NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Alan de Queiroz's The Monkey's Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life (Basic Books, 2014). The preview consists of the introduction, "Of Garter Snakes and Gondwana," in which de Queiroz engagingly explains his project: "to tell the story of this recent sea change in biogeography, from a view dominated by vicariance to a more balanced outlook recognizing that the natural dispersal of organisms across oceans and other barriers is also hugely important."
Reviewing The Monkey's Voyage at The Panda's Thumb blog, Nick Matzke (whose dissertation involved historical biogeography) described it as "destined to become a classic of science writing," praising de Queiroz for successfully combining "a scientific review with an engaging journalistic style, complete with humorous asides and witty quotes from the participants ... Under his pen, a topic that seems at first rather dry and academic becomes one that underlies everything you see when you're on a hike or at a zoo."