california | The Sizzle in Science

What’s in this blog

Discover the sizzle in science. It's not that stuff that's always for the smart kids. It's the need to know. The passion for understanding. The absolute belief that for every problem, there is a solution. The creative mind seeking truth in a world of mystery. The quest for the Holy Grail.

That's science.

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Featured Articles

Books I’m Reading

Great Science Books

Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant

Geology Underfoot in Southern California

The Land's Wild Music: Encounters with Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen, Terry Tempest William, and James Galvin

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are

The Runaway Brain: The Evolution of Human Uniqueness

The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body

The Wildlife of Southern Africa: A Field Guide to the Animal and Plants of the Region

The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography

Jacqui's favorite books »
Share book reviews and ratings with Jacqui, and even join a book club on Goodreads.

Fact and Fiction about Early Man

The Old Way: A Story of the First People October 4, 2017
author: Elizabeth Marshall Thomas name: Jacqui average rating: 4.19 book published: 2006 rating: 5 read at: 2017/10/04 date added: 2017/10/04 shelves: history, early-man review: […]
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Ki'ti's Story, 75,000 BC December 11, 2016
author: Bonnye Matthews name: Jacqui average rating: 4.33 book published: 2012 rating: 5 read at: 2016/12/11 date added: 2016/12/11 shelves: early-man review: […]
Bonnye Matthews
Meeting Prehistoric Man October 4, 2014
author: GHR von Koenigswald name: Jacqui average rating: 4.00 book published: 1492 rating: 5 read at: 2014/10/04 date added: 2014/10/04 shelves: early-man review: Meeting Prehistoric Man by GHR Von Koenigswald is a journey throughout the world in discovery of early man as paleoanthropologists understood him during VonKoenigswald's time, circa 1950' […]
GHR von Koenigswald
Letters from the Field, 1925-1975 September 13, 2014
author: Margaret Mead name: Jacqui average rating: 4.10 book published: 1977 rating: 5 read at: 2014/09/13 date added: 2014/09/13 shelves: early-man review: If you didn't read my last week's post, you may wonder why I am so excited about Margaret Mead's eye-opening book, Letters From the Field. Even if you read me last week, you may wonder--I […]
Margaret Mead
The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention January 12, 2014
author: Guy Deutscher name: Jacqui average rating: 4.17 book published: 2005 rating: 3 read at: date added: 2014/01/12 shelves: early-man, research review: Dr. Deutscher has done a scholarly, thorough discussion on the roots of language, but I believe he started too late in time. I'm of the persuasion that language involves more than the spoken word. I […]
Guy Deutscher
She Who remembers November 3, 2013
author: Linda Lay Shuler name: Jacqui average rating: 4.11 book published: 1988 rating: 4 read at: date added: 2013/11/03 shelves: early-man review: […]
Linda Lay Shuler
The Runaway Brain: The Evolution Of Human Uniqueness July 25, 2011
author: Christopher Wills name: Jacqui average rating: 4.14 book published: 1993 rating: 5 read at: date added: 2011/07/24 shelves: science, early-man review: In my lifelong effort to understand what makes us human, I long ago arrived at the lynchpin to that discussion: our brain. Even though bipedalism preceded big brains, and we couldn't be who we are […]
Christopher Wills
The Origin Of Humankind July 25, 2011
author: Richard E. Leakey name: Jacqui average rating: 3.96 book published: 1981 rating: 5 read at: date added: 2011/07/24 shelves: early-man, history review: If you're interested in man's roots, there are several authors you must read: Birute Galdikas Dian Fosse Donald Johanson GHR Von Koenigsman Glen Isaacs Jared Diamond Ian Tattersell Lev Vygots […]
Richard E. Leakey
Lucy: the beginnings of humankind July 24, 2011
author: Donald C. Johanson name: Jacqui average rating: 4.11 book published: 1981 rating: 5 read at: date added: 2011/07/24 shelves: early-man, science review: I read this book when I was writing a paleo-historic drama of the life of earliest man. My characters were Homo habilines, but they cohabited Africa with Australopithecines, so to understand the co-st […]
Donald C. Johanson
Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe July 24, 2011
author: Jane Goodall name: Jacqui average rating: 4.25 book published: 1990 rating: 5 read at: date added: 2011/07/24 shelves: early-man, science review: I have read every book that Jane Goodall wrote. She has an easy-going writing style that shares scientific principals easily with the layman. Probably because when she started, she was little more than a no […]
Jane Goodall