Book reviews should be comprised of the items below.
Author: Who is he/she? What else has he/she written? Is this book typical of his/her style? How is his/her background relevant to the book?
Audience: Who is this book for? Children? Adults? People looking for information? Or is it just a good read?
Argument: What are the main ideas or themes of the book? What makes it different and new? Did the author convey the argument successfully?
Assessment: Do you like the book? All of it or parts of it? Why? Who would you recommend the book to?
Diary of a Citizen Scientist
by Sharman Apt Russel ★★★★★
Great book!
Review by Jac
This powerful memoir is based on the author’s attempt to catch and study tiger beetles. Sharman Apt Russel is a nature writer who lives in the American Southwest. In her late fifties, she decides to venture into the wild to track down a little-known beetle. She hopes to find out more about this insect, therefore contributing to the world of science.
Much of the book consists of the author’s diary entries, made while she searched for the beetle. One theme is just how patient you need to be: she spends lots of time waiting and watching. But when she actually finds the beetle, she describes the thrill as if she’s a child opening a present.
What if you’re not really interested in beetles? Russel povides lots of fascinating information about the environment, science and psychology, and quotes several writers on these subjects. In any case, what makes this book stand out is its wonderful style. Russell is like a friendly big sister taking you on an unforgettable journey.
Diary of a Citizen Scientist is the latest of several nature books by this author, including An Obsession with Butterflies and Anatomy of a Rose. Overall, I found the book compelling and original and would highly recommend it to adult readers with an interest in science.
The Lost City of the Monkey God
by Douglas Preston ★★★★★
Review by Nazmi
Douglas Preston’s new book is part memoir, part adventure, all action. The tale concerns his search for a 500-year old mystery in the Central American country of Honduras. For half a millennium, there have been rumours of the ruins of an ancient civilisation hidden under the rainforest. These ruins are called the Lost City of the Money God. Preston tell the stories of the explorers who looked for it and then describes his own 2015 expedition to the Honduran rainforest, where he was involved in an astonishing discovery.
This non-fiction book combines archaeology, anthropology, adventure travel and a quite wonderful cast of characters. Preston has written many thrillers, but he’s probably never invented more colourful people than these cheats, bullies and strongmen. One archaeology professor is a real-life Indiana Jones. The largest of the characters (in all senses) is a foul-mouthed, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing American, who sadly doesn’t live to see the biggest discoveries. The toughest are the British soldiers whose job is to keep everyone alive. Early on, one of them traps and chops the head off a six-foot snake as if he’s shelling a peanut.
The jungle, of course, is another central character. Preston describes the beauty of untouched nature and even starts to enjoy the screams of the monkeys that wake him every morning. However, the magnificent canopy that hides its treasures also has its dangers: jaguars, mosquitoes, flash floods and, scariest of all, the fer-de-lance, a vicious, venomous snake. But in the end, it isn’t the biggest killers that get them; it’s the smallest: a parasite.
Once they’ve found the lost city-an incredible experience for them all- Preston and the team discuss whether to remove objects from the site. But in the end they bring home nothing but a tropical disease. Few people in the west know about it, but it’s existed since the time of the dinosaurs and it’s killed millions.
A section in the second half of the book describes exactly what the leishmaniasis parasite can do to your body. While getting treatment for it, Preston documents the destruction caused world wide by this parasite. Remarkably, he later returns to the jungle to complete his story.
The Lost City of the Monkey God is a page -turner. From his observations on the disaster of colonialism to the descriptions of disease, Preston is always entertaining and informative, and this tremendous book is full of truths that will outlive us all.
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