Customer Reviews

The Way Life Works: The Science Lover's Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops, Reproduces, and Gets Along

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Style is awesome!. The graphics and analogies are so well done that almost anybody without previous biology knowledge can get the full picture of the basics (and even some level of detail) of molecular and cell biology after reading this book. The level of abstraction is so good that sometimes I had to stop to think about what I read to get the real dimension that the writers wanted to expossed. It is a real master piece describing life (as life and not as an specific species) in its full dimension. Congrats to the authors!, I have read so many books, but I can't remember one with such an in depth, simply and universal style. That book is worth far more than the $20 I paid for it.

I've just terminated to read this book, and I think the authors have done a fantastic job. Explaining major biology themes in such a pleasant way is really wonderful. It's difficult to imagine a better introduction to biology !

The book explains what is life, how it produces energy, what is genetics,... Even evolution is covered in a very clear manner. Latest theories and thoughts about these topics are included, for example about the origin of life.

I have read some books on biology (I'm a mechanical engineer), and I think this one is the best to begin with. It's a great refreshing to see all these beautiful drawings (the work of Bert Dodson is great), and to read a text so sharp and clear (thanks to Mahlon Hoagland) !

A vital book for everybody amazed by life and biology, who feels some gap in his/her knowledge about the subject.

As soon as I browsed through this book at a local bookstore, I knew I had to have it. For visual thinkers, this book is a must. I've read about many biological processes for years but when I read this book I constantly find myself saying, "Aha! So that's what's happening." Very educational and enjoyable to say the least. It deserves 10 stars.

The illustrations and text are so clear at explaining the concepts of biology that I recommend this book to everyone I know with a high school kid. I used this as my basic text for a class for homeschoolers on cell biology. My little geek daughter has read and reread this book from the age of 8 or 9, and at the age of 12 (with some other study) got a 750 on the SAT II Biology test. Hoaglund really knows how to explain life science. I especially recommend the section explaining how life staves off entropy to allow building of complexity. I learned more from this little book than from high school Biology.

This book is a masterpiece. It opens up your eyes and your imagination in such a fation, you will understand many concepts that otherwise an ordinary person like myself couldnt put together sciencewise. Thanks so much to the Authors. Big talent.

Not since Dr. Suess has someone managed to pack so much wisdom into an illustrated book. What McCaully's "The way THINGS work" did for the mechanical, this does for the NATURAL world: bring elegent, complex processes into focus with humor, simplicity and absolute love for the topic. Should be required reading for high school and college biology students. They'd learn more and LOVE more. The artist and author must have been telepathic to mesh together as well as thay did.

A great book to read with wonderful cartoon illustrations. As a high school science teacher, I've also found this book invaluable for teaching hard to grasp concepts.

As Exploring the way life works this book offers a very intersting view of life principles and a wonderful presentation to teach kids. Nice to have as reference book at biology class.

This book gave me far and away a much better education in the biological sciences than my 4 years as a pre-medical student at Duke University ever did. Awesome book.

My main complaint about the paperback edition is that they don't use the cover design that was on the original hardcover edition of this book when it first came out. This new design, it just plain sucks. It is plain and boring, and I hate it.

Really easy to read and exceptionally well done. After reading this, I am taking on more complex books in microbiology.