When I get new books, I like to share them with people. Unfortunately, since you all are so far away, I cannot host a book party in my crib where you can look over them, so I’ll do the next best thing. I’ll host a book party on my blog each Friday of the week when I either purchase books, they are given to me or when review copies arrive in the mail. In this New Books Party, I will try to be your eyes by presenting my quick “first impression” -- almost as if we are browsing the shelves in a bookstore together -- and I’ll also provide relevant videos about the book and links so you can get a copy of your own.

Lonely Planet India by Lonely Planet, Sarina Singh, Michael Benanav and Lindsay Brown [Lonely Planet; 15th edition, 2013; Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK paperback; Amazon US paperback/kindle US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Lonely Planet India is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Admire the perfect symmetry of the Taj Mahal, ride a camel through the moonlit desert or cruise the lush backwaters of Kerala; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of India and begin your journey now!

Inside Lonely Planet’s India Travel Guide:

• Colour maps and images throughout
• Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests
• Insider tips save you time and money, and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
• Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices
• Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
• Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including temples, cuisine, history, art, Hinduism, architecture, politics, landscapes, wildlife, customs, volunteering, yoga, ashrams and trekking
• Over 190 colour maps
• Useful features - including 3D illustrative plans of India’s 5 most exciting sites, Travel with Children, and Woman and Solo Travellers
• Coverage of Delhi’s bazaars, the Taj Mahal, Rajasthan’s forts and deserts, Goa’s beaches, Kerala’s backwaters, Mumbai’s colonial-era buildings, Darjeeling’s tea plantations, Khajuraho’s ancient temples, Himalayan monasteries and more

The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet India, our most comprehensive guide to India, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.

• Looking for just the highlights of India? Check out Lonely Planet’s Discover India, a photo-rich guide to the India’s most popular attractions; Looking for a guide focused on Delhi, Agra, Rajasthan, Goa, Mumbai, South India or Kerala? Check out Lonely Planet’s South India & Kerala, Rajasthan, Delhi & Agra, or Goa & Mumbai guide for a comprehensive look at all those regions have to offer.

My first impression: I purchased this book at the Frankfurt Book Fair last weekend because I am planning to conduct some bird research in northern India in 2015. Although this monstrously huge travel guide is a paperback, it has similar heft to a boat anchor -- not exactly the sort of thing I’d carry with me whilst traveling! It is more than 1,000 pages long, and yes, it is crammed with all sorts of useful information, diagrams and tables, and lots of gorgeous maps -- everything that the wanderer needs to be inspired and well-prepared. I dip into this book nearly every night before I go to bed, and find it fascinating reading. However, after reading the “Survival Guide” section about women and solo travelers, it looks as though solo female travelers can expect to run a gauntlet of theft as well as physical and sexual harassment and abuse, which made me deeply concerned for my safety in India. The many news stories about the rape and murder of women in India that I’ve been reading the past couple years add to my concerns. Although I am still reading the book, my future research plans in India are uncertain. Any thoughts, dear readers?

Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution’s Greatest Puzzle by Andreas Wagner [Oneworld, 2014; Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK hardcover; Amazon US hardcover/kindle US/mp3 CD]

Publisher’s synopsis: The power of Darwin’s natural selection is beyond doubt, explaining how useful adaptations are preserved over generations. But the biggest mystery about evolution eluded him: how those adaptations arise in the first place. Can random mutations over a mere 3.8 billion years solely be responsible for wings, eyeballs, knees, photosynthesis, and the rest of nature’s creative marvels? And by calling these mutations ‘random’, are we not just admitting our own ignorance? What if we could now uncover the wellspring of all biological innovation?

Renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner presents the missing piece in Darwin’s theory. Using cutting-edge experimental and computational technologies, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.

Consider the Arctic cod, a fish that lives in waters cold enough to turn the internal fluids of most organisms into ice crystals. And yet, the Arctic cod survives by producing ‘natural anti-freeze’, proteins that lower the freezing temperature of its body fluids. The invention of those proteins is an archetypal example of nature’s enormous powers of creativity.

Meticulously researched, carefully argued, and full of fascinating examples from the animal kingdom, Arrival of the Fittest offers up the final puzzle piece in the mystery of life’s rich diversity.

My first impression: As an avid bookworm who is particularly attracted to books about science, I have been impressed by Oneworld Publishers’ string of popular science books -- these books are successful, well-written and scientifically accurate. (For example, Oneworld has had at least one book on the shortlist for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize for science books these past few years, and the winner of the Royal Society’s 2013 Winton Prize for science books was a Oneworld title.) Which suggests that Oneworld provides consistent, strong support to its authors, and their staff attentively shepherd its popular science titles through the writing and editing process so the end product is the best that it can possibly be -- interesting, engaging and thought-provoking.

This book follows the same tradition. The author provides a detailed argument in support of the idea that evolutionary adaptations are not random as Darwin originally proposed, but instead, adaptations obey a set of laws that maximise discovery of new molecules and molecular pathways. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard these arguments (I was first exposed to these ideas by my mentor when I was an undergrad) but the vast array of research presented in this book that supports this argument is worth thoughtful consideration by all evolutionary biologists. If I was still a zoology grad student at the University of Washington, this is a title I’d propose for the zoology grad student science book forum, Pizza Evolution. I already expect I’ll see this book on next year’s Royal Society Winton Prize shortlist!

The Sword of Kuromori by Jason Rohan [Egmont, 2014; Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK paperback; Amazon US paperback/kindle US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Kenny Blackwood arrives in Tokyo to spend the summer with his father and is stunned to discover a destiny he had never dreamed of when he finds himself in the middle of a hidden war that is about to explode.

Racing against an impossible deadline, Kenny must find the fabled Sword of Heaven and use it to prevent the disaster. But a host of terrifying monsters is out to destroy him, and success will come at a price.

With clever, fearless, sarcastic Kiyomi at his side, Kenny must negotiate the worlds of modern and mythic Japan to find the lost sword, before it’s too late.

My first impression: This was a personally autographed gift from a person who knows of my intense passion for the Harry Potter books (and who also knows that I lived in Tokyo for a while as a grad student.) I’ve not yet started reading this because I have five book reviews to finish writing before I allow myself to become spellbound by another page-turner that I will read cover-to-cover without stopping.

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When she’s not got her nose in a book, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She’s very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.