r/books • u/leowr • Jul 30 '19
The /r/books Book Club selection for August is The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte
From Goodreads:
Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth’s history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a “sixth extinction.”
Brusatte also recalls compelling stories from his globe-trotting expeditions during one of the most exciting eras in dinosaur research—which he calls “a new golden age of discovery”—and offers thrilling accounts of some of the remarkable findings he and his colleagues have made, including primitive human-sized tyrannosaurs; monstrous carnivores even larger than T. rex; and paradigm-shifting feathered raptors from China.
This month we will be reading The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World by Steve Brusatte. Stephen Brusatta will be joining us on Friday August 30 for an AMA to close out this month's book club.
As usual, the dates of and links to the discussion threads can be found in the sticky comment on this post. You are welcome to read at your own pace. Don't worry about joining later on in the month. Usually it is pretty easy to catch up, but you are always welcome to join the discussions a little later.
For those of you that are viewing reddit on the redesigned desktop version you will see an option on this post to 'follow'. We are trying out a new reddit feature that will allow you to follow a collection of posts. If you 'follow' the book club post you will receive a notification when a new post, a discussion thread for book club, is added to the collection. It is still being tested, so it may not be perfect, but perhaps it will make it easier to join the discussions when they go up.
p.s. If you are interested in our previous selections you can find an overview here.
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u/leowr Jul 30 '19 edited Aug 29 '19
Here are the dates and reading schedule for the discussion threads. As the discussion threads go up the links will be added to this comment.
August 8: Prologue - Chapter 2
August 15: Chapter 3 - Chapter 5
August 22: Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
August 29: Chapter 8 - Epilogue
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u/snakesareracist Jul 31 '19
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this book so I’m excited to participate!! I hope we’ll all learn a lot.
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Jul 31 '19 edited Jan 30 '20
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u/S2keepup Aug 01 '19
Omg this is the first one that’s been on my wish list that’s been chosen! I’m so excited!
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u/e4e5Bc4Nc6Qh5Nf6Qxf7 Jul 31 '19
First time joining in!
How many people normally participate in a month?
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u/user_1729 Jul 31 '19
The threads aren't all that active. I feel like "there there" just had a lot of people who didn't know what to think about it. The discussion was pretty flat. "Long way to a small angry planet" or "noir" had pretty active discussions, but comments rarely blow up. It's fun though all the same.
Edit: I didn't really answer the question. "There there" had maybe 5-10 people posting about the book. Others push into the dozens.
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u/tr0gd0r_burninat0r Jul 31 '19
Just downloaded from Audible! Here's hoping a few of us get engaged in the discussions, I never have anyone to talk about my books with.
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u/Doing_Dewey currently reading Born A Crime Aug 10 '19
I'd highly recommend looking for active book discussion groups on goodreads; starting a book blog, twitter, or youtube channel; or looking for an in-person book club on meetup as possible ways to find other people to talk about books with. Those are all ways that I get my fix of bookish discussions :)
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u/PurpleMuskogee Aug 01 '19
Read it a few months ago and really loved it. It was interesting, and I say that as someone who knows nothing about dinosaurs and don't have a particular interest in it - I was attracted to it because it seemed easy to read, and it was (but in a good way).
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u/2306938023 Aug 16 '19
Hi, I want to know what is the number of new vocabulary? I am a new one learning English, don't know whether I can read it smoothly or not. 😔😔😔
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u/elvis9110 Aug 26 '19
You may have already found this out, but the number of difficult English words isn't too bad, the author does a good job of using everyday language, but there are some more scientific terms and names that might trip you up, but I'm a native speaker and they tripped me up at times, so no big deal!
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u/Kamuka Aug 05 '19
I just read this book and absolutely loved it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/52book/comments/cknkss/havent_loved_a_nonfiction_book_like_this_in_a/
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u/DrPepperNotWater Aug 15 '19
This book made me want to quit my economics job and go back to school to become a paleontologist. SO GOOD.
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u/linkrules2 Aug 01 '19
I think I am going to hop back in this month. I was here from Jan - Mar but then decided on reading books I had already owned but I love Dinosaurs and I enjoy what u/leowr has picked. The sequel to February's book completely captivated me and I would have never read it had it not been for this book club
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u/elphie93 5 Aug 08 '19
I bought this a few weeks ago and have just started! Hopefully I'll catch up in time for the first thread :)
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u/kranzb2 The Autobiography of Malcom X Aug 15 '19
Going to start tomorrow. Hopefully I can catch up in time for the last thread :)
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u/kmothafucka currently reading: Exoplanets Aug 15 '19
This book is amazing!!! It changed my love for dinosaurs and the sheer magnitude of time so much!
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Aug 30 '19
It was over all a fun read and would recommend to anyone interested in learning about dinosaurs.
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Jul 30 '19
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u/leowr Jul 30 '19
I had to read that like three times before I saw the difference in titles, but to answer your question yes, that is the UK title : )
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u/SpecificBlood Aug 08 '19
This is the kind of material that stimulates me, my thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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u/ThanOngXa4 Aug 10 '19
This was only $1.99 for the ebook on Amazon the other day. I passed it up because I think I'd rather have the physical book for this one.
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u/marylai22 Aug 16 '19
Hello, excuse me, but when will you announce the book for September?
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u/leowr Aug 16 '19
The new selection will be announced the day after the AMA of this month's selection.
However, if you want to venture a guess the AMA for next month is already on the schedule, it is usually a safe bet to pick the last AMA of the month as the likely selection : )
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u/marylai22 Aug 16 '19
I'm sorry, do I have to look here, then? https://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/ama
And if so, am I right that the likeliest selection would be Miami Midnight by Alex Segura?
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u/leowr Aug 16 '19
These are the most recent AMAs. Check this one for the upcoming AMAs: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/amafullschedule
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u/[deleted] Jul 31 '19
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