A fascinating history of dinos before dinos were dinos. I thought this book was about one thing and was pleasantly surprised to find it was about something else. It definitely gave me lots to think about and lots of extra reading material from the bibliography.

A spritely text telling of the Victorians who discovered fossils and began to assemble a new worldview.

In Dinosaurs at the the Diner Party, Dolnick pens a fun read about the great dinosaur hunting era. They introduce a vast array of people involved in this and how it served to fundamentally change our understanding of the world.

The author makes great use of first hand source material, allowing the Victorians to speak for themselves. It provides added insight to the thoughts these finds provoked and the exchange of ideas.

As a kid who was both obsessed with dinosaurs and with Victorian literature, how did I not know this was when we discovered dinosaurs? This book was so good, and honestly, I found it kind of funny because I can't imagine being a part of this time period and then learning about dinosaurs. I look back at it now as something to laugh about but I can't imagine how chaotic that was.

I loved the concept of this book and I think Dolnick did an excellent job of drawing from a variety of different perspectives about how Victorian England, particularly, had to shift their understanding of the world and time as they understood it to accommodate the new discovery of "dinosaurs". Much attention is (rightfully) paid to Mary Anning, and I appreciated Dolnick's focus on the personalities of the early paleontologists and how that affected the science. The overall narrative is a bit choppy, with present day research and scientific voices jumping out at the reader in a jarring manner at times. Overall, a lovely investigation into early paleontology (I would love to see Dolnick cover the American Bone wars!)

I never really thought of how and who found the first dinosaurs skeleton, this had that historical element that I was looking for and enjoyed how good it was written. It felt like it was well-researched, I enjoyed the concept and thought it was interesting that the Victorians were the first to know about dinosaurs.

This was a delight to read. The history was conveyed in an engaging manner that was filled with modern comparisons that were thought provoking. I was pleasantly surprised by the laugh aloud moments and by the photos included. The author did a wonderful job with this book.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party could easily be retitled to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Fossils and More.

I was engaged with the cast of characters up until Mary Anning and then they all kind of started running together. The information on fossils kept transitioning between "back stories" and paleontologists. The material was interesting and I feel that I did learn quite a bit about fossils. Large bones had been found in the plowing of fields and industrialization, but nobody had any idea that dinosaurs existed. Often times large bones were thought to have predated Noah's ark and were pre-flood remains.

Mary Anning was meticulous with her collection, but so poor and unrecognized in regards to her discoveries.

Glad that I read Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party. Lots of pictures and drawings which added a nice dimension to this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC for approving my request to read the advance review copy of Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party in exchange for an honest review. 336 pages. 06 Aug 2024.

Interesting and fast paced non fiction. Dragged a little but the information was easily presented. I enjoyed learning about how the Victorian era was a pivotal part of dinosaur exploration.

This is a fun book. It's a quick read focusing on the impact of the first dinosaur fossils on Victorian-era beliefs. I had forgotten how recent dinosaurs were, and what a gamechanger they represented. The book zips along from topic to topic, covering the major players (except Huxley, for some reason), as well as some popular events. Learn about how and why these fossils started appearing in numbers, and the first attempts to make sense of them.

I wish the book had gone on longer, as I feel there was more to cover. It ended (triumphantly?) with Darwin and evolution, as if that settled the matter once and for all. It didn't, of course, and maybe the author felt that warranted a separate book. If so, I'll read it.

I love a good nonfic full of Victorian drama. This was an interesting look at the beginning of the dinosaur craze/understanding. It got a little bogged down sometimes, but I enjoyed it.

Let's face it, most historical accounts possess the same soporific qualities as an elderly professor's droning lecture. Edward Dolnick however, in his work *Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party*, proves a delightful exception. This historical adventure dives into the fascinating era of early paleontology, when Victorians stumbled upon evidence of a world so fantastical, it defied their carefully constructed worldview.

Dolnick's prose is a captivating blend of scientific rigor and delightful wit. The tales of eccentric (and at times egotistical) paleontologists such as Mary Anning, William Buckland, and Richard Owen are not merely informative, but immensely entertaining. One might easily envision this trio as characters in a particularly quirky costume drama; Anning, a woman defying social expectations with her sharp eye for fossils, and the flamboyantly zealous Buckland, whose gastronomic experiments on the animal kingdom are almost as unsettling as the strange creatures his science reveals.

What truly excels in this work is Dolnick's ability to convey the profound ripple effects these discoveries sent through the bedrock of Victorian society. The concept of extinction, of an Earth not meticulously designed for its current inhabitants, was both bewildering and unsettling. Yet, the sheer grandeur of these vanished prehistoric beasts ignited a flame of wonder, a sense that the planet's history stretched far beyond human comprehension.

