The Sibling Effect

The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal About Us by Jeffrey Kluger         Audiobook:  8hrs, 56 mins    Hardback Book:  320 pages     

A really in-depth, good book discussing the genetic make-up and psychological ties and tendencies within sibling relationships.    Gives interesting findings on studies identifying physical features that statistically have been proven to identify personal factors about a person’s gender predisposition,  how siblings even when they do not grow up together have like habits, how that psychic connection actually has been proven to exist between mothers and children, close siblings, twins, etc.    Shows features such as the child that will wear glasses/contacts in their lifetime likely starting in childhood.  Shows that siblings are the true soul mates and how that works out.   Kluger brings in points, studies, statistics from the fields of Psychology,  Science and Medicine, autobiographically sighting examples from his own life with his 3 brothers then later his half- sister and brother and how the bonds of family were there even though they didn’t meet until the half sibs. Were grown.    Talks a lot about the factors pertaining to where we are born in the birthorder of our families.     He talks about genetics and the encoding we all bear.    He talks about the effects of alcoholics, drug addicts, abuse, physical, sexual and verbal and other disorders on the siblings in families, traits that emerge and why sometimes the birth order can affect our responses to traumatic situations we find ourselves in.   He discusses incest innocent and intentional, he discusses esteem issues within families, emotional disorders and more.    Very heavy information delivered in a very down to earth, often funny but always witty and respectful on every topic covered.     Good book.    You will learn so much here you will be regaling the family at every get together with all you will learn.    Really interesting stuff here.  I do recommend this book probably no younger that teendom unless a younger person is mature, but certainly highschool up, maybe Middleschool up to infinity.   Good job, Jeffrey Kluger.

 - Shirley J.

Human Errors

Human Errors: A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes by Nathan H. Lents          Audio Book: 8 hours      Hardback Book: 256 pages        

Such a good book.   You will learn so many things you never knew before about the make-up of the human body.   Fascinating!  And Biology Professor, Nathan Lents tells all these fascinating facts in such a fun down to earth way that will have you pondering everthing about yourself from your skin to your DNA and beyond.  I love learning new things and this book is a cavalcade of new knowledge,  He discusses bones, organs, the nucleus of our cells, he goes into diseases the ones our bodies can fight pretty easily and the ones that wreak havoc on us and why.    Talk about amusing conversation – you will stun your friends and family with the facts you will pick up here.   You will come away knowing the why and the how (you already know the who, what and when) of yourself.    He discusses so many medical and evolutionary, “huhs?”  things you may have thought about but never understood.    You will come away from this read feeling like you ought to be wearing a lab coat and that you have just finished your first year of pre-med.  Man!   This guy is good.    I’m going to search for his other book and keep him on my authors I must read everything they write list.    He has the humor and presentation of Mary Roach but less graphic, although, he does tell you lots of amazing things.  I highly recommend this read!

The Forever Summer

The Forever Summer by Jamie Brenner             Audio Book: 10 hours, 54 minutes    Hardback Book:  368 pages                         

When two lawyers having a love affair that just happen to work in the same firm where fraternizing is against policy are discovered life throws a curveball to Marin Bishop.     One of the firm’s clients was a DNA testing site that she decided to be a team player and get her dna/genealogical makeup done before all the hubbub at the office.   When she received the results she found out that her lineage showed she was Portugese when she had been brought up in a wealthy white bread family of English and Irish extraction as far as she was aware.   Then a gal contacted her saying given their results and matching percentages they must be sisters.   Marin is thinking the girl is whack and that the results must be scewed somehow.   Through a chain of events they end up at a Bed and Breakfast in Provincetown, Massachusetts run by a Lesbian couple who happen to be the women’s grandparents.   The story is well told and the characters and events interesting and entertaining.    The story will draw you in and the story plays out well giving just enough all along the way to keep the reader wanting to know how it all plays out.    There is one sort of loose end (at least I thought so) but the story is well done and very visual as I pictured in my mind the locations and the happenings throughout.   Well done, Jamie Brenner.

Affinities

The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson
300 Pages

"In our rapidly-changing world of "social media", everyday people are more and more able to sort themselves into social groups based on finer and finer criteria. In the near future of Robert Charles Wilson's The Affinities , this process is supercharged by new analytic technologies--genetic, brain-mapping, behavioral. To join one of the twenty-two Affinities is to change one's life. It's like family, and more than family. Your fellow members aren't just like you, and they aren't just people who are likely to like you. They're also the people with whom you can best cooperate in all areas of life--creative, interpersonal, even financial. At loose ends both professional and personal, young Adam Fisk takes the suite of tests to see if he qualifies for any of the Affinities, and finds that he's a match for one of the largest, the one called Tau. It's utopian--at first. Problems in all areas of his life begin to simply sort themselves out, as he becomes part of a global network of people dedicated to helping one another--to helping him . But as the differing Affinities put their new powers to the test, they begin to rapidly chip away at the power of governments, of global corporations, of all the institutions of the old world. Then, with dreadful inevitability, the different Affinities begin to go to war--with one another."

An interesting concept that the writer fails to translate into a gripping book, the ending is sort of anticlimatic.

Yesterday's Kin

Yesterday's Kin by Nancy Kress
189 Pages


This short novella tells the story of Geneticist Marianne Jenner and how she is summoned by Aliens that have landed in New York. The aliens had arrived several months earlier but no one knew why.  It is later explained that the planet will move through a virus cloud that could kill everyone on Earth and the aliens are interested in helping. 
There is only 10 months to prevent a disaster.

 A so so story.  Not highly recommended.