Spineless by Juli Berwald
TITLE: Spineless: The Science of Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone
AUTHOR: Juli Berwald
DATE PUBLISHED: 2017
FORMAT: ebook
ISBN-13: 9780735211278
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"Jellyfish are an enigma. They have no centralized brain, but they see and feel and react to their environment in complex ways. They look simple, yet their propulsion systems are so advanced that engineers are just learning how to mimic them. They produce some of the deadliest toxins on the planet and still remain undeniably alluring. Long ignored by science, they may be a key to ecosystem stability."
This book is more of the author's personal memoir than any type of science book about jellyfish. Berwald's enthusiasm for jellyfish is obvious and the writing style flows nicely. She includes some incredibly interesting information about the creatures, but there is simply too much personal "stuff" about her, her kids, her husband, her travel trips and the people she meets to wade through. After a while the biographical pages became boring and wading through all the irrelevant "stuff" to get to the interesting jellyfish information became annoying. The book is also disappointing in terms of illustrations, diagrams and/or photographs.
If you are looking for actual science about jellyfish, try the wikipedia entry. If you like biography with some interesting jellyfish information, then you might like this book.
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