Category Archives: Books

My book‘s been out for a few months now, so I thought I’d share a couple of my favourite reviews so far!

Here’s a video review from Amanda, aka @TangibleAnsible, from the “A Scientist Reads” YouTube channel:

The second review is from The Epigenetics Literacy Project, a website that connects journalists and the public to the latest epigenetics news:

Many do not realize or appreciate the awkward phase epigenetics is in and thus they are prone to misunderstanding or misstating findings in the field. But Ennis does an excellent job of explaining how epigenetics fits in as a subset of the fields of molecular biology and gene regulation. In fact, in the first ten pages, epigenetics and epigenetic changes are sparsely discussed, which should emphasize to the reader that this science has not trumped previous dogma on gene activity. Epigenetics is merely a piece of a larger puzzle.

The reality is that there is a broad spectrum of opinions about epigenetics, ranging from the purely pseudoscientific (e.g. your thoughts can stop or give you cancer) to believing the field to have little significance in the grand scheme of gene regulation to believing the theory of evolution needs to be rewritten because of epigenetics. Ennis does not shy away from some of these controversial ideas but does make sure to place the appropriate disclaimers.

You can read the full review here.

If you’ve read and enjoyed Introducing Epigenetics, please consider leaving your own review on Goodreads or your favourite book vendor’s site!

(Speaking of book vendors, a note to Canadian readers: there’s been some kind of glitch with the Canadian supply of the book, which the publisher is trying to resolve. Amazon.ca are still listing the book as “Temporarily out of stock” and my friendly local independent bookstore have also had problems trying to order it from their usual Canadian supplier, but you can order it online from Chapters or from a US site. It’s also available as an e-book, but to be honest I think the illustrations work better in the hard copy version).