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The body : a guide for occupants
2019
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Library Journal Review
Bryson has written books on topics as varied from the Appalachian Trail to small towns in his native England and he never disappoints readers; he is one of the few authors who can take a borderline boring subject like anatomy and make it a treat. In his droll British voice, he takes listeners on a tour of organs including the stomach, the lungs, the heart, and the bloodstream, and makes them immensely fascinating, dropping facts like bread crumbs along the way (e.g., if you ironed out your lungs and made them flat, they would be as big as a tennis court.) The information is sound, but it's the delivery of this information that makes the book a winner and an indispensable addition to virtually every library. His excellent reading of his latest is a bonus for anyone interested in learning more about the nooks and crannies of our remarkable bodies. VERDICT Fascinating and smartly narrated. Buy it. Your audio patrons will love you for it.--Joseph Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Lompoc, CA
Publishers Weekly Review
Bryson (The Road to Little Dribbling), known for his travel narratives and, more recently, popular scientific works, turns his humorous and curious eye to the human body. Through anecdotes about scientific history and startling facts that seem too extraordinary to be true--the DNA in one person, if stretched out, would measure billions of miles and reach beyond Pluto--Bryson draws the reader into his subject. Tracing the beginnings of the modern understanding of the human body, Bryson introduces his audience to such foundational figures as Henry Gray, whose book Anatomy: Descriptive and Surgical (better known as Gray's Anatomy) has taught generations of medical students since its first publication in 1858, and Wilbur Olin Atwater, a chemist whose 1898 The Chemical Composition of American Food Materials "remained the last word on diet and nutrition for a generation." Bryson also describes the often bewildering mystery of diseases, the science of pain, and the advances made in medical treatment, all with care and concern. Bryson's tone is both informative and inviting, encouraging the reader, throughout this exemplary work, to share the sense of wonder he expresses at how the body is constituted and what it is capable of. (Oct.)
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