Welcome to Litsy!

Anyone else enjoy listening to science audiobooks while executing repetitive tasks? I really like this author. He does an absurd amount of research and is great at keeping bias out of his work. He reads the #audiobook but his research subject (the scientist not the woolly mammoth obvs) weighs in for the epilogue.

This is probably the last of my “in process” books that I will be able to complete before midnight. I enjoyed this non fiction tale about the scientists and processes behind the move toward curing elephant herpes and as part of that process trying to clone or “revive” a woolly mammoth. The cover says “soon to be a motion picture” and it is written with enough storytelling that I can see that might work. Fun non-fiction!

Summer is not complete for me without a visit to McLean & Eakin in Petoskey. No fewer than two booksellers felt compelled to gush over my choice of the tagged book so I‘m going to have high hopes going into it. #bookhaul

This was seriously interesting. I've always thought bringing back extinct animals was a bad idea (Jurassic Park anyone?) but, as this book explains, there would be some real benefits: to medical knowledge (elephants almost never get cancer and this is helping explain why, which could then help humans) and to the environment (mammoths helped keep the permafrost frozen which contributed to cooler temps). Food for thought.

Can't wait to start reading this tonight. 😊

There are novels and there are non-fiction books, and there are non-fiction books that read like novels. This, however, is the only book I've ever read that can't quite seem to decide what it is, and it makes it unreadable. Some have referred to it as "creative non-fiction," but it doesn't work that way. Either write a novel or a science book, but you can't write both.

It blisters with illuminating science and fascinating ethical quandaries, for sure, but sadly this work of narrative non-fiction lumbers, much like its title creature.

Did you know that elephants don‘t get cancer but they do get herpes???? Now you do!!!

Crossed one off the #TBRBingo

This is a tough one to review. It was utterly engaging HOWEVER the creative nonfiction took a few too many liberties for my liking--including two chapters that take place three to four years in the future. That said, the science was fascinating and my favorite chapter was the last, written by a conservationist that summarized all the near-future de-extinctions that may be possible through genetic engineering. 3.5 stars.

I like it.

Biotech engineering meets environmental conservation. Apparently, large herbivores (any cold-hardy kind) could save the planet because turning tundra back into a pasture ecosystem will slow or halt thawing of permafrost, which holds huge amounts of greenhouse gases. It's weird that the title on the cover art doesn't exactly match the way it's read in the #audiobook, but since the de-extinction of woolly mammoths has not (yet) been successful … 👇

"He believed it was scientifically possible to bring back the woolly mammoth. But why would you want to? Why would you need to?"

(That's exactly what I am wondering.)

New book! ✨

Soubhi, thank you so much! These arrived just in time for my birthday today and I love everything! I don't have either book and am excited for both (clever stalking on your part--I delete books off my stacked list once I've bought them so I don't accidentally buy a second copy, so this worked great). This is so cool.

It's another bingo reading challenge, this one hosted by BookBar in Denver.

I really enjoyed this and learned so much. It's the story of how scientists are trying to bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction. It reads like fiction and the author makes the complex science easy to understand. I received an ARC in exchange for a review. #LitsyAtoZ #LetterW @BookishMarginalia

When your book matches the table