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Rafa well, but feels too enthusiastic and sloppy at times. More scientific and technical background would be appreciated.

Well written and meditative. I find myself sinking into this text and enjoying it immensely.

DNF’ed bei 11%. Ich kann mich mit dem Stil nicht anfreunden, finde die Figuren immer noch hohl und habe keine emotionalen Reserven für 750 Seiten zivilisatorischen Zusammenbruch.

Wow: Up to 50% of the human proteome are disordered proteins that can do many different things, depending on the environment (the present ligands binding to them). Crucially, they have multiple stable forms and sometimes, ONE STABLE CONFIGURATION CAN BE PASSED ON DURING CELL DIVISION, as in BSE/Creutzfeld Jacob Disease. Adaptation and inheritance without genes. 😳

This is a very strange book. That’s all I have to say right now.

(2/2) So “genes” really are a concept that has been yoked to DNA. This relationship is shaky, and it explained why genes in a molecular (DNA) sense never quite made sense to me. Our understanding, Ball argues passionately, is fragmentary at best. SO NO WONDER genetics never quite made sense to me. We simply haven’t understood it very well yet.

Fascinating, addressing lots of uneasiness / ambiguities that always simmer in me whenever I think about genetics. (1/2) Quick recap of why that may be: The word “gene” is evolved from Darwin’s concept of “pangenesis”, how life springs from hereditary information. He postulated information must somehow be passed between generations.

Overall, this felt shallow. I was especially frustrated by how Schlanger didn’t seem to have a good grasp of genetics and how she failed to address a number of fascinating questions. ⭐️⭐️, because the book did make me think, but not in the way Schlanger intended.

Så søt.

One thing: Hearing. I wouldn’t be surprised if plants “hear” online the way scallops “see”: Fixed patterns a plant senses and reacts to, but no adaptive hearing, no learning. Why isn’t this discussed? What I find intriguing, though, is that it is obvious that plants react to sounds, but that we have zero idea how they record the sounds in the first place.

This is a frustrating read so far. No hard science, just vague “scientists think” blah-blah. Also, I have the creeping suspicion that I have a better grasp of genetics, cell biology and everything behavioural than Schlanger, which makes this read underwhelming. And what’s with the endless personal anecdotes? I do not care at all. Give me the science, Zoë!

I remember why Williams resonates so strongly with me. He creates quiet when my mind so rarely is.

That was frustrating. The emotional core of the book was *SO GOOD*, and the Cambridge and character development bits really resonated with me. And then there was a contrived and uninspired hell as a backdrop for a generic hero’s journey. Duh, Rebecca. I am convinced you can write good fiction, but not like this. This could have been another Piranesi, but it was not. Mostly, it was boring.

Wow, this is really boring. The first chapter about the lie-based magick was so good and now what. A boring journey through a boring hell without any discernible character development.

Hahaha, that’s a f*ed-up magic system there. 🤣 Didn’t RFK say she didn’t write the same genre twice? If this isn’t satire, I don’t know what is.

Nope, this does not resonate with me at all and there’s the stench of melodrama all around it.

Doesn’t hook me at all. None of the characters connect to me, and neither she’s the beauty of Shearwater, even though I love places like that. The pseudo mystery has me rolling my eyes.

Hypnotic so far. I don’t want to put it down.

This is long. It’s super interesting, but I do not enjoy Pollan’s preachy style. For me, this is the old way of old white men writing non-fiction, similar to Sacks. I prefer a Yong or Sapolsky every day of the week.

This whole book has a dreamlike quality. That moment Vincent shows up as a ghost in Florence? 😭

The characters are supremely unlikeable, but that’s just Boyle. The chapter “Sierra” was haunting. I knew what was going to happen, but the way Boyle wrote it was harrowing.

Painful to read at times, but unputdownable. Without being bipolar myself, the description of mood swings and sense of not knowing which version of myself is real, is very familiar.

So far, very hard to put down.

And the next author not doing his research and using a Tesla purely as a status symbol, describing in detail how you need keys to access it and how the engine has to be started. 🤣 It’s these details that kill things for me.

Overall: I appreciate TJ’s sentiment of writing “positive, accurate representations” of queer folk. I really do. But I still think this book is not a good book. Mostly, the shallow characters rankle, especially Marblemaw and Rowder. A book is as good as their villains, and these villains are the worst stereotypes I’ve read in a while. Yes, Trumps and Rowlings exist; but still. It felt sloppy.

Hah. Jeanine Rowder and JK Rowling. That took me a while. I did wonder whether I made that particular connection up, and then I read the acknowledgments. Nope, I did not. Neat, TJ.

It’s official, this book is annoying the hell out of me. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy the relationship between Arthur and the kids. Nothing about it feels right, but rather like a condescending sermon. If Arthur loves the kids, I don’t feel it.