Abraham, Carolyn (March 26, 2013). The Juggler's Children: A Journey into Family, Legend and the Genes that Bind Us. Published by Random House Canada. ISBN 9780679314592.
From the publisher's book description: "Abraham investigates whether this burgeoning new science can help solve 2 mysteries that have haunted her multi-racial family for more than a century"
(see my book review)
Anderson, Don (2017). Paper and Spit: Family found: How DNA and Genealogy revealed my first parents' identity. Published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. ISBN 9781544606989.
From the publisher's book description: "Using DNA and genealogy, Anderson finds not only the identity of his birth parents but also his true ethnic heritage."
(see my book review)
Aptowicz, Cristin O'Keefe (September 4, 2014). Dr. Mütter's Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine. Published by Avery. ISBN 9781592409259.
From the publisher's book description: "A mesmerizing biography of the brilliant and eccentric medical innovator who revolutionized American surgery and founded the country’s most famous museum of medical oddities."
(see NPR review by Jason Heller)
Bettinger, Blaine T. (October 13, 2016). The Family Tree Guide to DNA Testing and Genetic Genealogy. Published by Family Tree Books. ISBN 9781440345326.
From the publisher's book description: "This plain-English guide is a one-stop resource for how to use DNA testing for genealogy."
(see my book review)
Bettinger, Blaine T. and Wayne, Debbie Parker (November 18, 2016). Genetic Genealogy in Practice. Published by National Genealogical Society, Inc. ISBN 9781935815228.
From the publisher's book description: "At their own pace, readers learn the basic concepts of genetic genealogy. They then build on that knowledge as they study the testing, analysis, and application of YDNA, X-DNA, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and autosomal DNA (atDNA) to reach and support genealogical conclusions. Each chapter includes exercises with answer keys for hands-on practice."
(see my book review)
Brock, Pope (February 5, 2008). Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam. Published by Crown. ISBN 9780307339881.
From the publisher's book description: "Charlatan is a marvelous portrait of a boundlessly audacious rogue on the loose in an America that was ripe for the bamboozling."
(see NYT review by Janet Maslin)
Cadbury, Deborah (2002). The Lost King of France: How DNA Solved the Mystery of the Murdered Son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Published by Fourth Estate. ISBN 9780007333790.
From the publisher's book description: "The Lost King of France is a moving and dramatic tale that interweaves a pivotal moment in France's history with a compelling detective story that involves pretenders to the crown, royalist plots and palace intrigue, bizarre legal battles, and modern science."
(see LRB review by Hilary Mantel)
Cepeda, Raquel (March 5, 2013). Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina. Published by Atria Books. ISBN 9781451635867.
From the publisher's book description: "Cepeda parses concepts of race, identity, and ancestral DNA among Latinos by using her own Dominican-American story as one example"
(see my book review)
Doughty, Caitlin (September 2015). Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory. Published by W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 9780393351903.
From the publisher's book description: "Now a licensed mortician with an alternative funeral practice, Caitlin argues that our fear of dying warps our culture and society, and she calls for better ways of dealing with death (and our dead)."
(see The Guardian review by Gavin Francis and NPR review by Laura Secorun Palet)
Eugenides, Jeffrey (2002). Middlesex: A Novel. Published by Picador. ISBN 9780312427733.
From the publisher's book description: "the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family ... To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal"
Fronczak, Paul Joseph and Tresniowski, Alex (2017). The Foundling: The True Story of a Kidnapping, a Family Secret, and My Search for the Real Me. Published by Howard Books. ISBN 9781501142123.
From the publisher's book description: "Paul took a DNA test. The test revealed definitively that he was not Paul Fronczak. From that moment on, Paul has been on a tireless mission to find the man whose life he’s been living—and to discover who abandoned him, and why."
(see my book review)
Griffeth, Bill (September 6, 2016). The Stranger in My Genes. Published by New England Historic Genealogical Society. ISBN 9780880823449.
From the publisher's book description: "Bill Griffeth, longtime genealogy buff, takes a DNA test that has an unexpected outcome: 'If the results were correct, it meant that the family tree I had spent years documenting was not my own.'"
(see my book review)
Hill, Richard (August 17, 2012). Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA. Published by CreateSpace. ISBN 9781475190830.
From the publisher's book description: "Finding Family is the first book to chronicle the paradigm-shifting application of genetic genealogy to adoption search"
(see my book review and "DNA helps man unlock mystery of his birth father's identity" by Sue Thoms, The Grand Rapids Press)
Kean, Sam (July 17, 2012). The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code. Published by Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316182317.
From the publisher's book description: "Kean's vibrant storytelling once again makes science entertaining, explaining human history and whimsy while showing how DNA will influence our species' future."
(see Washington Post review by Amy Stewart and WSJ review by Christopher F. Chabris)
Maddox, Brenda (April 7, 2003). Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. Published by HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780006552116.
From the publisher's book description: "Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century."
