Book about mechanisms of evolution?

[GenesForLife]

I have copies of Davidson's Regulatory Genome and Minelli and Fusco's "Emerging trends in Evolutionary Developmental Biology" PM me please if you are interested in procuring them.

Cheers.

[pzmyers]

Check out Sean Carroll's books. They don't talk about viruses much, but they do cover the molecular mechanisms behind evolutionary change. Specifically, read Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest.

I've got a few texts that talk about viruses and metazoan evolution, but they're all fairly technical books in genomics and gene structure. 
I would never recommend Eric Davidson to someone who isn't deeply immersed in the literature already. Great stuff, but not light reading.

I don't know what you mean by "fast and slow evolution." You might look into GG Simpson's classic, Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Also, SJ Gould's last book The Structure of Evolutonary Theory, has some really good discussion of PE. Unfortunately, it's embedded in that massive brick of a book. Fortunately, the relevant chapter has been published separately as Punctuated Equilibrium, and it's really very good.

[Sisifo]

Check out Sean Carroll's books. They don't talk about viruses much, but they do cover the molecular mechanisms behind evolutionary change. Specifically, read Endless Forms Most Beautiful and The Making of the Fittest.

I've got a few texts that talk about viruses and metazoan evolution, but they're all fairly technical books in genomics and gene structure. 
I would never recommend Eric Davidson to someone who isn't deeply immersed in the literature already. Great stuff, but not light reading.

I don't know what you mean by "fast and slow evolution." You might look into GG Simpson's classic, Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Also, SJ Gould's last book The Structure of Evolutonary Theory, has some really good discussion of PE. Unfortunately, it's embedded in that massive brick of a book. Fortunately, the relevant chapter has been published separately as Punctuated Equilibrium, and it's really very good.

From this thread, I have come to the addition to my library of:

What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, Donald Prothero
The Origins of Genome Architecture by Michael Lunch
Tempo and Mode in Evolution by GG Simpson
Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo, By Sean Carroll

And that bring to my mind: What would be a concise library of must-haves for the non-scientist about evolution? Any proposal?

[Epictetus]

What would be a concise library of must-haves for the non-scientist about evolution? Any proposal?

This is just my opinion. I'm sure other people will have different suggestions:

Evolutionary Biology by Douglas J Futuyma

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins

The Origin Of Species by Charles Darwin

[hackenslash]

Language of the Genes, by Steve Jones. It's a bit dated now, but very good nonetheless, except for his obsession with sails.

[SevenOfNine]

"Virolution" by Frank Ryan is also interesting, and easy to read for the non-specialist. Lots of molecular level discussions in there. Not totally sold on some of his conclusions, but interesting nevertheless. he pushes a little too hard on symbiogenesis being a basic mechanism for my taste, as it all boils down to just NS, sexual selection, and drift, IMHO opinion, and so symbiogenesis is an emergent phenomena from natural selection.