“Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel

 This book is lightly related to the author’s previous book “Glass Hotel”. It dragged a bit in parts but overall I found it to be enjoyable.  It played with the concepts of time travel and simulated reality. The protagonist got a job with the Time Institute to investigate an apparent anomaly in reality that supported the concept of a simulation. It turned out that he triggered the anomaly.

“Origin A genetic history of the Americas” by Jennifer Raff

As usual, I did not retain much from this scholarly book. But I thoroughly enjoyed learning how the various disciplines, especially archaeology and genetics work together in interpreting the history of our earliest ancestors. In this case, the focus is on the various models for explaining how the Americas were populated. The author is very good at making a scene come alive. And she is opened my eyes to important ethical issues regarding taking genetic information from indigenous peoples, and of how they have been badly used in the past.