Jonathan Weiner's The Beak of the Finch was selected as the focus of the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads 2006. An eleven-member selection team, composed of community members, teachers, students and librarians from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area chose this 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winner Tuesday night from a group of three books, all of which centered on the theme Revolutions in Science: the people, theories, explanations and discoveries that challenged our thinking and changed the world. The Beak of the Finch traces the efforts of Peter and Rosemary Grant, two scientists whose groundbreaking research on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution involved decades of study of thousands of birds on a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos.

Written for the layperson, the book traces the Grant’s observations of Darwin’s finches and the evolutionary impact of climatic and environmental changes on this population, as the scientists obtain amazing new understanding and insights into the world around them. The Cleveland Plain Dealer describes The Beak of the Finch as “an exceptional book, artfully crafted, lucid and richly descriptive. It is the best exploration of evolution written in recent years. It conveys a powerful insight into life that helps us to understand the fundamental forces of nature and our relationship to the world about us.”

The other books under consideration were Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love, by Dava Sobel and A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, by Samantha Weinberg.

This selection will complement the 'Evolution' theme. The LSA Program at UMich has picked this theme for the next semester.

I think that this promises to be a great 'Read' this year!

Bravo! Discussion of evolution has always been controversial and emotional, but this very readable book relies on observation over argument to make its case. We can only hope that the discussions that follow will be likewise reasonable. Maybe we can start a collection and donate copies to some towns I can think of in Pennsylvania, Kansas and Georgia.

Leaving aside the curious situation you address - I only wish no one felt that science posed a threat to religious belief - what I liked best about this book was that it clarifies the process by which natural selection takes place. As I read today about the bats who are being killed by wind turbines in Appalachia, I paused to wonder whether there will emerge a surviving race of "smart" bats who will not respond to the lure.
The wonderful theme one finds here, as with many scientists is the painstaking persistence with which they pursue the truth.

I have reviewed the book on my blog.