Reviews
"Bill Bryson is not so much a discoverer of new lands as a charismatic cartographer of existing ones, smartly mapping points of entry into territory that might otherwise remain impenetrable to curious travelers. With light footed prose, The Body winds its way through the dense terrain of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. . .The result is an absorbing catalog of the human body in all its firmness and fatality. . .The colossal roster of facts on display is dazzling. . . Bryson's distinctive voice will likely delight readers eager to go sightseeing around the world they embody." -- The American Scholar "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "[Bryson] 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." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "A pleasing, entertaining sojourn into the realm of what makes us tick." -- Kirkus Reviews, "A directory of wonders. . .Extraordinary. . . A tour of the minuscule; it aims to do for the human body what his A Short History of Nearly Everything did for science. . .The prose motors gleefully along, a finely tuned engine running on jokes, factoids and biographical interludes. . .Wry, companionable, avuncular and always lucid . . .[ The Body ] could stand as an ultimate prescription for life." -- The Guardian "Bill Bryson isn't a medic, biologist or psychiatrist, but that's what makes his exploration of the human body, all seven billion billion billion atoms of it (the book is rich in jaw-dropping stats), so readable and useful. As with his earlier A Short History of Nearly Everything , which offers a non-specialist introduction to science, he asks all the questions a layperson doesn't dare to ask for fear of exposing humiliating ignorance, then answers them in witty, jargon-free prose that glides you through 400 pages. . .It's fun to read because it's not just comprehensive, but quirky. . .Bryson thrives." -- The Times (London) "Bill Bryson is not so much a discoverer of new lands as a charismatic cartographer of existing ones, smartly mapping points of entry into territory that might otherwise remain impenetrable to curious travelers. With light footed prose, The Body winds its way through the dense terrain of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. . .The result is an absorbing catalog of the human body in all its firmness and fatality. . .The colossal roster of facts on display is dazzling. . . Bryson's distinctive voice will likely delight readers eager to go sightseeing around the world they embody." -- The American Scholar "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "[Bryson] 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." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "A pleasing, entertaining sojourn into the realm of what makes us tick." -- Kirkus Reviews, "Glorious. . .Having described the physical nature of our world and beyond, from the atomic to the intergalactic, in The Body [Bryson] now turns inward to explain--in his lucid, amusing style--what we're made of. . .Astonishing . .Draws on dozens of experts and a couple hundred books to carry the reader from outside to inside, from up to down and from miraculous operational efficiencies to malignant mayhem when things go awry. . .You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design." -- The Washington Post "Delightful. . .Reveals the thousands of rarely acknowledged tasks our body takes care of as we go about our day. . .Informative, entertaining and often gross (kissing, according to one study, transfers up to one billion bacteria from one mouth to another, along with 0.2 micrograms of food bits). . . Bryson, who gives off a Cronkite-like trustworthy vibe, is good at allaying fears and busting myths." --A.J. Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review "Mr. Bryson's latest book is a Baedeker of the human body, a fact-studded survey of our physiques, inside and out. Many authors have produced such guides in recent years, and some of them are very good. But none have done it quite so well as Mr. Bryson, who writes better, is more amusing and has greater mastery of his material than anyone else. . .[He] is a master explainer, with a gift for the pithy simile and all-encompassing metaphor. . .[His] love of language is often on display, and he can't resist occasional indulgences on the origins of terms medical and anatomical. . .Mr. Bryson's account is enlivened by his excellent command of the history of medicine. . .Brisk, provocative and entertaining throughout." --The Wall Street Journal "Fascinating." --NPR "Bryson launches himself into the wilderness of the human anatomy armed with his characteristic thoroughness and wit. He ably dissects the knowns and unknowns of how we live and die and all the idiosyncrasies of our shared infrastructure. . .This book is full of such arresting factoids and, like a douser hunting water, Bryson is adept at finding the bizarre and the arcane in his subject matter. . .Amazing." -- USA Today "A witty, informative immersion. . . The Body-- a delightful, anecdote-propelled read--proves one of his most ambitious yet, as he leads us on a head-to-toe tour of a physique that's terra incognita to many of us. . .Playful, lucid. . .[Bryson] cover[s] a remarkably large swathe of human corporeal and cerebral experience." -- The Boston Globe "A directory of wonders. . .Extraordinary. . . A tour of the minuscule; it aims to do for the human body what his A Short History of Nearly Everything did for science. . .The prose motors gleefully along, a finely tuned engine running on jokes, factoids and biographical interludes. . .Wry, companionable, avuncular and always lucid . . .