95 books like Demonic Males

By Richard Wrangham, Dale Peterson,

Here are 95 books that Demonic Males fans have personally recommended if you like Demonic Males. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Annals of the Former World

Brian Villmoare Author Of The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns and Causes of Big History

From my list on former English majors who like science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a college professor and paleoanthropologist–I study human fossils and the evolution of the human lineage. My field site is in the Afar region of Ethiopia, and I regularly spend a month or so wandering across the desert, picking up fossils. I view myself very much as a scientist and believe that the scientific view is the most reliable in some important ways. However, I came to science fairly late in life–I was an undergraduate philosophy and English literature student and didn’t go to graduate school until I was 30. Because of my liberal arts background, I have always felt it was important to bridge the science-humanities divide. 

Brian's book list on former English majors who like science

Brian Villmoare Why did Brian love this book?

Geology can be a tough sell for the popular science audience. It can seem boringly commonplace yet remote in relevance to our day-to-day lives. But it is probably the most important science for understanding how and where we live.

In this beautifully written compilation, McPhee drives across North America, generally in the company of a local geologist, exploring the deep past and our modern relationship with it through roadcuts, quarries, eroded exposures, volcanoes, and mountains pushing up through the sediments.

McPhee is a New Yorker writer, with all that implies–his work is meticulously written, detailed, and literary. This book is simply a visceral pleasure to read–I recommend you find a hammock and a few days.

By John McPhee,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Annals of the Former World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Pulitzer Prize-winning view of the continent, across the fortieth parallel and down through 4.6 billion years

Twenty years ago, when John McPhee began his journeys back and forth across the United States, he planned to describe a cross section of North America at about the fortieth parallel and, in the process, come to an understanding not only of the science but of the style of the geologists he traveled with. The structure of the book never changed, but its breadth caused him to complete it in stages, under the overall title Annals of the Former World.

Like the terrain…


Book cover of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies

Rui Diogo Author Of Meaning of Life, Human Nature, and Delusions: How Tales about Love, Sex, Races, Gods and Progress Affect Our Lives and Earth's Splendor

From my list on understand human nature and sexuality.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an unusual scientist in the sense that I have doctorates in both biology and anthropology, so I am very interested in the dichotomy between what our bodies truly want (biology) and how we are supposed to behave, or tell others to behave, in our cultural settings (cultural anthropology). Amazingly, studies show that we spend more time and attention in our lives living for others for what they think of us, than doing what we truly want, and that we often regret that, when we are close to dying. These books make us reconsider that way of living, so we can change this before it is too late. 

Rui's book list on understand human nature and sexuality

Rui Diogo Why did Rui love this book?

This book was written by a biologist with a profound knowledge of the natural world, including our species. It is one of the best books written by a scientist. It combines biology, anthropology, and history to explain a lot about where we came from and why some countries are wealthier than others, rooting such discussions on biology.

By Jared Diamond,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked Guns, Germs, and Steel as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, a classic of our time, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond dismantles racist theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for its broadest patterns.

The story begins 13,000 years ago, when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire human population. Around that time, the developmental paths of human societies on different continents began to diverge greatly. Early domestication of wild plants and animals in the Fertile Crescent, China,…


Book cover of Ever Since Darwin: Reflections on Natural History

Brian Villmoare Author Of The Evolution of Everything: The Patterns and Causes of Big History

From my list on former English majors who like science.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a college professor and paleoanthropologist–I study human fossils and the evolution of the human lineage. My field site is in the Afar region of Ethiopia, and I regularly spend a month or so wandering across the desert, picking up fossils. I view myself very much as a scientist and believe that the scientific view is the most reliable in some important ways. However, I came to science fairly late in life–I was an undergraduate philosophy and English literature student and didn’t go to graduate school until I was 30. Because of my liberal arts background, I have always felt it was important to bridge the science-humanities divide. 

Brian's book list on former English majors who like science

Brian Villmoare Why did Brian love this book?

My father gave me a copy of this book when I was in 6th grade and it introduced the world of natural science to me. This was the first in a series of volumes that collected his monthly essays written for Natural History magazine.

