Giulia Enders

Inquiring minds want to know. First, there was Our Bodies, Ourselves. Then there was The Joy of Sex. And now, to add to the list of books that better explain the bodies we inhabit, we have Gut. It turns out our gastrointestinal tracts are a good deal more interesting and clever than one would expect, and they play a commanding role in everything from our immune response to our state of mind and feeling of well-being. This volume will be enjoyed by a larger audience than just pre-pubescent boys who revel in bathroom humor (although it does contain more than a few good laughs).… (mais)

A very interesting read on the gut. Enders spends a lot of time talking about the bacteria in the gut, which I found fascinating. The sections on parts of the body involved in pre-digestion that she covered weren't quite as interesting (mouth, esophagus, etc.).

Also, the writing was mildly humorous, but I sometimes felt that the author was trying too hard. No big deal.

My biggest beef with this book is that Enders wrote about the evolution theory as if it was fact instead of theory, and yet went out of her way to emphasize that other theories, though likely true, were indeed still theories at this point in time. Why the disparity? I expect scientists to be more consistent in their work.… (mais)