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Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work
A fascinating, irreverent guide to human evolution and what it means for our bodies today
An eye-opening look into why our bodies work--or don't--the way they do. From blurry vision, to crooked teeth, ACLs that tear at alarming rates and spines that seem to spend a lifetime falling apart, it's a curious thing that human beings have beaten the odds as a species. After all, we're the only survivors on our branch of the tree of life. Why is it that human mothers have such a life-endangering experience giving birth? And why are there entire medical specialties for teeth and feet? In this funny, wide-ranging and often surprising book, biologist Alex Bezzerides tells us just where we inherited our adaptable, achy, brilliant bodies in the process of evolution.
The book traces the delightfully unexpected answers to these questions and many more:
Why do we blink?
Why don't our teeth regularly fit in our mouths?
Why do women menstruate when so many other mammals don't?
Why did humans stand up on two legs in the first place?
An eye-opening look into why our bodies work--or don't--the way they do. From blurry vision, to crooked teeth, ACLs that tear at alarming rates and spines that seem to spend a lifetime falling apart, it's a curious thing that human beings have beaten the odds as a species. After all, we're the only survivors on our branch of the tree of life. Why is it that human mothers have such a life-endangering experience giving birth? And why are there entire medical specialties for teeth and feet? In this funny, wide-ranging and often surprising book, biologist Alex Bezzerides tells us just where we inherited our adaptable, achy, brilliant bodies in the process of evolution.
The book traces the delightfully unexpected answers to these questions and many more:
Why do we blink?
Why don't our teeth regularly fit in our mouths?
Why do women menstruate when so many other mammals don't?
Why did humans stand up on two legs in the first place?
384 pages, Hardcover
First published May 18, 2021
202 people are currently reading
1831 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 162 reviews
August 24, 2022
In one of his best works, The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins identifies a key concept of evolution. It really is blind in the sense that it has no ability to look forward beyond what currently exists. It has no volition, of course, no consciousness of an end state to work toward, and thus cannot anticipate that a certain change might be helpful two or three mutations down the line. If you understand that, both the wonders and the weirdness of evolution become apparent.
For instance, you could start with a random mutation on a patch of skin that allows an organism to detect differences in light and shadow. Shadow could indicate a predator to be avoided, so that ability is immediately useful, with usefulness defined as anything that increases the likelihood that the creature will live long enough to reproduce and pass its genes along to the next generation. A further mutation might cause the light sensitive patch to deepen and start forming a cup, which would give the ability to tell what direction the shadow is coming from, also helpful for survival. Additional changes, to provide musculature to move the proto-eye in the desired direction, and evolving a lens to collect light and sharpen the image, can then follow. Over countless generations and millions of years you end up with an eye. Creationists often scoff and say, what good is half an eye? Actually, quite a bit thank you.
But eyes are not perfect, as anyone who wears glasses knows. They just need to be incrementally better than whatever came before; incrementally better enough to have conferred a survival advantage over the members of the species without the mutation. Additional changes beyond that, to make them better than they need to be can actually be harmful if they incur an energy cost that is not compensated for by increased survivability. Furthermore, evolution’s ability to direct development stops once the creature reaches breeding age: once it can pass down its genes there is no mechanism to weed out weaknesses that might become harmful later in life, and thus we have to deal with fading eyesight, bad backs, cancer, and other maladies that mostly affect older people.
This book focuses on the weird side of evolution, those things that exist for a reason but which nevertheless cause problems for us today. It starts with teeth, and begins with a discussion of the earliest teeth from the fossil record. When we reach our hominen ancestors we find that changes in diet and lifestyle meant that we no longer needed large jaws with powerful muscles to chew raw meat. Since jaws larger than they need to be incur a risky energy cost, they began to shrink, but teeth were on their own evolutionary path and did not shrink at the same rate. And so we have more teeth now than we need (wisdom teeth), and the others often jostle each other, resulting in the need for orthodontics.
