Rating: 
Summary: Darwin Doesn't Stand a Chance
Review: Let's agree on one thing: Evolution proposes that one species originates from another species as it goes through genetic changes in response to environmental changes."The Beak of the Finch" claims to show this in real life by relying on observations of moths, fish, bacteria, and especially the finches of the Galapagos Islands. Each example, however, shows that the species in the long run remain the same or nearly so. The finch study, which focused on beak size, showed that the beak size of finches remained the same after 25 years, though there were some population cycles paralelling El Nino cycles. The conclusion? "Fortis [the finch] has done a lot of evolving just to stay in place!" (p. 192, hardcover) They change without changing? Right! Creationists should love this book. If all evolutionary theory sounds this illogical, Darwin doesn't stand a chance. At another point the book tells us that after Newton's Principia religion became irrelevant--if that is so, why did Newton himself devote most of his life after writing Principia to studies of theology? Bogus logic + bogus history = bogus thesis.
Rating: 
Summary: The Beak of the Finch
Review: Overall I liked this book. It really helped me to understand how natural selection works. The best parts of the book were when the author described the Grants on Daphne Major, their main island of study. This book was very clear and I felt it put natural selection and evolution into terms everyone could understand. Sometimes, though, I felt that the book was repeating itself. Also the extra examples of evolution/natural selection, like Dolph's experiment with sticklebacks of British Columbia seemed to drag on longer than necessary. This book was not a quick read and I had a hard time getting through it at times, but the ideas this book presented were really neat. I especially liked the fact that the larger the space of time you look at a species the less natural selection/evolution you'll see, but the smalller the amount of time the more natural selection you'll see.
Rating: 
Summary: An Informative Story of the Forces Behind Life
Review: The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner is a very mind-expanding, scientific, yet descriptive and intriguing book. It presents evidence behind the theory of evolution in an easy-to-understand format. It summarizes a twenty-year study of Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands. It also incorperates Darwin's life and research into the finch study by Rosemary and Peter Grant. The descriptions and diverse experiments explained make this Pulitzer Prize-winning book very enjoyable to read. However, there are parts where there is too much repetition of ideas. There are also parts in which Weiner unneccessarily delves into religious beliefs and dismisses them, though they often have nothing to do with evolution, the topic of his book. Overall, the book is well-written, informative, and interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Beak of the Finch
Review: The Beak of the Finch, while being very informative for scientific reasons, did not flow very well as a story. The story starts out as an adventure with the Grant's in the Galapagos Islands. The impression was that it was to be a novel which tells a story, while in reality it was full of boring information about the finch. I give the book two stars for the experiments and evolution theories, but as a story it was not flowing. Overall, I did not enjoy the novel due to the falsehood of the story.
Rating:
Summary: interesting, instructive, good science, =nice book
Review: The book is the convergence of three nice but unfortunately rare events:
first, a well written and interesting book.
second, good structured and well executed science.
third, the rarest of the three, good explanation at the layman's level of specific science and it's wider implications.The book is primarily about the specific research done on Daphne Major, a small uninhabited island in the Galapagos Islands, by Peter and Rosemary Grant, concerning the measurements of beaks of Darwin's finches. Expertly woven into this discussion is a good understanding of evolutionary processes, a nice description of how science really works and why, along with enough human interest that it captivates the reader's interest and rightfully garnered the book a pulitzer prize. It's structure is primarily chronological as we are introduced to the Grant's now 20 years plus research project, the people who did it and the science underlying the effort. Other research is introduced as necessary to make or expand the point, so you learn a little about guppies, Darwin's particular studies, Hawaiian fruit flies, sticklebacks in BC; but mostly the details are taken from, are about the 13 species of Darwin's finches, what they eat, and the last 20 years of weather on these islands described as Nature's own biological laboratory: unique, simple enough to study, yet persuasive in the theories formed by people enchanted by their biological diversity stemming from just a few individuals lucky enough to cross the Pacific from South America. The take home message is simple enough. Through 20 generations of finches, data has been carefully collected concerning the beaks, the food, the offspring, the blood and from this mass of data has emerged the proof that populations evolve in response to their environment; that is, natural selection(NS) is seen, not just in the propositions concerning fossils, but in the time frame of a PhD thesis, evolution happens. Like an often heard mantra, the phrase, "speciation has never been seen to occur" emerges from the writings of the Young Earth Creationists(YEC). This book is a direct reply to this idea, look and listen the author (and the Grants) seem to say to their most vocal opponents, evolution and NS happen all around us, it is just too complex to be clearly proven outside of the unique environment of the Galapagos. If you have any interest in the topic of creation-evolution-design this ought to be one of the first 10 books on your to-be-read list.
thanks for reading this short review.
richard williams
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant, simply brilliant.
