Nurture Assumption, which argued that parents don’t influence how children turn out; genes and peers do (the perfect Mother’s Day gift, that one). According to Library Journal, No Two Alike “presents what may be the best personality theory since Sigmund Freud’s. Why do identical twins with the same genes and raised in the same household grow up with different personalities? According to Harris, adept brains and complex culture account for the difference”. The New York Sun has an early (positive) review.
From Garland Science, the publishers of Molecular Biology of the Cell, comes Robert Weinberg’s The Biology of Cancer, which aims to be the definitive textbook on the subject. As of early January, the author was busy cutting a 900-page manuscript down to 700-odd pages. Look for it in June.
New from Philip Reilly, CEO of Interleukin Genetics, and former member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Human Genetics, is The Strongest Boy in the World. Published by Cold Spring Harbor, which published Reilly’s Abraham Lincoln’s DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics, the book is written for a general audience interested in the interplay of genetics with disease, ethics, and society. A wide range of topics is covered under this umbrella.
Genes in Conflict: The Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements by Austin Burt & Robert Trivers is a comprehensive, scholarly look at “the subject of selfish genetic elements in all its aspects, from molecular and genetic to behavioral and evolutionary”. It’s out from Harvard University Press, and you’ll find a review in an upcoming issue of Nature Genetics.
Our former editorial colleague here at the journal, Michael Stebbins, has written what is no doubt a lively account of controversial topics in science, entitled Sex Drugs & DNA (out in April from Macmillan). Mike has a varied background, and following his stint at NG he spent a year as a congressional fellow in the office of Senate minority leader Harry Reid. He now runs the Biosecurity Project at the Federation of American Scientists, where he keeps tabs on all sorts of nasty agents. You’ll find him blogging on biosecurity, and also on a wider range of topics. As for the latter, it’s well worth a visit—you won’t be bored.
Finally, in the world of fiction, and with impeccable timing, comes Allegra Goodman’s Intuition, out in a few days from Dial Press. Publisher’s Weekly sums it up:
In another quiet but powerful novel from Goodman (Kaaterskill Falls), a struggling cancer lab at Boston’s Philpott Institute becomes the stage for its researchers’ personalities and passions, and for the slippery definitions of freedom and responsibility in grant-driven American science. When the once-discredited R-7 virus, the project of playboy postdoc Cliff, seems to reduce cancerous tumors in mice, lab director Sandy Glass insists on publishing the preliminary results immediately, against the advice of his more cautious codirector, Marion Mendelssohn. The research team sees a glorious future ahead, but Robin, Cliff’s resentful ex-girlfriend and co-researcher, suspects that the findings are too good to be true and attempts to prove Cliff’s results are in error. The resulting inquiry spins out of control.
Those PW writers sure love the melodrama (cue the music!). Don’t let that put you off, however, because Goodman is the real thing as a novelist, and it’s rare when a writer of her talent tackles the lives of scientists.
Happy reading.