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megganjoy's review against another edition
5.0
It is five days into the new year, and I think this may be my favorite book of 2023. I am unfamiliar with much of what he studies and then writes about, so each chapter was a new way to look at the things I share space with. The book is slower at the beginning, and the author seems to hit his stride in writing with the tenth chapter. ( I know what sounds like 1-9 is a slog, but it wasn't - his writing for the latter half of the book took a conversational tone that I prefer.) That said, chapter 10 was rough subject-wise, maybe because I fostered puppies last summer and know all too well the characters we are introduced to. The final chapter was just as charming as one could want.
ewg109's review against another edition
3.0
This is a super interesting topic and the author is genuinely funny, but the book lacks a cohesive structure to make it relevant for lay readers. It felt more.like essays.
jdintr's review against another edition
3.0
In a series of related essays, Dunn looks at all aspects of life within the home. He has fashioned for himself a very clever area of expertise where--instead of exploring the ends of the earth for new species--he has found abundant life to study in his back hard and in his basement!
Dunn takes the readers from the slime inside the shower spigot (where he realizes that water-treatment may be killing the wrong (i.e. good) kinds of bacteria and failing to remove all the pathogens) to the bugs and remains found underneath the couch, where he finds undiscovered species and nearly 200 species of insect in even the cleanest houses.
The chapters can be read separately or consecutively. In critique, reading as a person without specific science knowledge, I feel like Dunn could have used a better editor, skipping some of the gee-whiz methods of sample collecting for more of the analysis and application.
Overall, Dunn argues for more biological diversity in our homes and shower spigots, rather than attacking bugs (seen and unseen). This book is a fine reminder of the life that surrounds us, of the teeming multitudes of fauna among which we live every day.
Dunn takes the readers from the slime inside the shower spigot (where he realizes that water-treatment may be killing the wrong (i.e. good) kinds of bacteria and failing to remove all the pathogens) to the bugs and remains found underneath the couch, where he finds undiscovered species and nearly 200 species of insect in even the cleanest houses.
The chapters can be read separately or consecutively. In critique, reading as a person without specific science knowledge, I feel like Dunn could have used a better editor, skipping some of the gee-whiz methods of sample collecting for more of the analysis and application.
Overall, Dunn argues for more biological diversity in our homes and shower spigots, rather than attacking bugs (seen and unseen). This book is a fine reminder of the life that surrounds us, of the teeming multitudes of fauna among which we live every day.
brianamorrison's review against another edition
5.0
I really enjoyed listening to this audio book. The technical and scientific information is presented in a way that is interesting and easy to understand. This book gave me a deeper understanding and appreciation for the natural world that surrounds us, though I definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone fearful of germs. While the entire book was good, I particularly enjoyed the last chapter on fermentation bacteria and how the author changed his lifestyle after his research was concluded.
spuriousdiphthongs's review against another edition
3.0
There were some interesting tidbits and the overall premise of this book was solid. However, there were some things that rubbed me the wrong way that I can't really put my finger on yet.
esessa's review against another edition
3.0
I found this book really frustrating. I have a problem with nonfiction books that claim to be about one thing but actually aren't, and that's the case with this one. It claims to "introduce us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes", but it doesn't do that, not nearly. It is actually a collection of accounts about scientist-author Dunn's research on a limited handful of species, some (but not all) of which happen to live in our houses. It's basically his greatest hits of his own research, and not a fully fleshed out account of what lives in our houses; I expected the book's structure to be something like a walkthrough of a typical house, stopping in each room to discuss the critters that live there (and I see from the other reviews that I wasn't alone in making this assumption). Instead, you get a disjointed series of chapters about Dunn's various projects. I suppose loosely they do have to do with species that live in our homes, but there are also, for example, chapters that focus entirely on things that happen in hospitals, or the history of microscopy. It's interesting in its own way, and I suppose at least tangentially relevant to what is supposed to be the main theme, but the blurb and description definitely aren't accurate to the contents of the book, and that irritates me. There are also numerous places where Dunn halts the narrative, such as it is, to make some observation about the noble scientific process, or the lives and toils of scientists, and those parts all came across as condescending, paternalistic, and navel-gazing. These were among the many random and obnoxious tangents he went off on, clearly based on his own interests and not on wanting to tell a cohesive story to the reader.
TLDR: be wary of books written by scientists about their own work. I say that as a scientist (apologies to my colleagues!).
TLDR: be wary of books written by scientists about their own work. I say that as a scientist (apologies to my colleagues!).
mikecross's review against another edition
4.0
Very interesting with long side trips in related topics. Wish a little more on what we can really do to improve, but overall quite enjoyable.
jodihannah's review against another edition
informative
3.0
I really had high expectations for this book, and I think part of that had to do with the overall marketing of the book. Between the cover art, the subtitle, and the summary on the back, I expected much of this book to talk about the insects in your home. As an entomologist myself, that was what I wanted it to talk about! Sure, I thought maybe a chapter on the bacteria in your home might be interesting, but I expected the majority of it to talk about the visible insects that create your home ecosystem. Instead, this was more on bacteria, algae, and other unicellular organisms. The problem with that is there are a lot of books on the small worlds that surround us right now, many much more interesting to read. For example, I Contain Multitudes was an amazing book on the diversity of bacteria in the world. It was also more engaging.
I'm not saying there isn't necessarily a place in the world for this book. Anyone who doesn't want to tackle Multitudes would find this book to be an excellent, shorter substitute. Still, this book really wasn't what I wanted, hoped, or was lead to believe it was.
I'm not saying there isn't necessarily a place in the world for this book. Anyone who doesn't want to tackle Multitudes would find this book to be an excellent, shorter substitute. Still, this book really wasn't what I wanted, hoped, or was lead to believe it was.