Subtitle: Science and the Case for Animal Rights

I picked up this book at a heavy discount at the American Society for Microbiology conference I attended in New Orleans last month, feeling like it was way too familiar, that I was going to get home and find out it was already on my shelves. When I got home I searched the shelves, I searched my Amazon.com wishlist, I couldn't find the book anywhere. But then yesterday I found it in my stack of review books for Bookslut. Which is good, I suppose, because it means that I've actually finished a review book. Now I just have to write the review! Hopefully it will appear in the July issue.

In the meantime, let me say that book was endlessly fascinating, if not exactly what I was expecting, and even though it fell short in a few places. If you want to read one book that will sum up evidence for intelligence in a variety of species, this book is an excellent place to start.

Okay, yes, I did get sucked into reading the rest of the series, at great cost to my productivity in all other areas of life last week. Now that I've both seen the movie and read the book, I have to say that this movie was the least faithful to the letter of the book, but the most faithful to the spirit. At least it works as a movie better than the other two, without the feeling of being greatly constrained in trying to stuff too much detail into too short a time. In the third movie, the director/screenwriter went through the book with a machete. But then, it had to be done.

I liked the introduction of Sirius Black, who was to me, the first interesting adult character in the book. And I'm liking Hermione more and more as the series progresses. I couldn't stand her in the first book. Watching her slowly unravel over the course of the book under various stresses was one of the few things that the movie really didn't capture at all.

It was also a nice touch in the movie to have the twins finish each others' sentences, something that I don't think was ever really in the book.

Oh, plus having Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman in the same movie is always a cause for much drooling. Here's hoping that Oldman signed on for the next couple of movies as well.

Though really if you're going to order the fifth book, you should get it from Canada, where the publisher printed the book on 100% recycled paper using vegatable based inks and no chlorine.

While I enjoyed the fourth book, the fifth book started to feel a little bit sloppy to me. The psychology of some of the characters, particularly Harry and Dumbeldore felt inconsistent. Some of the plot points seemed forced, as if they were just getting us where we needed to go, without thought to whether or not it made any sense. In particular, I am highly annoyed at the death at the end of the book, not only who was killed off but also the manner of the killing. I don't want to get into details because I hate spoilers (though the fact that someone dies at the end of book #5 was fairly well publicized), so I'll just say that I thought it was crap.

So if you don't like spoilers, don't read the comments to this post, because I'm sure if I get any comments at all it will be to debate that statement.

Anyway, I am now free to read non-Harry Potter related books at least until the next book comes out. Though what I really need to read is that stack of scientific articles currently sitting on my dining table...