Review 511: Turning to Stone

Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks by Marcia Bjornerud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



A book that is part autobiography and partly science in the geology field. The book is organized rock types, each rock type being the focus of a chapter and the author fits this into this portion of her life too. Such as, beginning with being a child running to the bus with sand in her shoe leads to sandstone rocks. I liked the format. I found myself connecting more with her life than the science as I'm not that adept with geology. Some of it was too scientific, while other parts were not. A bit of a mix.

There are discussions of some of the controversies over the years, such as the asteroid hit that killed the dinosaurs. The field of geology, such as understanding of earthquakes and volcanoes, is relatively new. It comes with disagreements when knew knowledge doesn’t support the current theory.

There were a few points where I glossed over the areas that got too deep in geologic terms, but a more determined reader would likely glean more if pausing and turning towards other resources to understand the terminology better. Possibly the book would work best for those with some understanding of geology, or a strong interest.


Thanks to Flatiron Books, Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an advance review copy of this book.