Gould has an eye for unusual scientific phenomena that illuminate a deeper truth about the relationship between humanity and the natural world. He was not afraid to tackle moral issues, such as eugenics and the science of IQ, recognizing the importance of the popular scientist as more than just a translator.

But the most important thing for the 11-year-old me was that he was such a clear writer–I could follow all of his arguments without knowing anything about genetics, statistics, or anatomy. I still have the copy my father gave me–it is dog-eared, and the spine is long broken, but when I thumb through it, I…

By Stephen Jay Gould,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Ever Since Darwin as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould's first book, has sold more than a quarter of a million copies. Like all succeeding collections by this unique writer, it brings the art of the scientific essay to unparalleled heights.


Book cover of The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

Simon Lailvaux Author Of Feats of Strength: How Evolution Shapes Animal Athletic Abilities

From my list on change the way you think about biology.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am a scientist and biologist. Learning about evolution changed my life and put me on a path to studying it as a career. As a child, I was a voracious reader, and as an undergraduate, I read every popular science book on biology I could get my hands on. In retrospect, those books were almost as important to my education as anything I learned in a lab or lecture theatre. When writing for a general audience, I try to convey the same sense of wonder and enthusiasm for science that drives me to this day.

Simon's book list on change the way you think about biology

Simon Lailvaux Why did Simon love this book?

A tour-de-force of science writing and arguably the best book about ecology and evolution ever written. Quammen’s book covers similar ground to Last Chance to See conceptually, and sometimes literally as several of the same locales are visited. But the similarities end there. As an undergraduate, it opened my eyes to the importance of ecological research and gave me a new appreciation for the contributions to science of the much-maligned Alfred Russell Wallace.

This book is unique in that, despite my enthusiasm for it, I have seldom found the need to re-read it because so much of the contenttenrec reproduction, the circumstances of the discovery that chuckwalla meat is more disagreeable than starvation, how invasive snakes overran Guamhas lived rent-free in my head for almost 30 years.   

By David Quammen,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Song of the Dodo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“Compulsively readable—a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” —Bill McKibben, Audubon

A brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and far-reaching in its message, The Song of the Dodo is a crucial book in precarious times. Through personal observation, scientific theory, and history, David Quammen examines the mysteries of evolution and extinction and radically alters our understanding of the natural world and our place within it.

In this landmark of science writing, we learn how the isolation of islands makes them natural laboratories of evolutionary extravagance, as seen in the dragons of Komodo, the elephant birds of Madagascar, the…


Book cover of Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Biruté Galdikas

Gary Kowalski Author Of Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet

From my list on love, loss and our kinship with animals.

Why am I passionate about this?

I called my dog Chinook my spiritual guide. He makes friends easily and doesn’t hold a grudge. He enjoys simple pleasures, taking each day as it comes. On his own canine level, he shows me that it might be possible to live without inner conflicts or neuroses: uncomplicated, genuine and glad to be alive.”  Chinook inspired my first book, The Souls of Animals, which explored the capacities for love, creativity, and compassion we humans share with other species. As an ordained minister (Harvard Divinity School), I believe we desperately need to rediscover our spiritual affinity with other living creatures if we are to save our small planet.

Gary's book list on love, loss and our kinship with animals

Gary Kowalski Why did Gary love this book?

This book tells how three unlikely women–Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas–broke scientific ground with their study of the wild chimpanzee, the mountain gorilla, and the orangutan. In every case, a deep emotional involvement with the animals opened the door to insights that male-dominated “objective” methods of research had minimized or overlooked. “Each woman’s first few months in the field were marked by despair, as the study subjects either could not be located or fled at first sight. The women could not make it work–not by extra stealth, not by better equipment, not by new techniques.  One can manipulate an experiment to hasten it, but one cannot force or hurry a revelation.”

By Sy Montgomery,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Walking with the Great Apes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2017 is the 50th anniversary of The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda.

Three astounding women scientists have in recent years penetrated the jungles of Africa and Borneo to observe, nurture, and defend humanity's closest cousins. Jane Goodall has worked with the chimpanzees of Gombe for nearly 50 years; Diane Fossey died in 1985 defending the mountain gorillas of Rwanda; and Birute Galdikas lives in intimate proximity to the orangutans of Borneo. All three began their work as protegees of the great Anglo-African archeologist Louis Leakey, and each spent years in the field, allowing the apes…


Book cover of Endangered

Catherine Ryan Hyde Author Of Seven Perfect Things

From my list on animals by people who actually understand them.

