Rudderless

It’s strange how often I find commonalities in the unrelated books I end up reading. I’m gonna review The Gift of Fear here in a bit, and there’s a bit in the last quarter of the book where De Becker writes about creating the MOSAIC tool for the FBI. As I read that I was thinking “didn’t he just talk about this” before I realized another book had a chapter about MOSAIC being used to find a kidnapping victim.

Well, I bought this months before Shucked, but finished them back to back, which might explain why I found so much overlap in the books.  They’re both about aquatic animals juxtaposed with the author’s growth and development, but they both suffer from a lack of an arc. I didn’t really get a sense for how either author ended up where they were, and both books sort of just meander along without a sense of purpose.

That said, this book had quite a bit more science behind it, which was appreciated, and I’m always happy to learn about octopuses even if it was only a chapter’s worth.  The book is 80% jellyfish, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, a fact I learned on Reddit today was “stickier” than anything in the entire book.

So why did I get this book? Ya’ll already know. I’m an idiot. The cover was pretty and it was remaindered. Saw it in Seattle at the aquarium and was entranced by the cover art, found it in the bargain pile at the local bookshop and the rest was (repeated idiotic) history. Three stars. It aiight.