From Lucy To Language

I really adored this. A coffeetable book on paleoanthropology? It's like a dream come true. And it is gorgeous. David Brill's photographs of the skulls and other fossils have an almost 3-D feel, showing the diverse textures, colors, and patina of each specimen. Some books on early hominids have beautifully constructed artist's renditions of what these individuals might have looked like, this one leaves it to the reader's imagination.

The text is by Donald Johanson, the paleoanthropologist who discovered the famous "Lucy" skeleton. He gets pretty darn technical in his descriptions of the fossils, delving into the minutiae of teeth, mandibles, fragments of thigh bone and so on... but it's an effective reminder that the science of show more paleoanthropology requires a great deal of time-consuming, meticulous sleuth-work. I found it fascinating, but I understand that others might find it a bit of a trudge.

Final verdict: Beautiful to look at, extremely detailed. If you're looking for a more accessible or quick-reading summary of early humans and their kin, try The Smithsonian Intimate Guide to Human Origins show less

A book by the man who made one of the most lauded discoveries of the 20th century, the early hominid fossil affectionately nicknamed Lucy. Lucy helped to expand our understanding of human evolution, and in this volume, the author details what we know of human evolution up to that date. Of course, we've learned still more since 2001, but this book is a good read, and gives a great deal of valuable historical and scientific information about the species we are the most interested in - ourselves.