(I am 2 1/2 weeks and 17 books behind in my reviews — why do I do this to myself??)
So, this audio book is about 20 hours long. I listened to it over an entire vacation — the road trip there and back, plus all my downtime during my stay. And I listen to audio books at 1.75x speed. So yeah. It’s a looong book. But it’s totally worth it! It’s long because Zimmer researched the hell out of it, and despite a few chapters being a bit drier than others, I still felt engrossed from beginning to end.
Zimmer starts out by explaining that when his wife first found out she was pregnant, their doctor recommended they see a genetic counselor to see if the baby might be at risk for any hereditary diseases. This spun out for him into years of research about everything (and I do mean everything) involving heredity.
To start out with, our ideas and knowledge of heredity and what that word even means have changed multiple times in decades of scientific research. From Mendel’s pea plants to swab tests you can order from the internet, the science of heredity encompasses a LOT yet understands only a fraction of what’s out there. Zimmer provides examples of everything he can get his hands on — and not just the inheritance of genes. He discusses pedigrees, passing down land, case studies of family histories and the passing down of disease (these were hands down my favorite chapters — I loved the descriptions of how scientists studied families and symptoms to put a name on genetic disorders), and more than you’d ever want to know about the goddamn fruit fly.
There’s something here for everyone, and I’m particularly glad that I listened to the audio book which didn’t allow for skimming or skipping sections in the way that a hardback would. It’s really an impressive read.
