GENOME The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters

The author, a science writer rather than a scientist, uses each chromosome in the human genome as a jumping-off point for a discussion of biology, chemistry, genetics, or history. His writing style is breezy without sacrificing scientific accuracy. Thus, his book works well on audio. Simon Prebble carries its approachability even further with a narration that is engaging even when the concepts are dense and challenging. Prebble varies the pace with respect to the difficulty of the material and pauses to let especially abstruse concepts sink in. The author opens with definitions of several terms, which listeners are unlikely to remember later in the reading. But that doesn't detract from the production, and most listeners should be able to infer the meaning of words they don't understand. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2011]