Thanks so much to NetGalley for the free Kindle book. My review is voluntarily given, and my opinions are my own.

I went back and forth between giving this a 3 or 4 star but decided to give it a 3 star in the end. The writing is great, and you could tell the author did tons of research for the book. However, there wasn't a huge focus on language. The reason I chose the book is because it was about language. Which there's nothing wrong with a book focusing on the evolution and biology of species, but then say that in your title. Not to say that there was nothing about language in the book, just that more in a general.

This would be a great book for those people interested in the topic of the evolution and biology of humans. However, it will be difficult for many of them to find since the title says language.

I was prepared to love this book as a self-professed language nerd (and biological anthropologist!) but I was a bit underwhelmed. I'm rating 3.5 stars. The hypotheses are interesting, but the explanations become meandering and unfocused at times, and overly simplistic at other times. The Origin of Language had a lot of promise, but I don't think it quite stuck the landing. Thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Origin of Language.

My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advance copy of this new book that looks at why humans, language, evolution, genes and the nurturing and care of children that lead to so many changes.

I grew up in the Bronx with both of my grandparents watching my brother and I when parents had to work. Both sets of grandparents were immigrants from Ireland. My father's side had no real accent, something that I picked up. My mother's parents had a bit of a brogue, and lapsed into Gaelic, usually in times of stress, joy, or when cursing. This happened a lot as my brother and I were bit of a handful, add in some of the cousins, were annoying bunch. I always thought they were nonsense words, or words to cover up bad words. I had no idea Gaelic was a language, nor that people learned languages outside of what I knew. This was he seventies, we really were culturally ignorant. More so when I moved to Connecticut. Language was used o make sure us stupid kids didn't fall off the fire escape, or climb into the garbage shoot, or fall off a roof, stuff we tried to do. One could say this is how many humans have survived, and according to this book, why along with a lot of biology that humans began to communicate. The Origin of Language: How We Learned to Speak and Why by Madeleine Beekman is a history on how humans were able to speak, having families made this necessary as well as a look at how humans adapted and changed over the years.

The book begins with babies, the authors own and the author's fascination with watching them pick up social cues so quickly. Children are schemers, able to see tells in a human like a conman cheating a mark. Eyes, hands, voice, children pick this up, knowing when things are going well, when things aren't and trying to make them fit the narrative the children want. The book than looks at various fields of science, from DNA, to evolution, covering a lot of time and locations. A bear walking upright from injured front paws, that show changes in the bones, to bodies of different humans, showing changes at various times. Beekman points out the problems that babies cause for people: babies take a lot of time and effort to keep alive. For a long time. Language, and communication would help with this, and Beekman uses many examples to prove this.

I wasn't sure what I expected from the book, but I found the book interesting, and gave me much to think about. As a person who never wanted children, I never gave much thought to how much needs to be communicated to keep children safe. Even as an uncle, I never thought about this, but a recent fishing trip with the youngest amazed me that even at his age, safety was last on his list of things he cared about. Beekman is a very good writer, explaining things well, and even I could follow along on many things. I loved the facts and different ideas that Beekman posits, as well as the sly humor that Beekman injects into the narrative. I can see where some of this might be controversial, but the ease in which Beekman discusses the subject, answering paragraphs later questing that were occuring to me really made for a compelling argument.

Not a book for everyone. I must admit to having to read a few things twice, maybe more just to be sure I was understanding things. However the book has a lot of information, is presented well, and is quite readable. A book that I am sure will start a lot of conversations.

Thank you, Net Galley, for the free ARC. I really thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have a background in biology, so much of the information was a review, but it was offered in an illustrative and fun way. I felt the book was very well researched.

Evolutionary biologist Madeline Beckman tackles the origins of human language from a fresh perspective. While the book dives deep into the science of language and evolution, its premise is simple: language developed, of course, to help us care for our particularly helpless young.

While I confess to getting slightly mired down in the DNA discussions on occasion, I found the central thesis compelling. (Funny how all of the men who have written on the topic completely ignored this rather vital contribution of child care to species survival!) And the book continued to expand my understanding of genetics and human evolution.

This is an interesting book digging into man’s evolution as preparation for the development of language. The authors voice is easy to read and down to earth with interesting factoids that kept the scientific detail from bogging down. I never was bored. The point was lost because I didn't feel the question posted by the title was sufficiently answered. That could just be me. I'd love to hear what others think.

Although the chapters sometimes felt disconnected initially, once I understood how each example fit into the narrative, I really started to appreciate this book.

There are several aspects that I enjoyed especially as one with a biology background.

Having a preexisting understanding of Tinbergen’s questions allowed me to view each example provided as either proximate (how, what) or ultimate (why) to put it simply. This was like reading an animal behavior textbook in a conversational tone.

Using vernacular to break down complex concepts like the role of gene duplication as one contribution to speciation- I thought that I would hate it, but I didn’t. Instead I got really excited that when this book publishes, I am buying a copy and sharing with my biology students who might not understand the textbook explanations.

So without getting into the weeds of all the parts of this book that I really quite liked, let’s just say that this book probably isn’t for everyone. I liked this better than Sapiens. I will be buying a copy of this book when it publishes, and I think that biology teachers of undergraduate level courses may find value in this.

For that alone, I am giving this book a 4.5⭐️ rating.

Thank you publishers and NetGalley for this ARC and opportunity to review it.

I struggled with this book.The repetition, the careful phrasing of ideas and thoughts and beliefs rather than scientific facts; the fact that at 37% into the book we had skipped from DNA and how humans are related to bananas to talks about how pelvises work, then on to fetuses, which are shaped like a comma. This reads like simplified trivia in parts, and the presentation wasn’t working for me.

The tone wasn’t quite conversational, not quite educational, but felt .. like a teacher explaining things to a much younger student. Not in an offensive way, just a very simplified way that skipped over details in order to give a gist of the bigger picture. And it was boring.

I could follow along the path of evolution, DNA, traits and behaviors, the cost of childbirth and mutations — but by now I was 30% in, when penis bones, spines, and knots are mentioned — and I’m still bored. I can follow the author’s path, from genes to childbirth, reproduction to the loss of a chromosomal pair and how that affects human fertility (which then leads into a talk about Tinder and cane toad sex and on into incest) but … the writing isn’t strong enough to hold my interest, and nothing is well explained. It’s too simplified, too speculative, too focused on forced analogies and segues.

I don’t know who the audience for this book is, but it isn’t me. I’m sorry, this book is a solid pass. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book could have easily been a five-star effort, but Ms. Beekman dropped the ball. Her theory departs from the standard genetic orthodoxy (Dawkins, Pinker, et al.) that the need for cooperative childcare created human language. Still, her arguments in favor are, at best, relatively weak and incomplete. Ms. Beekman added a lot of filler to "The Origin of Language." I didn't need to go on two imaginary train rides with other extinct Hominines. Her book was often interesting, but it required much better editing to encourage the author to focus her arguments in favor of her theory.