I am the Skeleton in my Closet

That post title doesn't really mean anything, I just thought it sounded amusing. I haven't got a proper post today, except to say I'm not actually dead and I am planning to start posting regularly again. For one thing, I've been doing some reading towards eventually getting back into working on revising and adding illustrations to my (now rather venerable) undergrad honours thesis on North American canid bones in archaeology. I even have access to most of a coyote skeleton to help me fill in some of the carpals and tarsals that were missing from the specimens I used to make the original illustrations. And I have a few more books to refer to so I can add species I wasn't able to cover before.

A second little update tidbit: I've started working (well, so far just in my head) on a bestiary that will be illustrated with skeletons. It'll be a fine-press, hand-printed and hand-bound thing and I hope to get started on a test illustration this weekend. You can read more about that on my art/writing/living in the woods blog Anagram for Ink.

Other than that, I am full of ideas and projects and things-to-do. I have a few more great resources to blog about and link, some books to review, and I really want to do some drawings of raven bones. In other words, I'm too busy for my own good.

A Bone Book Mystery

Some time ago, while I was still an art student, I acquired a few old library sign-out cards from the old days when you had to write your name on a card when you signed out a book, and when it was returned, you'd be crossed off and the card got stowed back in its pocked in the back of the book. I guess the library was tidying up and maybe converting the last few hold-outs to the barcode system. Anyway, they tossed things in a box for students to pick through, because poor art students make art of all kinds of things. Among the ones I got (more out of nostalgia than because I thought I'd actually make anything of them) is this one:

I was intrigued by the title, I think, but the card ended up in a box of miscellaneous things and vanished from my thoughts. I found it a couple of weeks ago, when looking for something else entirely, and decided to investigate. The book is:

Title: Bare Bones: An Exploration in Art and Science
Author: either L.B. Halstead or Beverley Halstead and Jennifer Middleton (perhaps cited differently in different editions?)
Publisher and date: Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1972 and Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973.
ISBN-10: 0050025147 (not sure which edition this goes to)
ISBN-13: 9780802019714 (again, not sure which edition to goes to)
Size: unknown dimensions, 119 pages

Naturally, this sounds like it's exactly my sort of book. So, now I'm going to track down a copy (ABE lists lots; it's just a matter of deciding which one is likely to be both cheap and in good shape--if it turns out to be a really great book I may look for a pristine copy later).

Stay tuned for an update and a review once I have a copy in my eager hands.

Book Review: How to Build a Dinosaur

How to Build a Dinousaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever by Jack Horner and James Gorman. London and New York: Dutton, 2009.

There are a couple of things misleading about the title of this book. First, it's not really about how to build a dinosaur, it's about the science that has lead up to the possibility that we might someday be able to create a living dinosaur out of a bird embryo. And second, it's not really about bringing anything back from extinction, it's about using the way a growing creature's genetic code sends instructions to its cells to learn about how evolution has progressed and in the process change the development of a chicken so that it grows into something more commonly recognizable as a dinosaur (because, or course, birds are already dinosaurs). There's nothing about tinkering with the DNA itself.

That said, this is a great book, and though it's not entirely focused on bones there is more than enough cool bone science for the curious skelephile. If you're into dinosaurs (and if not, what's wrong with you?), or the evolution of birds, or if you're interested in how embryonic development makes a skeleton grow a pygostyle, say, instead of a tail, you should add this volume to your library. Jack Horner is an articulate and enthusiastic dinosaur guy, and with the help of co-author James Gorman he's written a very readable book that intelligent readers of just about any level of dinosaur knowledge can enjoy.

I would have liked to see a few more illustrations or photographs, but the lack of them isn't really a strike against the book. The most important things get visuals--I'd just have liked to have had a few more things to ponder visually.

Though this isn't a book aimed at a scholarly audience, I do think bone scholars would find a lot to like here. Plus, there are references in the back for each chapter, so the interested can pursue the scientific papers and books that inform the discussion.

I based this review on the 2009 hardcover version that I found remaindered at the local book store. I see, though, that a paperback with a different subtitle (The New Science of Reverse Evolution) came out in 2010. I've no idea if anything else changed besides the title, but if you're going to buy it full price, you might want to go for the more recent edition.
 

Book Review: Comparative Skeletal Anatomy

Comparative Skeletal Anatomy: A Photographic Atlas for Medical Examiners, Coroners, Forensic Anthropologists, and Archaeologists by Bradley J. Abrams and Pamela J. Crabtree. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press, 2008.

