Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us by Alexandra Morton, 26.95

Morton writes her life story with orcas so compelling that I found this book difficult to put down. She left school of pursue her love of dolphins and desire to study them, and ended up studying and living surrounded by orcas for over 20 years and grew to love them passionately. I loved this book. -- Martina

The Seven Sisters, by Margaret Drabble, $25.00

This is my first reading of a book by Drabble, and it won't be my last. Half way through reading this book, I began to feel that delicious assurance that I had found a writer whose depths I would plumb. I'm already off to my next Drabble. But this one is the story (told trickily in more than one voice) of a woman of a certain age who lives through a particularly disappointing time, and distinguishes herself. -- Mary

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA, by Brenda Maddox, $29.95

I became interested in reading this book after reading The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge and wanting to learn more about DNA and its discovery. Rosalind Franklin is call the "Sylvia Plath of science" for her unrecognized and unrewarded role in the discovery of DNA. Unbeknownst to her, it was her x-ray photographs that were the catalyst for the ultimate discovery. A few years later she died of cancer at the age of 37 and the scientists who "discovered" DNA went on to win the Nobel Prize with no mention of her. Thoroughly researched and very readable, this is a book for anyone interested in the role of women in the science. -- Barb