(see American Scientist review: "Crystallizing a Life in Science" by Angela Creager and The Guardian review: "In the shadow of the men" by Hilary Rose)
Manco, Jean (September 9, 2013). Ancestral Journeys: The Peopling of Europe from the First Venturers to the Vikings. Published by Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500051788.
From the publisher's book description: "This pioneering book brings together for the first time the latest genetic evidence and combines it with archaeology and linguistics to produce a new history of Europe."
(see About Jean Manco for information about the author)
Mozingo, Joe (October 2, 2012). The Fiddler on Pantico Run: An African Warrior, His White Descendants, A Search for Family. Published by Free Press. ISBN 9781451627480.
From the publisher's book description: "The Fiddler on Pantico Run is both the story of one man's search for a sense of mooring, finding a place in a continuum of ancestors, and a lyrically written exploration of lineage, identity, and race in America."
(see Los Angeles Times review by J.C. Gabel)
Mukherjee, Siddhartha (2016). The Gene: An Intimate History. Published by Bodley Head. ISBN 9781847922649.
From the publisher's book description: "Weaving science, social history, and personal narrative to tell us the story of one of the most important conceptual breakthroughs of modern times, Mukherjee animates the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices."
Niccol, Andrew (1997). GATTACA. "There is no gene for fate."
Must-see cult classic science fiction film starring Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.
(see Roger Ebert's review)
Röhl, John C.G., Warren, Martin and Hunt, David (1998). The Purple Secret. Published by Bantam Press, London. ISBN 9780552145503.
From the publisher's book description: In a unique collaboration of history and science, Purple Secret traces the inheritance of porphyria through the genealogical maze of Europe's royal dynasties.
(see History Book Reviews review by Jennie Erikson)
Skloot, Rebecca (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Published by Crown Publishing Group, New York. ISBN 9781400052172.
From the publisher's book description: "Rebecca Skloot's fascinating account is the story of the life, and afterlife, of one woman who changed the medical world forever. Balancing the beauty and drama of scientific discovery with dark questions about who owns the stuff our bodies are made of, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is an extraordinary journey in search of the soul and story of a real woman, whose cells live on today in all four corners of the world."
(see my book review)
Stark, Lizzie (2014). Pandora's DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree. Published by Chicago Review Press. ISBN 9781613748602.
From the publisher's book description: "Stark uses her family’s experience to frame a larger story about the so-called breast cancer genes, exploring the morass of legal quandaries, scientific developments, medical breakthroughs, and ethical concerns that surround the BRCA mutations, from the troubling history of prophylactic surgery and the storied origins of the boob job to the landmark lawsuit against Myriad Genetics, which held patents on the BRCA genes every human carries in their body until the Supreme Court overturned them in 2013."
(see my book review, Story Circle review by Judy King and Visionlearning review by Heather Falconer)
Steffen, Craig A. (July 22, 2015). A Family Apart: Sleuthing the Mysteries of Abandonment, Adoption and DNA. Published by Cognoscente Publishing. ISBN 9780996364201.
From the publisher's book description: "a fascinating ride into the methodical quest of an orphan to uncover the truth about his origins".
(see my book review)
Sykes, Bryan (2001). The Seven Daughters of Eve. Published by W. W. Norton & Company, New York. ISBN 0393020185.
From the publisher's book description: "Sykes reveals how the identification of a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line allows scientists to trace our genetic makeup all the way back to prehistoric times, to seven primeval women, the Seven Daughters of Eve."
(see The Observer review: "My mum's older than your mum" by Robin McKie and Heredity review by E Hagelberg)
Sykes, Bryan (2006). Blood of the Isles. Published by Bantam Press, London. ISBN 9780593056523.
From the publisher's book description: "Bryan Sykes, the world's first genetic archaeologist, takes us on a journey around the family tree of Britain and Ireland, to reveal how our tribal history still colours the country today."
(see The Independent review by Murrough O'Brien, UMJ review by Shane McKee, The Independent article: "Celts descended from Spanish fishermen, study finds" by Guy Adams and The Scotsman article "We're nearly all Celts under the skin")
Wambaugh, Joseph (1989). The Blooding. Published by Bantam Press, London. ISBN 9780553176978.
From the publisher's book description: "The true story of the historic first use of genetic fingerprinting to solve two savage murders in the English Midlands."
(discovered via ITV's Code of a Killer television mini-series about the same story)
(see Los Angeles Times review by John Sutherland)
Wells, Spencer (2004, ©2002). The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York. ISBN 9780812971460.
From the publisher's book description: "Examining the hidden secrets of human evolution in our genetic code, Spencer Wells reveals how developments in the revolutionary science of population genetics have made it possible to create a family tree for the whole of humanity."
(see The Guardian review: "Our African ancestry" by Chris Lavers and "Documentary Redraws Humans' Family Tree" by Hillary Mayell, National Geographic News)
