'The Cider House Rules" by John Irving

First published: 1985
600 pages (paperback)

My third "Irving" after Hotel New Hampshire and Garp. Can't really say which one is the best, but the Cider House Rules definitely have the potential of being one of the best books by Irving. It's so full of likable characters, all with their faults and virtues, and the feeling of time passing throughout the book is so real that it's hard to accept parting with it at the end. You wanna know and continue to know those people for real. At least that's something that I felt when reading the Cider House Rules and that I also remember from reading his other books.
More than once, while reading it, I thought something like "damnit, he really IS a good writer". It's not just his characters but also the detailed background information, for instance about obstetrical procedures of that time or about picking and pressing apples on a large scale, that make the story so believable, even though everything still is a bit "larger than life" (at least my life is not THAT interesting, hope that's not just me...).
So if you haven't read anything by Irving yet, it's high time you did! And if for some reason you DON'T like it, please tell me, I'd be really curious as to why that is.
Although there are maybe four or five major characters, Dr.Larch - at least to me - is by far the most interesting, even though I guess Homer Wells is supposed to be the main hero. Dr. Larch is the doctor in charge at the orphanarium in the tiny ex-logging town of St. Clouds. He also is the historian of the place and does not hesitate to throw in a little fiction every now and then whenever it seems necessary. He is a fervent abortionist (which was illegal at that time, the novel covers the time from the 20ies to the 50ies) as well as an ether addict. Homer, starting out as one of the orphans born at St.Cloud's, at last, after several unsuccessful attempts at finding new foster homes, becomes a permanent resident there - and something like a son to Dr. Larch, who teaches him all about his trade (obstetrical procedures, that is).
Besides the two adorable nurses Edna and Angela there is one other long-term resident at the orphanarium: Melony, a big, violent girl who provides Homer with his first sexual experiences and later on makes it her life's purpose to search for Homer, after he finally gets "adopted", as a young man, by a young wealthy couple his own age whom he befriends after they had an abortion. The couple, Candy and Wally, belong to a family in the apple business. They show Homer life outside the orphanarium and he decides to stay. Things become a little more complicated, however, as Homer and Candy fall in love with each other...
The main themes of the book are abortion (the different positions towards it weighed off against each other) and orphans (Charles Dickens' David Copperfield reappears throughout the book), although there is much more in it. It's funny and serious and definitely gripping.

"Endless Forms Most Beautiful - The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom" by Sean B. Carroll

First published: 2006
350 pages (paperback)

Evo Devo stands for 'Evolutionary Developmental Biology' and is an emerging field that combines insights from animal development with evolutionary theory.
The book first explains the genetic mechanisms by which complex multicellular organisms could evolve from simple unicellular ones and then goes on to show how "tinkering" with those basic mechanisms could lead to the diversity we now observe in nature.
Carroll himself is an accomplished veteran in the field of fruit fly development and therefore can provide first hand examples from the organism that was first used to elucidate the mechanisms and genes behind animal development. One main insight was that the genes responsible for controlling developmental processes have been conserved across the entire animal kingdom, including the human branch. Another important revelation was that it's not really the genes themselves that make the difference but more the patterns in which genes are turned on and off during development by so-called genetic switches. The examples given in this book of how these switches work include the formation of limbs as well as the formation of such patterns as the stripes of zebras and the spots on butterflies. The book comes with lots of colour figures to illustrate the beauty of animal forms.