Happy Atheist Forum

Dead Men Do Tell Tales: the strange and fascinating cases of a forensic anthropologist, by William R. Maples.  Revists some of Dr. Maples strangest, most interesting and horrific investigations, including the cases of conquistador Pizarro and Vietnam MIAs to the deaths of President Taylor and the family of Czar Nicholas II.

Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin, by Robert M. Hazen.  Life on Earth arose nearly 4 billion years ago, bursting forth from air, water, and rock. Though the process obeyed all the rules of chemistry and physics, the details of that original event pose as deep a mystery as any facing science.

The Invention of Nature, by Andrea Wulf.  The forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.

Monster of God, by David Quammen.  The significance of alpha predators (specifically, in this book, the Asiatic lion, crocodiles, tigers and brown bears) and the humans who live alongside them. 

The Sky's the Limit, by Anna Magnusson.  In 2004, Vicky Jack completed the Seven Summits - the highest mountains in each of the seven continents. Whilst pursuing her climbing dream, she also carried on a high-flying career. This book tells her story.

Another tie.  Well, I have to say that as much as I want to start moving some of the older books off the list, I really really want to read about the forensic cases.

Davin, you want to make an argument for The Invention of Nature?

Nah, not right now, I don't mind since I'll get around to it eventually. Dead Men Do Tell Tales should be good.

I know that I didn't get a chance to participate in the October book club (those pesky house fires), but the Dead Men do Tell Tales sounds super interesting

Dead Men it is!

Went old school and bought a used paperback that just arrived yesterday. Can't wait to get started

Finished yesterday.  That chapter on murdered children was pretty rough sledding, but otherwise some interesting stuff on the dead and their bones.  The chapter on the Romanovs was probably my favorite, for the mix of history and science.  Weirdly, I can't think of much to write about this book.

I haven't had time to read it yet. But I'm almost done with NaNoWriMo so I'll get to that once I get 50k words written.

Quote from: Davin on November 20, 2019, 09:26:05 PM
I haven't had time to read it yet. But I'm almost done with NaNoWriMo so I'll get to that once I get 50k words written.

OK, I can't stand the curiosity any more -- you have to explain that last bit.

Buddy, did you get time to read Dead Men?

November is National Novel Writing Month (https://nanowrimo.org/) where people will write a novel of at least 50k words. The goal is to get a rough draft of a novel done. There's more stuff now, but that's the base of it.

I got to 50k on Saturday, my pace was about 2200 words a day, which was about 1100 words an hour. I've done it five times now, the first time I tried I failed. The next time I got the word count, but the book is terrible. The next time the book was less terrible. Then again a little better. This time is my best, but it's not that great. So I'm getting a little better each year.

Quote from: Sandra Craft on November 22, 2019, 11:11:41 PM

Quote from: Davin on November 20, 2019, 09:26:05 PM
I haven't had time to read it yet. But I'm almost done with NaNoWriMo so I'll get to that once I get 50k words written.

OK, I can't stand the curiosity any more -- you have to explain that last bit.

Buddy, did you get time to read Dead Men?

I'm about halfway done. I really like it so far. The chapters on how he became a forensic anthropologist were very interesting. When I finish the book I kind of want to do some research and see what's changed with forensic processes since the book has been written

I forgot to come back here after I finished the book. I liked the first half of the book more than the second half. The voice of the author grated on me in the second half. However the Romanov investigation was a good read in the second half. Over all I enjoyed the book, it was very interesting and a good read.

Quote from: Davin on December 12, 2019, 02:19:14 PM
I liked the first half of the book more than the second half. The voice of the author grated on me in the second half.

That may have been why I couldn't think of more to write about it, despite finding the subject fascinating.  By the end of the book I'd taken a real distaste to Maples.