I'm looking for a book that can explain evolution at a relatively basic level. My wife wants to know more about it but she doesn't have a strong science background so I'm looking for something that she could understand and enjoy. Also if it stayed relatively away from the religion argument that would be great. I know there are a lot of experts on here so I'm hoping I can get a few good suggestions.

Two that come to mind are Richard Dawkins' books "The Selfish Gene" and "River Out Of Eden: A Darwinian View Of Life." These are not his books touting atheism, but are about evolution.

Best lay evolution book there is.

A great book about evolution that explains a lot that stays away from religion is "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne. I found this one to be very informational. Another good one is is "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll.

If you are more interested in human evolution, I highly recommend "The Dawn of Human Culture" by Richard G. Klein

If you would like one about religion and evolution that doesn't attack religion, but talks about how and why religion emerged and changed to what it is today, I suggest "Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved" by Matthew J. Rossano

I've read them all, they all are great resources and very readable without getting into too much science, and are great at explaining the science they do use.

Im glad you asked! I love books on evolution so I am interested in what people post. When I took evolution in college (even by an LDS professor that was a huge believer in evolution) but he taught it in such a understandable way. When I realized Adam ans Eve were homosapiens but homo sapiens weren't the first humans on earth... it was an ah-ha! Light bulb Moment! ;-)

I should add that I have a degree in Anthropology and have done a lot of reading and research on the topic. There are some very interesting on-line resources too.

Here is a good place to start. http://penn.museum/sites/surviving/index.html

The Smithsonian is also a great resource. http://humanorigins.si.edu/

There are many more, if you would like I'll post them.

Please do. I'm always looking for more info myself.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I've been trying to look but just searching the subject doesn't discriminate very well. She wants one for Easter, I thought that was great way to celebrate it's pagan origins :).

Another good one is Evolution: What the Fossils and Why it Matters by Donald Prothero. Prothero is a regular contributor to Skeptic magazine.

Is probably a good beginning. I haven't read it (but loved "Guns, Germs, and Steel), but I'm sure you can take the information to the bank.

From my youth (I "apostatized" kind of young), I was a big follower of Robert Ardrey and Desmond Morris. "African Genesis" and "The Naked Ape" are both now a bit dated, but the background they gave me has served me well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2012 02:57PM by SL Cabbie.

The Ancestor's Tale is primarily about human evolution but sheds a lot of light on evolution in general. What makes this book especially fascinating is that it traces evolution in reverse from modern humans backwards to the beginning. A good read.

Some other online stuff. It's all human evolution related, but well worth poking around the websites.

http://www.becominghuman.org/

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Human-Evolution

Those are the only ones I can think of now. If I remember the others I'll post them.