Why am I passionate about this?

In addition to being the author of lots of books, I am a wrangler of lots of pets. I live with a dog, two cats, a Belgian warmblood horse who I rode in dressage for many years, and his pasture pal who is a miniature horse. I’m known for writing books with animals in which the animal is a character, not a caricature. So many authors don’t seem to know animals deeply, and so just insert them in a scene like a placeholder. But every animal is an individual, and I try to reflect that in my work.

Catherine Ryan's book list on animals by people who actually understand them

Catherine Ryan Hyde Why did Catherine Ryan love this book?

This is my only other fiction pick. I read this many years ago, when it was new, but it stayed with me. We see a lot of relationships between people and dogs or people and horses, but this is a novel about a girl and a group of bonobos. That’s an interesting twist on the human/animal relationship, because other primates are so similar to us in their intelligence and approach to the world. They are mostly helpless against human forces, but then again so are young girls. The bonds formed in this book are worth the price of admission, and the suspense is high throughout.

By Eliot Schrefer,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Endangered as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

From National Book Award Finalist Eliot Schrefer comes the compelling tale of a girl who must save a group of bonobos -- and herself -- from a violent coup.

Congo is a dangerous place, even for people who are trying to do good.When Sophie has to visit her mother at her sanctuary for bonobos, she's not thrilled to be there. Then Otto, an infant bonobo, comes into her life, and for the first time she feels responsible for another creature.But peace does not last long for Sophie and Otto. When an armed revolution breaks out in the country, the sanctuary…


Book cover of Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us

Jeff Meldrum Author Of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

From my list on relict hominoids existence today.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, with a keen interest in the natural world and a particular fascination with our closest kin, the great apes. I was there when the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was aired in Spokane, Washington. That now iconic image was my first encounter with Bigfoot. I was captivated. In the pre-Internet age, finding books, articles, and newsletters to satisfy my curiosity about Bigfoot/sasquatch was in itself a challenge, and I eagerly consumed what few titles were available. Even today, the few serious treatments of the subject by scholarly objective authors stand out among the plethora of skeptical or self-published amateur books.

Jeff's book list on relict hominoids existence today

Jeff Meldrum Why did Jeff love this book?

John Green combines the spirited curiosity of an investigative reporter with the incisive logic of the argument of a rhetorician and the articulation of a wordsmith.

I found that he skillfully painted the historical and anecdotal context for this intriguing mystery as an adept journalist, drawing me into the very scene, to become part of the actual experience. He also went to lengths to make the evidentiary case for the scientists to acknowledge and seriously consider the proposition. With that determination, he promoted and sponsored the launch of a venue to provide a platform for the dissemination of scholarly publications exploring the question of relict hominoids, with me as the editor-in-chief.

By John Green,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sasquatch as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Planet of the Apes

Bob Zeidman Author Of Animal Lab

From my list on dystopian books that are great lessons for today.

Why am I passionate about this?

While every single attempt at socialism in human history has failed, usually leading to the murder of millions of people, it is being revived by those who think they can “do it right this time.” I’ve been writing about American principles and American values for newspapers and magazines for years. The threat to the exceptional American experiment that has led so many people of all backgrounds to success and happiness, led me to write this novel. I hope that it is fun enough and interesting enough that many readers will enjoy it, and more importantly learn from it. And take action to preserve the values and principles of America that have uplifted and inspired so many for over two centuries.

Bob's book list on dystopian books that are great lessons for today

Bob Zeidman Why did Bob love this book?

The book and the original 1968 movie are worthwhile experiences that examine our society, our treatment of animals, and our treatment of each other by creating a planet in which the roles of humans and apes are swapped. The screenplay was written by Oscar-winner Michael Wilson and Emmy-winner Rod Serling and adds a legendary ending that was the talk of the neighborhood kids when I was growing up. It created a powerful symbol of mankind’s possible eventual destruction that stayed with me over the years.

