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Rating: 
Summary: Interesting (but not very)
Review: After reading Relic again, I thought I'd give this a try. As it turns out, this book is informative, and shows where Richard got some of his ideas. The other side is that it isn't terribly interesting. I would reccomend it if you liked Relic and thought the Museum was interesting enough to learn more about.
Rating: 
Summary: You don't have to love dinosaurs to enjoy this book
Review: More than a book about a museum, Dinosaurs in the Attic is a survey of the last two centuries' at times predatory and rapacious drive to collect. I read this book years ago, and am still recommending it to people as one of the most interesting and enjoyable books I've ever read. The story telling is marvelous and the insights about the museum fascinating.
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Summary: Behind Closed Doors at the Museum
Review: This is a fun history of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. If you're fan of the museum, you'll certainly appreciate this book. It's full of tales of scientific expeditions and the often controversial and eccentric characters who trekked all over the world to create the museum's collection. The author does a great job of explaining the 19th century American values that created public science museums, which were part schoolhouse and part carnival sideshow. It will give you an appreciation of, and a healthy skepticism for, the talent, folly, and sacrifice that go into any museum.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Until I read this history of the American Museum of Natural History and the stories of its great collections, I had little desire to visit NYC. While I thought "Relic" (the book AND the film) was a piece of junk, this book definitely made me travel to New York JUST to see the items described in this book. This was the first account I read of the tales of rival dinosaur hunters Marsh and Cope (now there is a film story). The hundreds of anecdotes such as the bone stripping beetles made it a fascinating read. I recommend it to anyone interested in the story of the finest collection of natural history artifacts on earth.
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Summary: Engrossing, hilarious (sometimes) human nature book
Review: You wouldn't think of museums as providing the stuff for comedians, but I can see not enough people know about what actually goes on in these collosal monuments to human curiosity!
I came to this book by way of mystery writers (Preston and Child--Relic and Fairchild---The Bone Vault). So thanks guys for recommending this nonfiction read! Almost as quickly read as my mysteries.The need for so many people to collect items, animals and even humans (would someone please stomp on Admiral Peary's grave for a while)! Geez. You wouldn't think people would be so obtuse as to not realize that living, breathing human beings do not belong in museums as specimens of a tribe or culture we do not know. But obviously the wealthy who often did the collecting, or those 'explorers' who put fame and glory above compassion had a problem with understanding basic human rights. And yes, if tribes ask for their ancestors back, the bones should be returned and buried. How would we all feel if someone went and dug up our grandparents and put their skeletons on display without concern for our need to respect them? You don't see museum guys going to dig up white American or English cemetary plots, do you? Okay, off the soapbox. A fun read, well-written, well-researched. Preston went on to write several books using the museums as a somewhat creepy place, and frankly after reading this and other books, I don't think I'd want to be locked in the American Museum of Natural History. Pretty sure I'd freak out...too much past with too many ghosts attached to it. Besides, this place sounds like a mausoleum. Having just returned from visiting the Mutter Medical Museum in Philly with its assortment of bones, oddly shaped fetuses and a variety of other things like hands floating in some type of suspension fluid showing small pox at its worse...yikes, I don't know how much of this stuff I could take, and I took medical classes in the Morgue! The history of the museum is fascinating...the fact that we are able to see so little of this makes me yearn to do exploring down in the 'tombs' and hallways in the presence of company and full daylight, thank you. Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh
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