Bedside Table: Read and relax. This book offers a fascinating escape
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Cover courtesy of William Morrow
“My perfect pandemic book is ‘Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind,’ by Kermit Pattison. It is popular science/natural history at its finest. Cantankerous and feuding paleoanthropologists work in east Africa with the most fragile and hard-to-find evidence imaginable: ancient fossils that contain clues to human evolution. Pattinson is a master at drawing the character portraits of these fascinating and brilliant explorer-scientists while also explaining the delicate science to this non-scientist reader. It’s a page turner of geology, genomics, professional jealousies, academic publishing, ethnic conflict and skeletal reconstruction.