Book #112 |
Book: The Lost Family: How DNA Testing is Uncovering Secrets, Reuniting Relatives, and Upending Who We Are | Author: Libby Copeland | |
| Source: Library book Format: Print |
Pages: 294 | Duration: 11/18/25 – 11/21/25 (4 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★★ | Genres: nonfiction, science, genetics, sociology, family, health | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Personal stories, scientific facts, implications, and consequences of DNA testing 🖌6-word review: Important. More complex than you think. |
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| 💭A compelling quote: “I told my mom that the man she told me was my biological father wasn’t my biological father. And she had this look come over her face, and she had to tell me that her uncle had raped her.” | |||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: paucity, blithely, pogrom, dross, propinquity, enmities, panoply | |||
| Description:* In The Lost Family, journalist Libby Copeland investigates what happens when we embark on a vast social experiment with little understanding of the ramifications. She explores the culture of genealogy buffs, the science of DNA, and the business of companies like Ancestry and 23andMe, all while tracing the story of one woman, her unusual results, and a relentless methodical drive for answers that becomes a thoroughly modern genetic detective story.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: One of the impetuses for reading this book was that within the last year or so, two people in our extended family found out they had children they didn’t know they had. There is so much to this topic! “At-home DNA testing is sometimes called ‘recreational,’ to distinguish it from genetic tests that are ordered by doctors. But its implications can be far more profound than the term ‘recreational’ implies.” Between and among stories of people on personal DNA-related quests, the book includes quite a detailed look at the complex biology of DNA as well as the explosive rate of change in DNA-related technology over relatively few years. I liked the personal stories much more than the biology and technology information (which was usually too much “in the weeds” for my interest; but if you like that kind of stuff, it’s fascinating). The main story, about “Alice” and her family’s search for information about her father’s life is absolutely mindboggling! I used to think that as long as I didn’t give a DNA sample, I would be “safe” from all of the consequences and implications of DNA testing, but this book unequivocally disabused me of that notion. No one’s “safe.” | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.
