Reviews

Riddled with Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are by Marlene Zuk

rachelisblue's review against another edition

3.0

Gross and yet fascinating! Easy to understand and possible to skim, which is what I did instead of reading carefully.

settingshadow's review against another edition

3.0

Dr. Zuk is first and foremost a terrific parasitologist. The portions of the book that Zuk spends discussing her own Ph.D. thesis and her own research, especially regarding sexual selection. The central portion of the book from about page 80 to page 180 is fascinating & probably should have been released as a stand-alone book -- it is focused, it flows and the topic is fascinating (these are the chapters on sexual selection, infection differences between the sexes and sexually transmitted diseases.)

The first 80 pages drag, and are covered both more interestingly and in more detail in hundreds of other popular science books. Also, the topics in these chapters (heterozygote advantage, hygeine hypothesis) have little to do with Zuk's central themes. Theis portion of the book also is infested with what Zuk seems to think are wry little asides, which grate terribly. The concluding paragraphs are interesting, but lack the compulsive readable of the earlier chapters.

satyridae's review

3.0

There's a huge ick factor in this book, which deals in worms and other parasites of humanity, as well as the evolution of immune systems and infectious agents. The science is fascinating, and the conclusions amply supported by Darwinian reasoning. Perhaps we've been too hasty in trying to rid ourselves of every possible disease and parasitic hanger-on.