Fiffer, S. (2001). Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found. Macmillan.

Review on this book:
Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever
Found by Steve Fiffer, 272 pages, W. H. Freeman, May 2001
- The minimum length is 2000 words (upper limit is 3000 words). Report your word total
on the first page of the paper (using the “Word Count” utility of your word processing
software)
- Please note that a term paper-style (this person said this and that, and this again, and that again) is
not enough. An insightful evaluation of the content is required!
- Your text must be left justified, single space, in 12 font Times New Roman. Proper grammar, punctuation and spelling to make your book review intelligible is part of your grade, not just the quality of the summary or the analysis
- book review should provide a critical commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the
book: the thesis and major arguments, the organization and style, the scholarly apparatus,
the author’s values and assumptions.
Checklist:
1. What does the book cover? (i.e., this is the summary part.)
2. Who is the author, what are his or her potential biases, and who is the intended audience
(i.e., this is the background part.)
3. What are the major points that the author makes in the book? Please understand that
an author did not spend sometimes years to write a book, research a topic extensively,
gather opinions and stories, etc. just to hear himself or herself talk. She or he uses
arguments to persuade you, the reader, of something. In other words, it is unlikely to
be meaningless writing.
4. Do you think that the arguments and ideas presented in the book are correct? Do you
accept them? Why or why not? Specifically, does the author substantiate his or her
points satisfactorily with information, logic, examples, etc.?
5. Do the author’s ideas agree with your experience and knowledge?
6. If you have read material from other resources (news articles for the current event
assignment, for instance) on the same general topic, how does this book compare? It is
important to realize that knowledge evolves and thus a book might be outdated; hence,
you must keep a critical mind while reading.
7. Are there special features about this book which interest or disturb you, such as unusual
information or new ways of looking at an issue?
8. Are there questions raised for you in this book which the author does not answer?
9. Are there additional comments you should include in order to make the essence of this
book understood by someone reading your review?
10. Does the thesis of the book make you reconsider what you knew? One can argue that if
an argument does not persuade you to change in some way, then it is pointless. Typically,
reviewers will structure this kind of review by expressing 3-5 remarkable ways in which
the book affected them. Note that there is a difference between a book that affects you
and a book that teaches you. Sometimes, the difference is subtle, but it is worthwhile
to distinguish these two qualities.
Rubric:
- Gives relevant information about author(s) and intended audience.
- Clearly describes thesis, arguments and conclusions of the book. Shows good understanding of relevant main points and avoids extraneous detail.
- Thoughtful evaluation of strengths and weaknesses of text, pointing to other texts that seem to support or weaken argument (at least 3 appropriate references).
- Well organized and coherent book review, smooth transitions between paragraphs and ideas, no or few grammatical errors, and meets the assignment’s length requirement.

1 Instructions
• The minimum length is 2000 words (upper limit is 3000 words). Report your word total
on the first page of the paper (using the “Word Count” utility of your word processing
software). 
• Your text must be left justified, single space, in 12 font Times New Roman. Proper grammar, punctuation and spelling to make your book review intelligible is part of your grade, not just the quality of the summary or the analysis
2 How to write your book review?
• Please note that a term paper-style (this person said this and that, and this again, and that again) isnot enough. An insightful evaluation of the content is required! Indeed, a good book review should provide a critical commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the book: the thesis and major arguments, the organization and style, the scholarly apparatus, the author’s values and assumptions.
Checklist
1. What does the book cover? (i.e., this is the summary part.)
2. Who is the author, what are his or her potential biases, and who is the intended audience(i.e., this is the background part.)
3. What are the major points that the author makes in the book? Please understand thatan author did not spend sometimes years to write a book, research a topic extensively,gather opinions and stories, etc. just to hear himself or herself talk. She or he usesarguments to persuade you, the reader, of something. In other words, it is unlikely tobe meaningless writing.
4. Do you think that the arguments and ideas presented in the book are correct? Do youaccept them? Why or why not? Specifically, does the author substantiate his or herpoints satisfactorily with information, logic, examples, etc.?
5. Do the author’s ideas agree with your experience and knowledge?
6. If you have read material from other resources (news articles for the current eventassignment, for instance) on the same general topic, how does this book compare? It isimportant to realize that knowledge evolves and thus a book might be outdated; hence,you must keep a critical mind while reading.
7. Are there special features about this book which interest or disturb you, such as unusualinformation or new ways of looking at an issue?
8. Are there questions raised for you in this book which the author does not answer?
9. Are there additional comments you should include in order to make the essence of thisbook understood by someone reading your review?
10. Does the thesis of the book make you reconsider what you knew? One can argue that ifan argument does not persuade you to change in some way, then it is pointless. Typically,reviewers will structure this kind of review by expressing 3-5 remarkable ways in whichthe book affected them. Note that there is a difference between a book that affects youand a book that teaches you. Sometimes, the difference is subtle, but it is worthwhileto distinguish these two qualities.
• Do not plagiarize chunks of text!
Rubric
3 Book list: pick any one of the books listed below
3.1 Historical Geology
• Assembling California by John McPhee, 224 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, February1994. Albeit an interesting book, this is a though one to summarize. You need to have a goodgrasp of the English language to be able to do a book review.
• Basin and Range by John McPhee, 240 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 1, 1982.Another interesting book but, just like the other McPhee’s book above, this is a though one tosummarize.
• Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Extraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex EverFound by Steve Fiffer, 272 pages, W. H. Freeman, May 2001
• Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 by Simon Winchester, 464 pages,Harper Perennial, July 2005
• Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by NeilShubin, 256 pages, Vintage, January 2009
3.2 Climate Change
• Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Ni˜no and the Fate of Civilizations by Brian Fagan, 368pages, Basic Books, February 2009
• Snowball Earth: The Story of the Great Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life as We KnowIt by Gabrielle Walker, 288 pages, Crown, March 2003
• The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 Years of Earth’s Climate byDavid Archer, 196 pages, Princeton University Press, October, 2008
• Betting the Farm on a Drought: Stories from the Front Lines of Climate Change by SeamusMcGraw , 192 pages, University of Texas Press, April 2015
3.3 Ocean and Land Explorations
• Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with OceanExperts by Ellen Prager, 178 pages, University Of Chicago Press, September 2008
• The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party by Kelly Tyler-Lewis,384 pages, Viking, April 2006
• The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean by Susan Casey, 312pages, Doubleday Publishing, September 2010
• Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem ofHis Time by Dava Sobel, 208 pages, Walker & Company, October 2007
• The Death and Life of Monterey Bay, a Story of Revival by Stephen Palumbi and CarolynSotka, 224 pages, Island Press, August 15, 2012
• Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg, 284 pages, The PenguinPress, July 2010
• American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood Paperback by Paul Greenberg, 320 pages,The Penguin Press, June 2015
• The Eternal Darkness by Robert Ballard, 408 pages, Princeton University Press, February2000
• The California Current: A Pacific Ecosystem and Its Fliers, Divers, and Swimmers by StanUlanski, 256 pages, The University of North Carolina Press, April 2016
• The Extreme Life of the Sea by Stephen Palumbi and Anthony Palumbi, 240 pages, PrincetonUniversity Press, September 2015
3.4 Physics & Mathematics
• The Atom and the Apple: Twelve Tales from Contemporary Physics by S´ebastien Balibar,200 pages, Princeton University Press, October 2008
• Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman, 352 pages, W.W. Norton & Co.,April 1997
• The Unfinished Game: Pascal, Fermat, and the Seventeenth-Century Letter that Made theWorld Modern by Keith Devlin, 208 pages, Basic Books; September 2008
• From Dust to Life: The Origin and Evolution of Our Solar System by John Chambers andJacqueline Mitton, 320 pages, Princeton University Press, November 2013
• Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Before They Find Us by Donald Yeomans, 192 pages,Princeton University Press, November 2012
• How to Find a Habitable Planet by James Kasting, 352 pages, Princeton University Press,August 2012
3.5 Freshwater issues
• Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner, 608pages, Penguin, January 1993
• Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping And The Fate Of America’s Fresh Waters by RobertGlennon, 328 pages, Island Press, January 2004
• The Big Thirst, the secret life and turbulent future of water by Charlies Fishman, 400 pages,Free Press, April 2011
• West without Water : What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us aboutTomorrow by Lynn Ingram and Frances Malamud-Roam, 273 pages, University of CaliforniaPress, August 2013, available as an e-book through the Henry Madden Library
3.6 Miscellaneous
• The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, 336 pages, Thomas Dunne Books, July 2007
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan, 464 pages,Penguin, August 2007
• Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can RenewAmerica by Thomas Friedman, 448 pages, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, September 2008
• Surf, Sand, and Stone: How Waves, Earthquakes, and Other Forces Shape the SouthernCalifornia Coast by Keith Heyer Meldahl, 240 pages, University of California Press, October2015
• Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable by Paul Falkowski, 224 pages, PrincetonUniversity Press, April 2015
• Food Foolish: The Hidden Connection Between Food Waste, Hunger and Climate Changeby John Mandyck and Eric Schultz, 198 pages, Carrier Corp., July 2015
• Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History by Donald Canfield, 216 pages, Princeton UniversityPress, December 2015
• James Lovelock: In Search of Gaia by John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin, 272 pages, PrincetonUniversity Press, April 2009
• On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth by TobyTyrrell, 320 pages, Princeton University Press, July 2013. Albeit an interesting book, this isa though one to summarize. You need to have a good grasp of science (chemistry and biologyin particular) to be able to do a book review.