The book uses that same narrative structure to discuss other features. Most people who have back pain at one time or another in their lives. Why? Because our skeletons evolved for four-footedness, and what works just fine when you have four paws on the ground causes all sorts of problems distributing force when you move to an upright position. There is an excellent chapter on why we are so susceptible to choking, in that our larnyx needed to move forward and thus had to cross the throat. The epiglottis works most of the time to close the airway when we swallow, but we’ve all had some unpleasant moments when things don’t go right. I also learned to never give small children grapes or hotdogs unless they have been cut up previously, because they are just the right size to go down the wrong way.
There is also a remarkable discussion of human reproduction, including things like how concealed ovulation was tied into evolving social structures. And when it comes to pregnancy, so many things can go wrong in so many ways it left me amazed that anyone is ever born healthy, not to mention the weirdness that giving birth in modern humans is always a medical emergency.
This is not just a gee-whiz, look how weird this is, book. Every chapter starts with a background in evolution based on the fossil evidence, and explains how changes over time met the needs of our ancestors while setting the stage for problems today. Once again, evolution is blind and had no way to know that we would one day be playing football, sitting at desks for eight hours a day, or reading ten-point type, so it could not prepare our bodies for any of that. As a final note, Peter Davidson has provided some fine illustrations to help visualize what the author is talking about. I enjoyed this book, and I think that anyone who is interested in the long trip we took to get to now would also like it.
For instance, you could start with a random mutation on a patch of skin that allows an organism to detect differences in light and shadow. Shadow could indicate a predator to be avoided, so that ability is immediately useful, with usefulness defined as anything that increases the likelihood that the creature will live long enough to reproduce and pass its genes along to the next generation. A further mutation might cause the light sensitive patch to deepen and start forming a cup, which would give the ability to tell what direction the shadow is coming from, also helpful for survival. Additional changes, to provide musculature to move the proto-eye in the desired direction, and evolving a lens to collect light and sharpen the image, can then follow. Over countless generations and millions of years you end up with an eye. Creationists often scoff and say, what good is half an eye? Actually, quite a bit thank you.
But eyes are not perfect, as anyone who wears glasses knows. They just need to be incrementally better than whatever came before; incrementally better enough to have conferred a survival advantage over the members of the species without the mutation. Additional changes beyond that, to make them better than they need to be can actually be harmful if they incur an energy cost that is not compensated for by increased survivability. Furthermore, evolution’s ability to direct development stops once the creature reaches breeding age: once it can pass down its genes there is no mechanism to weed out weaknesses that might become harmful later in life, and thus we have to deal with fading eyesight, bad backs, cancer, and other maladies that mostly affect older people.
This book focuses on the weird side of evolution, those things that exist for a reason but which nevertheless cause problems for us today. It starts with teeth, and begins with a discussion of the earliest teeth from the fossil record. When we reach our hominen ancestors we find that changes in diet and lifestyle meant that we no longer needed large jaws with powerful muscles to chew raw meat. Since jaws larger than they need to be incur a risky energy cost, they began to shrink, but teeth were on their own evolutionary path and did not shrink at the same rate. And so we have more teeth now than we need (wisdom teeth), and the others often jostle each other, resulting in the need for orthodontics.
The book uses that same narrative structure to discuss other features. Most people who have back pain at one time or another in their lives. Why? Because our skeletons evolved for four-footedness, and what works just fine when you have four paws on the ground causes all sorts of problems distributing force when you move to an upright position. There is an excellent chapter on why we are so susceptible to choking, in that our larnyx needed to move forward and thus had to cross the throat. The epiglottis works most of the time to close the airway when we swallow, but we’ve all had some unpleasant moments when things don’t go right. I also learned to never give small children grapes or hotdogs unless they have been cut up previously, because they are just the right size to go down the wrong way.
There is also a remarkable discussion of human reproduction, including things like how concealed ovulation was tied into evolving social structures. And when it comes to pregnancy, so many things can go wrong in so many ways it left me amazed that anyone is ever born healthy, not to mention the weirdness that giving birth in modern humans is always a medical emergency.
