Is Elon Musk the new Steve Jobs? This is one of many questions this excellent biography poses

For anyone interested in technology, entrepreneurship or the price of greatness, Ashlee Vance's new book is a tremendous look into arguably the world's most important entrepreneur. Vance paints an unforgettable picture of Musk's unique personality, insatiable drive and ability to thrive through hardship. The book bursts with telling anecdotes and quotes that illuminate who Musk is

Exhaustively reported . . . this work will likely serve as the definitive account of a man whom so far we've seen mostly through caricature. By the final pages, too, any reader will sense the need to put comparisons to Steve Jobs aside. Give Musk credit. There is no one like him

A book that is smart, light on its feet and possesses a crunchy thoroughness. . . . Mr Vance delivers a well-calibrated portrait of Mr Musk, so that we comprehend both his friends and his enemies. It's a book with many ancillary pleasures. Mr Vance brings us up to date on the states of green energy and space launches. He also veers away from his subject just often enough, offering profiles of the frequently brilliant people who work alongside Mr Musk. The best thing Mr Vance does in this book, though, is tell Mr Musk's story simply and well

Ashlee Vance’s stellar biography captures Musk’s remarkable life story and irrepressible spirit

This is an entertaining read for anybody who wants to get into the mind of this hyperactive entrepreneur who bounces between being eccentric, obnoxious and a genius.

Ashlee Vance’s portrait of Elon Musk at mid-life is an essential read. You might think you know this story: how a South African with a big vision ended up creating and running the first successful private space concern (SpaceX) and the first profitable electric car company, with the biggest US solar installer (SolarCity) as a side project. But what emerges is a riveting portrait of Silicon Valley’s most driven entrepreneur since Steve Jobs, personal flaws and all.

This is the definitive look at the man who may have the biggest impact on the human race.

Fascinating and superbly researched

This rather beautiful book is very much in the mould of the new nature writing, but it’s also wondrously inspiring.

[John Lewis-Stempel] writes in a mood of wistful regret, intriguingly melding history with memoir, rich description with his own enthusiasm to rekindle what has been lost, leaving the reader with a greater understanding of what might lie on the other side of the hedge.

There’s a quiet ferocity running through [The Running Hare], powerful yet subtle, refreshingly practical and quotidian … There is a raw honesty to this book.

A keen observer of the natural world, Lewis-Stempel's writing is quietly passionate, intensely descriptive and beautifully detailed as he juxtaposes seemingly antithetical ideas – wildlife and farming, and hares and humans. Throughout the book, the author skilfully interweaves his life story and the history of farming into the story of this project. This book is deeply moving and ultimately, hopeful.

Even better than Meadowland, The Running Hare is funny, erudite and a delight from start to finish. John Lewis-Stempel knows the land, loves it – and works it. He is a farmer, muddy-booted and diligent, who effortlessly recreates on the page the intimacy with the natural world that his daily rounds bring. But farming is also the enemy in his piece – the farming of the mega-tractor and the sprayer, the farming that has, during his lifetime, quietly destroyed the greater part of the country's flora and birdlife. The Running Hare is an important book, as richly layered and rewarding as the soil of an unimproved field.

Editor's Choice, Natural History: the renowned nature writer explores the natural histories of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland ... If you'll forgive the pun, there's a down to earth quality to his nature writing that I find particularly appealing.

Stempel's writing is quietly passionate, intensely descriptive and beautifully detailed. This book deeply moving and ultimately, hopeful ... One of the ten best conservation and environment books of 2016

Minute detail, lovingly observed and subtly expressed, allied to the broader picture of the harm we are doing to our countryside through intensive farming, and the good that we could be doing if we worked with nature instead of against it. I love the earthiness of John Lewis-Stempel's writing - for example, his frustration at the job of binding straw into sheaves by hand: 'The straw scratches, the nettles sting, the thistles prickle. Hand-binding is one of those impossible rural jobs which require gloves, though the self-same gloves prevent the very nimbleness needed.' That sentence could not have been written by some fine-fingered fellow simpering by the hedge over a notebook. The author has seen it, done it, sweated it, and has earned the right to write about it with straw-cut fingers and itchy palms. Brilliant stuff.