[ The Body ] could stand as an ultimate prescription for life." -- The Guardian "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "Amusingly informative." -- Forbes "A pleasing, entertaining sojourn into the realm of what makes us tick." -- Kirkus Reviews, "A directory of wonders. . .Extraordinary. . . A tour of the minuscule; it aims to do for the human body what his A Short History of Nearly Everything did for science. . .The prose motors gleefully along, a finely tuned engine running on jokes, factoids and biographical interludes. . .Wry, companionable, avuncular and always lucid . . .[ The Body ] could stand as an ultimate prescription for life." -- The Guardian "Bill Bryson isn't a medic, biologist or psychiatrist, but that's what makes his exploration of the human body, all seven billion billion billion atoms of it (the book is rich in jaw-dropping stats), so readable and useful. As with his earlier A Short History of Nearly Everything , which offers a non-specialist introduction to science, he asks all the questions a layperson doesn't dare to ask for fear of exposing humiliating ignorance, then answers them in witty, jargon-free prose that glides you through 400 pages. . .It's fun to read because it's not just comprehensive, but quirky. . .Bryson thrives." -- The Times (London) "Bill Bryson is not so much a discoverer of new lands as a charismatic cartographer of existing ones, smartly mapping points of entry into territory that might otherwise remain impenetrable to curious travelers. With light footed prose, The Body winds its way through the dense terrain of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry. . .The result is an absorbing catalog of the human body in all its firmness and fatality. . .The colossal roster of facts on display is dazzling. . . Bryson's distinctive voice will likely delight readers eager to go sightseeing around the world they embody." -- The American Scholar "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "[Bryson] 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." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review "Full of humor. . . Celebratory. . .The author marvels at the intricacies of the human body and its extraordinary feats of timing and fine-tuning. He digs into history to show the persistence and tribulations of researchers. He describes the amazing feats of medicine and surgery accomplished in the last few decades. This fact-packed story-strewn volume is a fascinating read, a book to own and return when questions arise -- as they always do." -- The Washington Times "A pleasing, entertaining sojourn into the realm of what makes us tick." -- Kirkus Reviews, "Glorious. . .Having described the physical nature of our world and beyond, from the atomic to the intergalactic, in The Body [Bryson] now turns inward to explain--in his lucid, amusing style--what we're made of. . .Astonishing . .Draws on dozens of experts and a couple hundred books to carry the reader from outside to inside, from up to down and from miraculous operational efficiencies to malignant mayhem when things go awry. . .You will marvel at the brilliance and vast weirdness of your design." -- The Washington Post "Delightful. . .Reveals the thousands of rarely acknowledged tasks our body takes care of as we go about our day. . .Informative, entertaining and often gross (kissing, according to one study, transfers up to one billion bacteria from one mouth to another, along with 0.2 micrograms of food bits). . . Bryson, who gives off a Cronkite-like trustworthy vibe, is good at allaying fears and busting myths." --A.J. Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review "Mr. Bryson's latest book is a Baedeker of the human body, a fact-studded survey of our physiques, inside and out. Many authors have produced such guides in recent years, and some of them are very good. But none have done it quite so well as Mr. Bryson, who writes better, is more amusing and has greater mastery of his material than anyone else. . .[He] is a master explainer, with a gift for the pithy simile and all-encompassing metaphor. . .[His] love of language is often on display, and he can't resist occasional indulgences on the origins of terms medical and anatomical. . .Mr. Bryson's account is enlivened by his excellent command of the history of medicine. . .Brisk, provocative and entertaining throughout." --The Wall Street Journal "Fascinating." --NPR "Like an adventurer trekking the Appalachian Trail from beginning to end (as this bestselling author did for A Walk in the Woods ), Bryson launches himself into the wilderness of the human anatomy armed with his characteristic thoroughness and wit. He ably dissects the knowns and unknowns of how we live and die and all the idiosyncrasies of our shared infrastructure. . .This book is full of such arresting factoids and, like a douser hunting water, Bryson is adept at finding the bizarre and the arcane in his subject matter. . .Amazing." -- USA Today "A witty, informative immersion. . . The Body-- a delightful, anecdote-propelled read--proves one of his most ambitious yet, as he leads us on a head-to-toe tour of a physique that's terra incognita to many of us. . .Playful, lucid. . .[Bryson] cover[s] a remarkably large swathe of human corporeal and cerebral experience." -- The Boston Globe "A directory of wonders. . .Extraordinary. . . A tour of the minuscule; it aims to do for the human body what his A Short History of Nearly Everything did for science. . .The prose motors gleefully along, a finely tuned engine running on jokes, factoids and biographical interludes. . .Wry, companionable, avuncular and always lucid . . .[ The Body ] could stand as an ultimate prescription for life." -- The Guardian "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "A pleasing, entertaining sojourn into the realm of what makes us tick." -- Kirkus Reviews, "A delightful tour guide. . .Bryson's stroll through human anatomy, physiology, evolution, and illness (diabetes, cancer, infections) is instructive, accessible, and entertaining." -- Booklist , starred review "[Bryson] 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." -- Publishers Weekly , starred review