This is not just a gee-whiz, look how weird this is, book. Every chapter starts with a background in evolution based on the fossil evidence, and explains how changes over time met the needs of our ancestors while setting the stage for problems today. Once again, evolution is blind and had no way to know that we would one day be playing football, sitting at desks for eight hours a day, or reading ten-point type, so it could not prepare our bodies for any of that. As a final note, Peter Davidson has provided some fine illustrations to help visualize what the author is talking about. I enjoyed this book, and I think that anyone who is interested in the long trip we took to get to now would also like it.
May 26, 2021
about halfway through, the author gets sidetracked telling story after story about his wife's pregnancy. he's a sensitive and caring husband and father, but he failed to keep the anecdotes relevant to the thesis of the book.
January 10, 2022
I received an ARC of Evolution Gone Wrong through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher. I am always a little wary of diving into non-fiction books especially if they are related to science. Will they be too dense or perhaps too advanced for a beginner like me? With Evolution Gone Wrong, the author Alexander Bezzerides was able to touch upon numerous areas of human evolution and how it currently affects our everyday lives in a way that provided plenty of information without overwhelming the reader. A great book with the perfect amount of humour for anyone looking for a beginner understanding of certain aspects of human evolution that humans deal with regularly.
June 15, 2021
An entertaining discussion of the ways in which evolution, forced to “renovate previous models,” isn’t able to create humans (or any other species) as efficiently as if designing them from scratch. I already knew a fair amount of the information presented, but I learned new details and was inspired to think about it in new ways. (At times I was reminded of Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.) There were other topics I hadn’t explored at all (e.g. cross-species differences in the menstrual cycle and early pregnancy and why those differences exist,) so that was fun. And I’m fascinated by the thought of Homo sapiens as a transitional species! Overall, I found this book to be thoughtful and insightful, and I enjoyed it.
June 7, 2021
Written with humor and intelligence, you will fly through this fascinating book, with a smile on your face along the way, as you learn the impact our evolution ancestry had on the human body and why it was designed the way it was, and how that often contributes to the aches and pains we experience. Wonderfully written, elegantly researched, and easy to understand, this is a book well worth your time and will leave you with fascinating facts and insights that you will want to share.
June 13, 2021
This was a most pleasant read for 3 reasons: 1. It delivered baskets full of facts, answers to questions that I had never thought to ask, and lots of questions begging for answers. 2. It was all meat and no fillers or the bane of nonfiction books, author's never ceasing bloviations, that often turn a 200 page book into a 400 page book and 3. the author had a real sense of humor.
June 26, 2021
An entertaining and informative trip through biology, anatomy, and evolution. I'm so happy when I find good nonfiction that is both educational and well-written. I happily recommend to anyone interested in the history of our human bodies.
July 26, 2024
Stipriai per popsinė.
July 8, 2021
Vaguely answers questions like why so many of us need braces, why our teeth don’t fit in our head, why we blink and why our bodies don’t work so well. Goes off topic a lot and has lots of padding.
September 21, 2021
Rounded up from 3.5- a very pop-sci “turns out” type book but some fascinating bits amid the dad jokes and a really interesting read alongside Breath
December 28, 2024
A mutation in a gene that controls the size of the jaw cannot magically spur a mutation in a gene controlling the size of the teeth.
This is a pretty straightforward book that never seeks to “prove” evolution directly versus creationism or intelligent design, but this would be an excellent book to provide to someone if you wanted to avoid a polemic. It sets out early by way of simple analogy that if our bodies were created for one purpose, changing that purpose will be imperfect.
The subsequent chapters are then specific examples that explain both the costs and benefits of our evolutionary choices, and repeats the theme of limited choices and adaptations, such as how our eyes first evolved underwater before being repurposed for use on land.
The early vertebrate land pioneers already had fully functioning eyes. They did not work terribly well out of the water, but they worked a lot better than nothing.
That, right there, is one of the most important features of evolution. Lousy function trumps no function, Every time.
