This book was incredibly educational. For those who are super interested in science or biology, it probably will be a five star read. It is very detailed.

Weiner basically follows the work of evolutionary biologists, primarily focusing on the finches in the Galapagos, but also referencing the work of other biologists with other species. What struck me was the speed with which evolution can actually take place and that biologists have figured out experimental methods to track it. What ASTONISHED me was the infinite patience these scientists have for the minutia and tedium of the work it takes to make breakthroughs in this field. Honestly, it is mindblowing. After year one of catching finches, banding finches, measuring each finch body part, watching them mate, recording the results, - all in near isolation - I'd need mental health treatment. And these folks did this for twenty years straight.

My favorite part of the book is about an experiment run with these spotted guppies. The results were so fascinating.

Weiner makes all this material very accessible though some parts were certainly more interesting than others. There's various kinds of selection - natural and sexual - and when he discusses hybridization, he kinda lost me. Probably more out of boredom than him not explaining it well.

But overall, a really excellent read for anyone who wants to have a better understanding of evolution and how it works in the real world. ( )

I couldn't put this down, or more accurately, I couldn't turn it off. Beyond being an amazing story of scientists and doing science, this crystallized so much biology for me. Weiner's writing is so deft I can't recall ever feeling it. Bevine's narration fits hand in glove with Weiner's perfect relation of the story to give an experience that is as close to having been there as I can recall in anything I've listened to. ( )

An interesting little book about real life study of evolution and the hard work and complexity of this research. It's a little dated by now, and a major downside for me was that it covers a lot of the same ground other books on evolution do. ( )

This book was simply phenomenal. The only thing stopping me from making it five stars is that some parts of it were filler content, which is largely unavoidable. However, it was incredibly interesting.

The book follows researchers in the Galapagos who are studying Darwin's finches. The excellent writing style breaks down complex research of evolutionary biology into something a 19 year old (me) can understand. This book completely changes the perspective on nature and the idea of a species: showing evolution not as a linear change over time, but as a constant adaptation to a cruel world. Something as simple as a finch's beak can waver back and forth in size as these islands go between droughts and storms every couple of years. The progression of any given animal is not a straight line in a specific direction, but rather a wiggling line that might move a certain direction as a long term trend, but also is constantly changing.

Anybody who wants to know more about Darwin's research and how it's still being expanded upon today, this book is worthy of the Pullitzer Prize that it won. If this review was a turn-off for you, then the book wouldn't be your kind of entertainment. But overall I definitely recommend this. Any book can make you learn, but not many books can truly stimulate you to think about something you'd never considered. ( )

I enjoyed this book and it had a lot of great insights, but I think it think it could greatly benefit from either a forward or an afterward about the changes that have taken place since it was written (1994). For example, the book includes a discussion of climate change and how it may affect the rate of evolution, but back then these ideas were much more speculative. There is also a discussion of the hole in the ozone layer, and how it is affecting the mutation rate of the species of algae that passed beneath it, but in 1994 the Montreal Protocol was only seven years old and its effectiveness was yet to be known. Twenty-three years later, there is evidence the ozone layer is beginning to self-heal and the hole is becoming smaller.

The context of 2017 also makes this quote all the more poignant: "We are altering the terms of the struggle for existence: changing the conditions of life for every species that is coeval with our own. Never before was such havoc caused by the expansion of a single species. Never before was the leading actor aware of the action, concerned about the consequences, conscious of guilt. For better and for worse, this may be one of the most dramatic moments to observe evolution in action since evolution began." (page 277). ( )