DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America Audiobook

" The title is extremely misleading. It's much more something like "Sykes, who talks about DNA, visits part of the USA." It is very, very repetitive of his other books. On the other hand, given the complexity of some of the DNA content, some of that repetition may be worthwhile. What isn't at all worthwhile is the travelogue and name-dropping. I was really looking forward to this book, especially given all the press that NEHGS is giving it, but I'm very glad that I was able to check it out from my local library. I will not be buying it. And, my DNA research time would have been better spent reviewing the books I already have or even with the FTDNA website. "

" I found this book pretty interesting in parts especially the chapters that discussed the science of DNA and how an individual inherits his/her autosomal DNA down through the generations. The chapters in the book dealing with the road trip up to the Northwest interacting with the native tribes wasn't as interesting. "

" Fascinating--for example--I learned that both horses and camels are native to North America! However, he is a bit too political, which is why it is not a 5-star book. "

" This book is a genealogy of the American people, explaining through genetics what parts of the world we originated from. There were parts of the book I found fascinating and other parts only mildly interesting. The author describes the background of each person he DNA samples during his train/road trip throughout the US (giving the samplers fictitious names from characters out of Hollywood films.) (Hollywood films are referenced throughout the book. The author is British, and he relates to the US, as much of the world does, through these ubiquitous Hollywood films.) Although it was also interesting to read Bryan Sykes descriptions of his part train trip, part automobile journey across the US, I found the book best when the author combined the history and culture of each group--Native American, European, African-American--with an explanation of the actual genetics from his individual DNA samples to give a more complete history of who we are as a people in the US. "

" I was very happy to receive a copy of this book through the First Reads program. Overall I would say it was a pretty okay read. Not terrible, but not something I would recommend to everyone I know. The copy I read was an ARC, so I understand there may have been changes in the final copy. I really hope one of the changes involved the flow of the book. It felt very choppy, and some things seemed out of place. Maybe a shuffling of the chapters would have helped. The road trip he took with his son in the second half of the book was a strange, out of place section that didn't follow the feel of the rest of the book at all. Most of the many pictures included would do well in a private family vacation photo album, not a science book. As for the positives, you could really feel the author's energy and passion and the intense knowledge he has of DNA. He is an engaging writer and presents difficult topics in an easy to understand way. I definitely want to read more on the topic, and maybe even get my own DNA tested one day. "

" It's interesting how much you can learn about human migrations from our DNA. "

" Easy to read and understand, which is always nice when reading about science. I found this book to be extremely interesting and informative. "

" This was a good follow up to the Seven Daughters of EVE. He takes a complicated subject and makes it into an interesting story. Really great Non-Fiction. "

" An easier read than "The Seven Daughters of Eve", although I did read them out of sequence! "

" I really think this could have been a shorter book. While I appreciated the overall thesis, there just seemed to be a lot of filler. "

" Read Sykes before. Interesting. A lot left out, parts of it read like a memoir and seems like filler. A good attempt, but overly ambitious. "