A fine writer with wonderful descriptive skills and a winning sense of humor ... Thus, this is a book for the localist, the agrarian, the nature-lover—the conservative who’s truly interested in conserving.

A beautifully written paean to the countryside in all its rich diversity

A sweeping history of genetic theory and a considered look at where it might lead us in the future.

Dazzling... There is nothing about Gene that is less than nuanced.

A magnificent synthesis of the science of life, and forces all to confront the essence of that science as well as the ethical and philosophical challenges to our conception of what constitutes being human

Wise and lucid...excellent

A tourist guide to the new Africa, the human genome… Mukherjee gives an exhaustive account of the development of the modern science of inheritance… Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity’

Written with the rollicking enthusiasm of sports journalism… Mukherjee has an ear for his subject’s rhetorical brilliance.

Meticulous… Carefully constructed, deliberate prose.

Makes a compelling case that our ability to harness the medical benefits of genomic science while avoiding its hazards promises to be among the defining challenges of the 21st century.

Mukherjee has done readers an admirable service, by turning one of the most important scientific sagas – arguably the most important – in history into a tale that is too good not to know

Rather wonderful book… All-encompassing and eye-opening and moving and amusing, at times, and endlessly fascinating and truly brilliant… As long as intelligent, empathetic, thoughtful people like himself are to the forefront, it should turn out alright.

An accessible and beautifully written overview of the complex field of genetics by the Indian-born doctor. It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

Mukherjee views his subject panoptically from a great and clarifying height, yet also intimately.

Dr Mukherjee uses personal experience to particularly good effect… He writes tenderly.

[A] Magisterial historical survey.

Mukherjee has a gift for making gripping, vivid narrative out of the cataclysmic but largely invisible drama of molecular biology.

Compelling

Fascinating, complex and accessible.

Intimate, insider’s account of the role that genetics.

A tourist guide to the twenty-first century’s uncharted continent, the human genome... Gives a full and lively account of the development of the subject... He has talked to many of the main players and gives deep insights into their moments of discovery... Mukherjee does a good job of cutting away the web of ambiguity and complexity that scientists have woven.

A daring and highly personal voyage into the future of genetic research

The Gene’s dominant traits are historical breadth, clinical compassion, and Mukherjee’s characteristic graceful style… Mukherjee writes eloquently

A fine read, with many fine stories.

[It is] accessible and beautifully written… It’s compellingly personal and provocative, too.

The Gene is a staggeringly impressive piece of writing… [It] takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of genetics… Written with a clarity that brings the most complex concepts to life… An accessible, gripping and thought-provoking read. In short, this book is a masterpiece and you should read it.

An essential read.

Inspiring and tremendously evocative

A fascinating read

You may think this book is not for you. Thing again… My only caution would be not to recommend it to too many people… So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire…or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling and definitely my book of the year.

An epic 150-year, 500-plus page journey of genetic discovery… [An] excellent and authoritative account.

This is a brilliantly readable celebration of the science and scientists who have transformed out understanding of what it means to be human.

The Gene is a truly impressive achievement… Mukherjee has created a masterwork of the history of the gene and its study. In this popular science book, scientist and non-scientist readers alike will feel they have a true understanding of the history, biology and ethics of genetics.

He deftly lays out a history of the gene… One of the great science books of the decade with an engagingly enthusiastic personality at its heart.

[A]superbly written tale.

Mukherjee writes with clarity and passion… This should prove a fascinating read for anyone interested in understanding how far the study of the gene has taken us, particularly with respect to medicine, and where the future may lie.

Ambitious and honest, The Gene sheds light on both our past and future.

Mukherjee’s text brims with potential… Surely The Gene has to be the new bible for a new generation of aspiring biologists, biochemists and, frankly, thinking people? So whether you’re a teacher or parent attempting to inspire a reluctant teen to get excited about science, or you simply want an erudite anecdote, this book is for you. It’s a dazzling example of scientific story-telling, and definitely my book of the year.

If you want a good overview of the history of the gene, you can’t go wrong starting here.

A provocative and engaging [read].

Mukherjee’s prose tends to be lavish, but this befits the weighty topic, and his explanatory style is clear yet enveloping… Compelling scientific and medical storytelling… A spectacular effort from an author I hopes has plenty more tales to tell.

An essential guide to biology.

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene