Reddit reviews Human Evolutionary Genetics

If you want a scientific work that really covers all the topics of

>the transition and rise that brought about homo sapiens

I can really recommend Human Evolutionary Genetics from Jobling et al.

Using (and explaining) the tools and methods of modern genetics, this awesome book meticulously traces the development of homo sapiens, even covering topics like the colonization of the world.

Easily one of my favourite scholarly books of all time.

I used Human Molecular Genetics by Strachan and Read for a Human Genetics university course a while back. It has the basics in the early chapters, but also goes into more depth regarding the topics you're interested in. It looks like the newest edition has a new section on Human Evolutionary Genetics: https://www.amazon.com/Human-Molecular-Genetics-Tom-Strachan/dp/0815345895/ref=asc_df_0815345895/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=265989256760&hvpos=1o15&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11363577135974897694&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9023224&hvtargid=pla-645787829197&psc=1

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Human Evolutionary Genetics by Jobling et al has a more specific focus, but is a bit dated (2013): https://www.amazon.com/Human-Evolutionary-Genetics-Mark-Jobling/dp/0815341482/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=human+evolutionary+genetics&qid=1571693034&sr=8-1

Same-sex behavior is frequent in many animal species but an evolutionary benefit may not be immediately obvious. For example, you share about the same amount of genes with each parent, your siblings and your children. Therefore, if the cost of raising your own children was too high you'd have a higher chance of spreading at least some of your alleles by investing your resources in supporting your family instead (the theory behind this is called kin selection). What I'm trying to say is, sexual reproduction isn't the only possible way for you to spread your alleles in a population.

Also, sexual orientation (among many other traits, like general intelligence) is thought to be influenced by both genetic and environmental factors so saying that children can be rewired willy-nilly is just plain wrong.

source: molecular biology and psychology double major, parents are medical doctors.

edit: in case you're interested in evolutionary biology check out Evolutionary Analysis (or Human Evolutionary Genetics for humans in particular).

edit 2: How Children Develop is a nice book on Developmental Psychology and might be worth a look, too. However, I only read a translated version so your experience may differ.

Evolution occurs over many tens of to hundreds of thousands of years, and even then, at the scale of single proteins such as haemoglobin that you are talking about. The development of an entirely new organ in response to an environmental change occurring over one organism's lifetime is preposterous. Cancerous tumours do not suddenly turn into new organs that can metabolise carbon, go and read a book, specifically, if you are remotely interested: This and this. These are undergraduate level textbooks so even with as basic an understanding as you seem to have, you should be able to pick them up from the start if you stick with it. Your grandma isn't going to grow an extra arm because a new video game controller comes out that has 3 joy sticks and you want to play it, do you understand?