The Rise and --- of Dinosaurs and Mammals by Steve Brusatte

 The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals by Steve Brusatte are two books on Paleontology. These books demonstrate the value of good science writers by counterexample. In between interesting anecdotes from the field, biographical sketches, and fascinating accounts of evolution in action, the author falls into the trap of academic writing with long lists of acknowledgments, obscure technical terminology, and Latin names. If you can skip the boring part, the books are great.

When scientists finally used DNA to build evolutionary trees, they learned that the traditional morphological trees were incorrect. Odd-toed mammals were not all closely related. Even-toed mammals were not all closely related. Similar morphological groups were also not closely related. These similarities were all the result of convergent evolution. The roots of the evolutionary trees are not morphological at all. The roots are geographical with one tree rooted in Africa, another in South America, another in North America, and the fourth in Eurasia.

Did you just say, “Duh? That’s obvious?”

Scattered throughout the books are interesting examples of how arbitrary the evolution of homo sapiens was and how easy it would have been to have a different outcome.

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The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy ****

The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy has enough twists and turns, and suspects to satisfy any mystery reader. One caveat: this is not a murder, but an infant abduction. If that wasn’t upsetting enough, the backstories of abuse by men in power (boss, teacher, doctor) and others -- along with the misogynist attitude of the press certainly should be. As much a book stating the case for women’s rights (especially in the U.S.) as a mystery. Both objectives are met.

Maternity leave in the U.S.

“I have a friend who lives in Copenhagen,” Gemma says. “She got eighteen months of leave after she had her son. Paid.” “In Canada,” Colette says, “they have to hold a woman’s job for a year. In fact, the US is the only country besides Papua New Guinea that doesn’t mandate paid leave. The United States. The country of family values.”

Nell refuses to be forced to resign.

She opens her eyes and looks at Ian. “Nope.” “Nope?” “Nope. I’m not leaving. You can’t fire me.” “Nobody’s firing anybody—” “I’m not leaving, Ian. I’ll hire an attorney if I have to. But I’m not leaving.” “But, Nell. I’m . . . it’s—” “Excuse me for being rude, Ian, but I have to ask you to leave. Consider it a short-term leave of absence from my office.” She turns back to her computer. “I have a training to finish preparing for tomorrow.”

I can’t imagine a new mother reading this, but new mothers might be tougher than I imagine.

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