Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
by Richard Dawkins (Apollo, 2021); audiobook read by the author (Clipper Audio, 2021)
A short though surprisingly unfocussed account of human aeronautical design (minimal detail) and of how creatures of the natural world achieved flight through evolution. The parallels, needless to say, suggest that natural selection amounts to its own continuous (if unthinking) drafting process.
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
by Robert M. Sapolsky (Penguin, 2017); audiobook read by Michael Goldstrom (Penguin Audio, 2018)
A monumental but very readable explication of the many biological factors (from immediate brain chemistry right back to evolutionary development) that determine human behaviour at both an individual and a societal level. Self-aware and with a focus on achieving betterment through understanding.
The Blind Watchmaker
by Richard Dawkins (Norton, 1986); audiobook read by Richard Dawkins & Lalla Ward (Bolinda, 2014)
In this measured (pre-confrontational) treatise on evolution, biologist Richard Dawkins cites numerous real-world examples and constructs thoughtful analogies to make accessible a topic of vast complexity. Sections of the audiobook are read alternately by Dawkins and Lalla Ward, which invigorates the text.
The Fox Busters
by Dick King-Smith (1978)
Endemic to an era when it was de rigueur for children’s authors themselves to be literate, this story remains a high-spirited classic: skills honed by natural selection, farmyard fowls fight to outwit then turn the tables on the foxes who hunt them.