I have a confession to make: when I'm passionately interested in a particular subject, I treat my books on the subject as more of a collection than a library. And what I mean by that is that I have the strong, sometimes irresistible urge to buy every book on that subject, and not just the good ones. And so it is with bone books. Even when a book gets terrible reviews, I want to buy it for my collection. The good side of this tendency is that I'm never really disappointed by a lousy book--it's still a good piece for the collection. The bad side is that I waste money on books that aren't really useful.

By now you're probably expecting me to say how terrible this book is, and I'll get to that, but I should point out that it's not all bad, and there probably is an audience for whom Comparative Skeletal Anatomy will be useful. I can certainly imagine situations where photographs directly comparing human and animal bones would be handy to have. It's just too bad the photographs aren't better.

So, OK, reasons why you probably won't want to buy this book unless you collect books about bones (as opposed to having a library of carefully selected volumes):

• The photographs are terrible. I'd like to be able to say that a good deal of the problems (flatness, darkness, poor reproduction) are the fault of the book's production values and not of the photographer, but a good photographer should be able to get enough depth of field so that all parts of a bone are in sharp focus. I could overlook out-of-focus areas on something like a skull, which has considerable volume, but most elements only need a few inches. In a studio, with the right lens, there shouldn't be focus problems.
• The text is not all that useful. In a book like this, there should be arrows pointing out key similarities and differences to look for, summarized below each photograph. And the essays included are either not detailed enough, or don't seem to relate directly to the purpose of the photographs.
• The comparisons are sometimes a bit odd. While most of the photographs compare the same element between human and an animal, sometimes they show different sides (a left compared to a right, for example), sometimes the orientation of the bone is different (side view of one compared with front view of another, say), and sometimes an element is left out altogether. Some of this is no doubt due to availability of specimens, but still.

One other small nitpick--if you're going to use a hand-drawn scale, shouldn't you at least include units (inches or centimetres?), and can't you at least cut it out neatly?

I'm going to stop pointing out the negatives here, because I'm starting to feel mean. I don't regret buying Comparative Skeletal Anatomy--where else am I going to find a comparison of human and duck bones?--but I can't recommend it unless you're a collector like me. Or unless it's the only book you can find on the subject.

Migration

I just migrated this blog from WordPress, not because I don't like WordPress (it seems very nice), but because I can't use Amazon affiliates links in a free WordPress blog, but I can in a free Blogger blog. And I thought you might like to buy some of the books I mention once in a while.

Unfortunately, the comment from Aaron Elkins on the WordPress version of Osteosophy didn't migrate along with the posts. You can see it on the About page (scroll down).

Fiction for Skelephiles: Aaron Elkins

I happened across one of those donation racks of books in the mall the other day: suggested donation = $1 per book, proceeds to go to the hospital. And among all the battered romance novels and thrillers of dubious quality I found two novels by Aaron Elkins.

Elkins is one of the few mystery writers whose books I regularly look for every time I go to a used book store, and I'd given up finding any new ones. I had begun to think he'd stopped writing any in the Gideon Oliver series sometime in the late 90s. The two I found were from the 2004 and 2005, so obviously I was mistaken.

Elkins' Gideon Oliver books are about a forensic anthropologist who, in helping the FBI in a few cases, became known as "The Skeleton Detective." Most of the books are fairly short, and very readable. Though I've only read one Kathy Reichs "Temperance Brennan" novels (the first one), so I can't really judge, I find Elkins' characters and writing style much more engaging. And there's lots of great bone science in them, but presented in a generally seamless manner.

So here's the complete list of Gideon Oliver novels, in order. I've included Amazon links in case you feel like book shopping--any money I make from Amazon affiliate sales will, I solemnly swear, go into buying more bone books to review.

• Fellowship of Fear (1982) - buy from amazon
• The Dark Place (1983) - buy from amazon
• Murder in the Queen's Armes (1985) - buy from amazon
• Old Bones (1987) - buy from amazon
• Curses! (1989) - buy from amazon
• Icy Clutches (1990) - buy from amazon
• Make No Bones (1991) - buy from amazon
• Dead Men's Hearts (1994) - buy from amazon
• Twenty Blue Devils (1997) - buy from amazon
• Skeleton Dance (2000) - buy from amazon
• Good Blood (2004) - buy from amazon
• Where There's a Will (2005) - buy from amazon
• Unnatural Selection (2006) - buy from amazon
• Little Tiny Teeth (2007) - buy from amazon
• Uneasy Relations (2008) - buy from amazon
• Skull Duggery (2009) - buy from amazon

I'm reading Good Blood right now. So far I'm finding it a little slower to get into than previous Gideon Oliver books, but it's been a while since I read any. I expect things will pick up once some bones are found.