Essential Bio/Molecular/Biomedical Readings

[Cici Beanz]

So today I noticed a trend of recommended reading threads throughout the site, including the sociocultural one here, and thought I'd add to the list. Sometime between now and September I plan to read the following:

Red Queen and Genome by Matt Ridley, Evolutions's Rainbow (Author's name escapes me at the moment) and The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett, along with a few other epidemiology "adventure" tales ala Richard Preston. I MAY try to fit in The Ancestor's Tale, but I'm not sure yet- I wanna read plenty of novels too while I still have a chance.

[Cici Beanz]

Seriously? No one? I know the books I mentioned aren't all super academic...I hope that isn't what deterred others from posting. I'm coming from a six year academic hiatus and a psych undergrad, so I'm hoping to learn from folks who are more familiar with the main players when it comes to reading.

[Cici Beanz]

Thanks for replying! I will look into those titles.

[sje]

I don't know how 'essential' it is, but Brian Sykes books The Seven Daughters of Eve and Adam's Curse are pretty good reads. They're a bit dated now in terms of what we know today about anthropological genetics and archaeogenetics, but they're far from a waste of time.

There's also many great books that take a more popular approach to the issues of Neandertal extinction; Chris Stringer has one called Lone Survivor and Clive Finlayson has one that I just bought called The Humans Who Went Extinct. Again, these aren't really 'essential' but they're enjoyable. In fact, I'd consider books much less essential reading for biological anthropologists than seminal papers and other academic works--its not the same as sociocultural where books and ethnography reign supreme.

Also, its worth mentioning that there are some fantastic weblogs that focus on biological anthropology to varying extents, namely the John Hawks Weblog and Gene Expression by Razib Khan. They're really fantastic and usually updated daily.

And lastly, I used to be interested in forensic anthropology--however, this was before I really got into molecular anthro--and there are a plethora of books (some good, some crappy) by forensic anthropologists as its a vastly popular field in the general public. Notable authors include: Bass, Maples, and Ubelaker.

[Cici Beanz]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, SJ. I have a copy of Seven Daughters of Eve but haven't gotten around to it yet. You make a good point about BioAnth not having the same sort of canon as Cultural...I really just want to find out what others are making it a point to read book-wise I guess.

As far as blogs go, I couldn't take to John Hawkes, though I did try. I tend to favor the interdisciplinary folks like Kate Clancy and Daniel Lende & Greg Downey...now you've got me thinking that it might be fun to start an Anthro Blogs thread on here.

I read one Maples book (Dead Men Do Tell Tales, I think??) and thought it was all right but honestly I wasn't in love with his narrative style...I haven't gotten around to Bass's nonfiction, but I freely admit that I am ADDICTED to the Body Farm novels. I've never heard of Ubelaker, but will certainly be hitting up Google in a few minutes.