bees and astrobiology reviewed

When I talk about book reviews, I have separate tags for books I review and for my books being reviewed, but this may be the first time I have to use them in the same entry, because the November issue of C&I contains both a review of my book Astrobiology (3rd ed.), and my review of the absolutely brilliant book

The mind of a bee
by Lars Chittka
Princeton University Press:

All the buzz about bees

Chemistry & Industry Volume 86, Issue 11, November 2022, Page 36

access via:

Wiley Online Library (paywalled PDF of the whole review section, ie both reviews)

SCI (premium content, ie members only)

SCI link for the Astrobiology review

Blackwells

See also my twitter thread listing books I read in 2022.

cute platypus seduces readers

If proof were needed that cute animals on the cover help to sell books, my German title "Der Kuss des Schnabeltiers" (see this blog entry from last September's release) has achieved a respectable sales result (by my very modest standards) in its first year, doing much better than the English version, which doesn't look quite as attractive. Among my German titles, only "Exzentriker des Lebens" (Life on the Edge) had a better start.

I've updated my personal sales ranking here -- guaranteed to be the only bestsellers list my books will ever feature in!

At amazon.de, the current sales ranking is 46,150, which -- again, by my modest standards -- isn't bad. Plus, there is a very enthusiastic review by a kind reader whom I don't even know.

astrobiology reviewed

Astrobiology -- a brief introduction has been reviewed in Telescopium, the magazine of the Swedish association of amateur astronomers (Svensk AmatörAstronomisk Förening, SAAF), 2008, nr3, p25.

Don't understand much of it but hope they haven't trashed the book.

I can also reveal that there will be a second edition of the book in due course, so any constructive criticism is now especially welcome and may in fact result in improvements.

platypuses reviewed

There is a new review (in German) of my book The birds, the bees, and the platypuses, in Treffpunkt Buch Plus, a shared review supplement that appears with the entire family of "in unserer Zeit" magazine, i.e. Chemie in unserer Zeit, Biologie iuZ, Physik iuZ, etc. While each of the magazines has a very modest print run, I reckon the sum total should be quite reasonable, somewhere between Spektrum der Wissenschaft and New Scientist. The review appers on page IV.

Talking about platypuses, the German version of the book, Der Kuss des Schnabeltiers, is on track for publication in September. We have a lovely cover design which I'll put online as soon as I get a jpg file.

platypuses reviewed

... pleased to report that my platypuses book is reviewed in Nachrichten aus der Chemie, No. 10, p. 1063.

Other than that, I've been very busy this week with the biographies (having left the hardest ones till last!). Normal service should resume some time next week (maybe not Monday).

platypuses reviews

A few reviews of The birds the bees and the platypuses are beginning to appear:

Highbeam.com: SciTech Book News (hope this one is ok, haven't bothered signing up for a free trial in order to read the text)

Paul Halpern's review on Amazon.com (also appeared on his MySpace blog

well, err, that's all I've spotted so far, apart from the texts by the publisher and various book chains. hope to be able to expand this list soon ...

astrobiology reviewed

A nice review of my previous book, Astrobiology, has just been brought to my attention. It's on the website of the Astrobiology Society of Britain -- didn't even know that society existed. Read the review here.