Michael Orthofer

The seasonal flood of best-of-the-year lists and holiday gift-giving recommendations can be overwhelming — not least, as a reminder of how many great-sounding books we haven’t gotten to yet. Yet even as I scour them for what I might have missed in 2021, I can’t resist also looking ahead to what looms just over the horizon. There is a great deal of non-fiction that looks promising, but it is the novels, in particular, that really catch my eye.

In this age of plenty, with more books being published than ever, choosing what to read isn’t easy. A trusted bookseller, friend, or reviewer’s recommendation might be more consistently reliable, but there’s also something to be said for keeping an eye on the big literary prizes for some guidance. This would certainly be the time of year for it: not all of them are packed into these weeks — the Pulitzers will be announced in the spring — but it sure feels like the height of literary prize season.

Highlights • GWAS in the EGCUT biobank identifies ALK as a candidate thinness gene • Knockdown of Alk in Drosophila results in reduced triglyceride levels • Alk mutant mice exhibit resistance to diet- and leptin-mutation-induced obesity • ALK controls energy expenditure via sympathetic tone to the adipose organ Summary There is considerable inter-individual variability in susceptibility to weight gain despite an equally obesogenic environment in large parts of the world.