Review: The book was good in that it went through the different processes of evolustion. It also explained very well how the beak of the finch signifys the changes in evolution. As well as going over ow the study of evolution has continued through today on Galapagos. It went throught individual proccesses of evolution such as meeting habits, competition, and how the best adapted for the enviroment survive(surival of the fittest). It goes in depth on how thinkgs like mating habits can be a major factor in micro evolution of organisms. Overall it was a good book and it is very efficeint in explaining the mechanism and ideas behind evolution while fitting into Darwin's adventure and current studies.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening
Review: The first portion of this book is an interesting account of the fruits of 20 tedious years of biology fieldwork with the Galapagos finches. But the second part is scary, documenting the evolution of bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics, insects to become resistant to every new kind of pesticide (they all laugh at DDT now), and viruses such as AIDS to become resistant to any and all human tricks. Weiner does not try to inject artificial drama into his book by writing too much about the personalities of the scientists. And there aren't any arch villains. So don't try to read this when you're distracted or tired.
Rating:
Summary: The proof of evolution happening right in front of us
Review: The first third of this book, describing the research of Peter and Rosemary Grant on the "Darwin's Finches" on the island of Daphne Major, is well worthy of the Pulizer Prize that this book earned. The Grants, by cataloguing every finch (including beak measurements in three dimensions, as well as wing-span and weight) on the small island, were able to show the world that natural selection can indeed by seen in our lifetimes and proven scientifically through hypotheses and validation. It is a major achievement in evolutionary studies and deserves to be more widely known. Weiner continues his book beyond the Grant's research, describing the work of evolutionary biologists who are attempting to make the next breakthrough as well-- to show a new species being born, a true "origin" of species--is not quite as logical or well-presented, likely caused by the myriad different ways in which today's scientists are attempting to make this discovery. In the end, Weiner pulls his theme together, and brings back how the Grants, their research assistants and many associates continue to build upon their earlier work with new techniques, and what they may be able to tell the world next. This book had an additional bonus for us--half of the drawings included in the book were done by the youngest of the Grants' two daughters, Thalia, who happened to be the wife of our tour group leader, Greg Estes, and was able to join us on our trip. A natural birder, and an expert on the Galapagos since she had been coming to the islands since she was five, Thalia and Greg are now working on several projects involving the Galapagos islands, their history and their fauna. Weiner's book calls out for a sequel in a few years, and I wouldn't be surprised if Thalia's name isn't associated with it in some way.
Rating:
Summary: Competently written, excellent research, well structured
Review: The main complaint I have about the book is a matter of individual taste: the efforts to lend personal colour to the characters are ham-fisted, Reader's Digesty, and generally out of line with the rest of the book's quality. I have no objection to the personal touch in dealing with the work of researchers, in fact I actively enjoy it, but it requires a delicate touch and in this book it does not get it. For instance, I hardly could care less what brand of Mac adorns whose desk, whether edible or computational, and don't like having to wade through that sort of detail to get at the beef. In every other respect the book is a fine piece of work, valuable and entertaining. The treatment of the themes, the subjects and the material is well balanced. Weiner structures the subject and the contexts competently and coherently. The book obviously took a large helping of hard work to write and to research. In spite of the title, the Finches, though they are the main protagonists and endearing to boot, do not obscure the main theme, which is at all times the effect and mechanism of natural selection in evolution. Apart from the grounds for my one opening complaint, the book is well, clearly and pleasantly written. I strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in biology, professional or not. I suspect that many readers will wonder what I was grousing about. And in case anyone with an even greater distaste for those passages feels tempted to drop the book in irritation, I urge them to grit their teeth, skim the offending bits and bear it. There is plenty of Good Stuff to compensate for the annoyance, and I cannot think of any other book which so accessibly, lucidly and persuasively covers the same material.
Rating:
Summary: Darwin a la Weiner
Review: The style of this book is very novelistic. If you like non-fiction works to be just-the-facts-ma'am without the literary trappings, this may not be the book for you. But if you like your facts served with a story (and don't we all), this is a fabulous find. Weiner tells the story of Peter and Rosemary Grant, who have spent years researching Darwin's Finches on the Galapagos Islands. He not only covers the basics of evolutionary theory well, but he also gives an enlightening and detailed account of what it is like to do field research, and explores several aspects of how evolution is both thought about and studied. His writing is easy to read and enjoyable, for scientists and non-scientists alike. Many of the chapters could be read as a separate essay, although there is a consistent thread of thought. This is one of my favorite non-fiction books. It treats an important scientific idea without a lot of technical jargon or intellectual arrogance.
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