This book has been on my TBR since it came out in 2016. I kind of kept putting it off, despite seeing it get great reviews and good press all around.
Well, I finally finished it and it is getting some more good press.
Although I do this little blog for bookish things, my main job is as a sort of "infection wrangler" for hospitals, so I am a little bit familiar with microbes. I don't really have a favorite one, but I am partial to those that I can easily spell (no thank you to B. Theta.) So possibly I was holding off because I really have sometimes had enough with Pseudomonas or E. coli and particularly C. difficile.
But, here we are 2025, and the book finally hit my Libby Hold Ready list!
The reader is taken on an instructional but also fascinating journey through the history of microbes, our interactions with them, current uses and possible future ways humans and the world of microbes might "mutually benefit" each other. Or might eliminate each other....really, things could go either way I am sure.
As I was reading this, I was reminded of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Alien Clay and several other Science Fiction concepts and stories. Yong skillfully brings in symbionts and looks at our developing understanding about how our microbiome seems to be controlling our digestion, some parts of our immune system and possibly even our mood. CREEPY! FASCINATING! STRANGER THAN FICTION? YES!
Reading this book almost ten years after publication, I did feel it needed possibly an "update" as this is such a rapidly evolving field, some of the info which was mind blowing in 2016 is now considered part of our daily lives. Despite that, I think it is still a good introduction to microbes, and their affects on living beings. I feel like it's a great read for authors of Sci Fi, and possibly other genres. (One section of the book addresses how every person really does have a signature scent (which is microbe related) - though it isn't typically that of "leather and sea salt and "Man" that the romance writers love to put in every book.
So 4.5/5 Stars. Ed Yong is a fantastic journalist, and health writer, and communicator- making difficult concepts understandable and interesting. Go and check out his other work
While this entire book wasn't really themed on water, it did have a great section on coral reefs, and their microbes- so... I'm counting it among my watery theme books for 2025.
Have you read this book? What were your thoughts? Let me know in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment