maribou | Seldom Science

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker
The best pieces in this were up to the usual high standard set by previous volumes, but I was a tad frustrated by the amount of op-ed. I read these for stories, analysis, new cool stuff I didn't know about - not for yet another short (1 or 2 page) piece on why cloning, or genetic engineering, or Dramatic Issue X isn't bad, but good. No really! Good! Yum! Sigh... (It's not that I disagree, it's that there's nothing special enough about most of the op-ed style pieces to make me want them in the collection.) Also, way too much social science and way not enough nature stuff, given the title of the collection. The octopus story was particularly nifty, and Atul Gawande's provocative biography of Sir Francis Moore was meaty. There were some other really good stuff too. Just, bleah, enough about old news. (The toxoplasmosis thing? Really not a startling new discovery, people. Peter Watts cited it at the back of Starfish, which came out in 1999.) Last year's was better, even though I generally prefer Pinker to Dawkins.
(60/200)

Seldom Disappointed, by Tony Hillerman
This was a warm and engaging memoir. I would've preferred less detail about WW2 and more detail about family life and the Dineh, but I would never actually be willing to tell a WW2 combat infantry veteran 'Hey, less with the catharsis and more with the happy stories,' - that would be a horrible lack of respect - so I can see why his editor might not want to either. And really, it's more that I tend to zone out when trying to picture battles under any circumstances - that section is just as well-written and interesting as the others. I was occasionally a bit frustrated by the cavalier mixing of tenses, but I doubt it would bug anyone else, since once I figured out the pattern to it, and that the pattern was internally consistent, it stopped bothering me. Mr. Hillerman has led a very interesting life, and I've yet to be let down by one of his books.
(61/200)