Books and Me

by Robert Plomin (2018) Oh boy is it a relief to get this one done!  It isn't so much the message - I can't possibly offer a reasonable take on that, given my very tenuous grasp of genetics, though plenty of others have been critical . Rather it is the seemingly endless repetition of the same or (at least very similar) argument, ie: that we are largely a product of a massive number of genes that add tiny but multiple effects.  OK, this seems like a big theme, but believe me, you have got the message pretty early on, and the rest of the book is a series of iterations of this central idea.  It hardly ever lets go.  Admittedly there is a chapter towards the end where Plomin discusses the ethical and practical implications of this evidence, for which one is phenomenally grateful as it does offer a bit of variety, but just as you limp over the finishing line of what you may reasonably assume is the last chapter, up pops an epilogue to tell you the whole thing all ov...

By Dr. Giles Yeo (2018) This is a thoroughly useful book, describing what we currently know about how genes influence obesity.  It also makes it quite clear that we still need to know a lot more but, as far as it goes, it is very handy to know where we're at at the moment, at the very least so that we don't continue to make bad dietary choices.  And making a mess of dietary choices we clearly do!  Giles does his best to sort the wheat from the chaff with the best arguments and explanations to date: various cleanses, the GOOP madness, gluten free diets and many others come under the spot light and shrivel under the scrutiny. The only quibble: the tone is somehow a bit wobbly, as if English isn't actually the author's first language, or as if he would far rather be writing a scientific paper and dumbing down is desperately counter-intuitive.  However, the effect is endearing rather than annoying and certainly doesn't detract from the "must read" natur...