Naturally, as with any scientific endeavor, the road is riddled with missteps and false leads—and Dolnick doesn't shy from these either. There's a subtle humor in witnessing once-revered scientists cling to theories that appear comically inaccurate from our vantage point. But this isn't mere mockery; it illuminates the very nature of scientific progress.

If you harbor any lingering notions of paleontology as a dry recitation of species names and geological strata, *Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party* will shatter them with gusto. This book is as much about the thrill of discovery as it is a testament to the human capacity for embracing a universe far more expansive and strange than ever imagined. I would highly recommend it to the discerning reader – although one word of caution: you might find yourself craving a roast iguanodon after turning the final page.

At one point in the book, the author uses an analogy of a teenagers bedroom to explain stratigraphy, likening the layers of discarded clothing to that of the Earth's strata, but noting that geologic forces may make the specific progression of time unclear, analogizing that in particular to the resulting chaos created by a happy golden retriever chasing a tennis ball thrown into the room.

This analogy works both as an illustration of the book, <i>Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party</i>, but also an analogy for the book. The author writes as thought there was a non-fiction <a href="https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/">Bulwer-Lytton</a> award, and I am here for it. It is excitable, bombastic, and more florid than an adulterer's apology to his wife. But it feels authentic. The author is that excited about dinosaurs and dinosaur history, and so are you. Yes, you, reading this, trying to be all cool and detached. You know this speaks to your inner teenager, if not your inner Golden. It is infectious.

It is also chaotic. The title of the book refers to the party given by Benjamin Hawkins that took place inside an <i>iguanadon</i> model created for the occasion, as Hawkins was the artist creating what we now know as the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and this was his shop. The party is described in soaring detail as the conclusion, not climax, of the book. The subtitle of the book "how an eccentric group of Victorians discovered prehistoric creatures and accidentally upended the world," is in contrast to the stated original question of the book in its acknowledgements, which describes it as a history of science of the discovery of dinosaurs, where the book itself is neither, or possibly both. It is interested in the Victorian greats like Anning and Owen, but stops short of a biographic history, and includes a long discussion on earlier scientific research, such as with ancient (usually not dinosaur) bones in France and the United States, but also Mayor's theories on Ancient Greek interpretations of ancient bones (again, usually not dinosaur, and also <a href="https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-protoceratops-almost-certainly.html">criticized</a>). For a book about the realization of Deep Time, it is adverse to chronology.

It is a mess, but it works, as each (short) chapter tends to work as a stand-alone document. Frustratingly, for me at any rate, the most interesting parts are those related most clearly with the subtitle, and the question of what as a matter of ideology set the Victorians apart in their relationship with scientific examination, the impulse towards collection, and the bifurcated interest in God and the natural world as either in opposition or in concert. I am suspect about this as an idea, but admittedly that is why it is the most attractive to contemplate. Here that I find the most to criticize about the author's style. I know that as of early 2024, proper citation is become an <i>idée fixe</i> within the commentator class and a culture war issue without. I am absolutely not accusing Dolnick of any misdoing. But the book has a sort of inconsistency in its methodology of citations and quotes where, in these chapters, where I am working on putting together a reading list to dive deeper, that lead to frustration and confusion on my part.

And while Darwin does not show up - he is in again the author's memorable method of description the bomb under the table Hitchcock-style at the titular dinner party - I know that the descriptions of some of these figure's problems with what would be Darwinism are reductive. This is the simplified view of a lot of these ideas, which the author seems to me to acknowledge in the end notes, commonly held but also capable of a lot more elaboration, usually in some degree of rehabilitation. The focus here though is on the fun stuff. So, when I think about the ideal audience for this book, I think about the teenager from the analogy. It is a light treatment of the subject, too scattered to be a useful introduction, but fun, and the sort of thing that ought to provoke further interest and glee.

Thank you to the author, Edward Dolnick, and the publisher, Scribner Books, for making the ARC available to me.

What a fun read! Dolnick couldn't have dreamed up a more eccentric cast of characters if he tried. The story moves along quickly as we follow the birth of the branch of science that would become paleontology, and how shocking it was for the society in Victorian England to discover that the earth wasn't created with only their well-being in mind. It was also interesting to learn about the women who were key in the development of the science, and how little their contributions were acknowledged. Should I be surprised?
Great illustrations/photos as well, although the details are hard to discern on an e-reader.
Good stuff! I've definitely got him on my "to read" list.

Really liked this book and will read more by Dolnick. Highly readable social and science history about a subject and era I was not familiar with. The synthesis of history / science in the context of the Victorian era was just fascinating. Highly recommended.