The 2001 remake of the movie stayed fairly true to the original movie but was a bit slow because of its many side stories. The second remake in 2011 had amazing special effects but made the disturbing point that humans have become a destructive society that must be abolished by the apes. While the original message was to treat animals and each other better, the…

By Pierre Boulle,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Planet of the Apes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a spaceship that can travel at the speed of light, Ulysse, a journalist, sets off from Earth for the nearest solar system. He finds there a planet which resembles his own, but on Soror humans behave like animals, and are hunted by a civilised race of primates. Captured and sent to a research facility, Ulysse must convince the apes of their mutual origins. But such revelations will have always been greeted by prejudice and fear...


Book cover of Between Ape and Human: An Anthropologist on the Trail of a Hidden Hominoid

Jeff Meldrum Author Of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

From my list on relict hominoids existence today.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, with a keen interest in the natural world and a particular fascination with our closest kin, the great apes. I was there when the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was aired in Spokane, Washington. That now iconic image was my first encounter with Bigfoot. I was captivated. In the pre-Internet age, finding books, articles, and newsletters to satisfy my curiosity about Bigfoot/sasquatch was in itself a challenge, and I eagerly consumed what few titles were available. Even today, the few serious treatments of the subject by scholarly objective authors stand out among the plethora of skeptical or self-published amateur books.

Jeff's book list on relict hominoids existence today

Jeff Meldrum Why did Jeff love this book?

The discovery of the diminutive hominin Homo floresiensis, a.k.a. the “Hobbit,” was a sensation in paleoanthropology–one that was anticipated by the fieldwork of cultural anthropologist Gregory Forth. Stories of creatures of similar attributes were taken as descriptions of real encounters with an “empirical” entity rather than merely figures of folklore.

This book has been a case study in the realization of a paradigm shift in how human evolution is envisioned–one branch of a bushy family tree, accompanied by multiple parallel branches, i.e., relict hominoids. 

By Gregory Forth,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Between Ape and Human as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A remarkable investigation into the hominoids of Flores Island, their place on the evolutionary spectrum-and whether or not they still survive.

While doing fieldwork on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, anthropologist Gregory Forth came across people talking about half-apelike, half-humanlike creatures that once lived in a cave on the slopes of a nearby volcano. Over the years he continued to record what locals had to say about these mystery hominoids while searching for ways to explain them as imaginary symbols of the wild or other cultural representations.

Then along came the 'hobbit'. In 2003, several skeletons of a small-statured…


Book cover of Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence: The Anthropologist Speaks Out

Jeff Meldrum Author Of Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science

From my list on relict hominoids existence today.

Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, with a keen interest in the natural world and a particular fascination with our closest kin, the great apes. I was there when the famous Patterson-Gimlin film was aired in Spokane, Washington. That now iconic image was my first encounter with Bigfoot. I was captivated. In the pre-Internet age, finding books, articles, and newsletters to satisfy my curiosity about Bigfoot/sasquatch was in itself a challenge, and I eagerly consumed what few titles were available. Even today, the few serious treatments of the subject by scholarly objective authors stand out among the plethora of skeptical or self-published amateur books.

Jeff's book list on relict hominoids existence today

Jeff Meldrum Why did Jeff love this book?

In college, I eventually found a tagline for my intellectual preoccupation–physical anthropology. I was especially captivated by the pattern and process of the evolution of human bipedalism–the adaptations for walking on two feet. As a physical anthropologist himself, Krantz was a kindred spirit and approached the mystery of Bigfoot from that mutual perspective.

His central focus on the footprint evidence for sasquatch aligned with my interests in hominin bipedalism. After brief opportunities for collaboration, upon his passing, his data and collections were bequeathed to my laboratory. 

By Grover Krantz,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From an Amazon review: Well-written scientific treatment of the sasquatch phenomen[on]. Dr. Grover Krantz has the distinction of being one of the few scientists who accepts the existence of the legendary "bigfoot". With a doctoral degree in physical anthropology from the University of Minnesota and additional training from U.C. Berkeley, he was uniquely qualified to investigate a sighting reported to him by a member of the public in 1968. As a result of his analysis of this sighting, and subsequent analysis of other sasquatch material, he came to the controversial conclusion that the "mythical" creature was in fact real- a…


Book cover of Annals of the Former World
Book cover of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Book cover of Ever Since Darwin: Reflections on Natural History

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