Reviews for Good Man: Gregory Goodwin Pincus the Man, His Story, the Birth Control Pill

The average rating for Good Man: Gregory Goodwin Pincus the Man, His Story, the Birth Control Pill based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-20 00:00:00 Kesha Skaggs Have just finished the most recent Maggie Hope WW II mystery series title which was set on the Isle of Rum in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. When I serendipitously found this title on my shelves at home (another book rescued from the recycling bin at the library I worked at but never read), I figured it was time to read it. Botanical fraud situation from mid-20th century Britain based on a fairly well known botanist claiming to find plants on this remote island when most other research and study showed it to be virtually impossible these plants would have lived through the Ice Age there. It is a story of the current author (KarlSabbagh) tracking down the fraud story and fact-finding research that another person (John Raven) did but never really made public. So ...a story within a story. It was well researched but perhaps could have been shortened a bit. The Latin grass names all run together to this non-botanist although I know why they are there. Another GR reviewer said Erik Larsen could have done it better, which maybe true, but this is still a good read. And certainly the case is made for why honest and accurate, detailed record-keeping is important in scientific research, especially when people are being given credit forever for finding species no one else has ever seen. My absolute favorite passage, however, must be quoted here for librarians who may read this review. Author Sabbagh writes about doing research in the London Library (as opposed to the British Library.) "Its key difference from the British Library is that all the shelves are open. Instead of looking up a book in a catalogue and asking someone to get it for you, you can roam the shelves to your heart's content. In fact, you often find yourself roaming the shelves to your heart's discontent because the nineteenth-century system of classifying books is often impenetrable to twentieth-century logic, and the system of locating the books once classified requires the geographical skills of a Burton or a Speke. But the illogical and labyrinthine nature of the place is such that, if you don't find what you are looking for, you almost always find something better." This totally exhibits the tone of the book and why I enjoyed it.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-05 00:00:00 Rune Dalsgaard Nielsen A very interesting investigation into scientific truth and what motivates well-known scientists to commit fraud. Told almost like a thriller (except with long Latin plant names) so it was a compelling and easy read. Definitely would recommend to a book club or a class on ethics.