Curious Coco’s Reviews > In the Shadow of Man > Status Update

Whilst reading this book and watching her documentary Jane, Jane Goodall passed away. She will forever be remembered as the woman who changed science despite not having a scientific background. Just pure passion and perseverance. Here’s to Jane, you were a legend and I am honored to keep reading. I can’t help but think I found her again as a young adult for a reason. Love you, Jane.

In some ways, I think I have a bias about humans and animals. Perhaps because of how I grew up, equating them. I owe this to my zoologist grandma and family who treated our pets as family. Not really pets after all. But I’m seeing distinctions between chimps and humans. As though, for me, I gain the opposite lesson from this book. Most see the difference, I see the similarity. And maybe that’s why I’m shocked.

Brilliant. I actually gasped at the pictures of the chimps when they suddenly arrived. I now see why this was a sensation. I love how she named the chimps and turned any pretentiousness from science upon its head. I also love her relationship with her mother and her wha with words. Jane is a very determined person. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a neurodivergence of sorts. There’s a mania (genius) present.

Funny how literally everything went wrong. But Jane was able to understand how to study things in nature (especially monkeys). It was a learning experience for her. The vervet monkeys were trial one.

Chapter 1: about half an hour. Jane is so real. Love her. Interesting that Louis Leakey actually liked that she was “unqualified” academically because it made her less biased since she wasn’t familiar with scientific works. She just always wanted to study live animals. And she got a chimpanzee toy as a kid too. Wonderful.

Very excited to start. The introduction and acknowledgments were already beautiful. We really are so closely related to these magnificent creatures. The Leakeys are also so fascinating. Their mentees include Jane Goodall and every other paleoanthropologist from that time period. She reminds me of my zoologist grandmother and I dressed up as Goodall for Career day so this is a fitting throwback to my roots for me.