Leonardo's Mountain Of Clams

Nov 13, 2024 1:37 AM

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould's writing remains the modern standard by which popular science writing is judged. Ever since the last 1970s, his monthly essay in Natural History and his full-length books have bridged the yawning gap between science and the wider culture. This fascinating new collection of essays contains some of Gould's best writing on a variety of subjects ranging from Leonardo da Vinci and Martin Luther to fossils and the history of science. As always, these essays brilliantly display his gift for colloquial and vivid explanation, and include fascinating oddities from the natural world and the printed word.

Reviews

As people are saying on Twitter, this is a really smart idea. I'm not yet convinced by 'enhanced' ebooks, but I am immediately won over by the idea of abbreviated digital books, that can condense a big book/idea into a 'brain shot'. This to me speaks to how we read digitally, in short and fast jump-shots: or at least it is how I read digitally!

—— futurebook.com

Fascinating

—— Scotsman

What makes Roth such an important novelist is the effortless way he brings together the trivial and the profoundly serious

—— Independent

A masterful performance

—— Spectator

Nemesis is an artfully constructed suspenseful novel with a cunning twist

—— J.M. Coetzee

The genius of Philip Roth...back at his imperious best in this heartbreaking tale... The eloquence of Roth's storytelling makes Nemesis one of his most haunting works

—— Daily Mail

Cantor is one of Roth's best creations and the atmosphere of terror is masterfully fashioned

—— Tibor Fischer , Sunday Telegraph

Very fine, very unsettling

—— Douglas Kennedy , The Times

A perfectly proportioned Greek tragedy played out against the background of the polio epidemic that swept Newark, New Jersey, during the summer of 1944

—— Adrian Turpin , Financial Times

Outstanding

—— Sunday Times

A 2011 favourite

—— Wendy Cope , Observer, Books of the Year

The year's most unusual travel book

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

—— Daily Telegraph

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

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