The tone is relatively relaxed and folksy, with plenty of references to the author’s personal experiences. I am fine with going for a tone of relatability though it's generally not a major bonus for me.
This is a pretty straightforward book that never seeks to “prove” evolution directly versus creationism or intelligent design, but this would be an excellent book to provide to someone if you wanted to avoid a polemic. It sets out early by way of simple analogy that if our bodies were created for one purpose, changing that purpose will be imperfect.
The subsequent chapters are then specific examples that explain both the costs and benefits of our evolutionary choices, and repeats the theme of limited choices and adaptations, such as how our eyes first evolved underwater before being repurposed for use on land.
The early vertebrate land pioneers already had fully functioning eyes. They did not work terribly well out of the water, but they worked a lot better than nothing.
That, right there, is one of the most important features of evolution. Lousy function trumps no function, Every time.
The tone is relatively relaxed and folksy, with plenty of references to the author’s personal experiences. I am fine with going for a tone of relatability though it's generally not a major bonus for me.
September 30, 2021
Interesting and engaging.
December 25, 2021
This book is fascinating! I loved the author's exploration of ultimate questions relating to the human body.
August 29, 2023
Evolutionary explanations of our flaws.
July 28, 2021
This is the perfect book to explain why our bodies fail us in the ways that they do, but also to celebrate the excellence of our physiology. We’re made of great stuff, and we’re a young race. It left me optimistic overall.
June 17, 2025
Nothing in this book demonstrates evolution has went wrong. Really the title of the book should be “the author gone wrong”. This book in the end is more misleading than legitimately informative. He draws conclusions from flawed premises and at other times draws conclusions in a logically flawed way from premises that are completely irrelevant to the conclusion and definitely do not lead to it. He fails to distinguish his ideas and opinions and thoughts from established facts through the scientific method or reasonably coherent theories from absolute fluff. Many of his conclusions and analysis both used loosely come from his literal one off experiences and apply no critical thought to account for any alternative. Two that I just read through back to back were that “if someone thinks they broke a bone, they didn’t because you know when you broke a bone because it hurts way more than a strain or sprain.” This is absolutely not a true statement. I used to work with many ortho surgeons and they said the complete opposite that strains and sprains and breaks depending on the grade, location, etc can vary and sprains can hurt much more than a broken bone. Also it is entirely possible to break a bone and not know it contrary to the author’s most idiotically confident assertion. Some of the matter of fact things he says are even extremely dangerous. He says you don’t need to get your torn ACL repaired because one guy he knows tore it and 20 years later he never got it repaired. This is a completely utterly stupid statement. It makes no differentiation between partial and complete tears nor does it consider the vast opinion of literally every medical doctor that if you tear your ACL, meaning a complete tear which is implied by the author because he says “when the ligament snaps” just a few lines before you most certainly do in fact need to get it repaired and it is extremely dangerous and detrimental not too for collateral arthritis, stability issues, inability to turn, run, jump, and most basic ADLs. Insane that he would not even just recommend but categorically state sometimes you don’t need to do anything about your completely torn ACL. So much of the book is hogwash but framed so confidently that they maybe 20% of useful factual recitations you can get much quicker and accurately from some quick anatomy or bio reads. The last part of the book about his wife’s pregnancy is the only halfway decent part of the book as it is somewhat insightful into pregnancy and his quirky own experiences are moderately entertaining. The guy is absolutely terrible with statistical interpretation and reasoning and his scientific explanations are just so poorly done that they actually end up being incorrect for the most part despite trying to discuss fairly well-established biological facts.
February 13, 2021
Great science writing in a wonderful book
I loved this book. Alex Bezzerides is a great science writer. The book has everything I want in science writing. Bezzerides gives good explanations of the science and writes with a great sense of humor. Indeed, some of his writing made me laugh out loud. He also puts himself into the story, creating a closer bond with the reader. Peter Davidson provided great illustrations that helped clarify the information. I think the book could have used more illustrations, not to clarify any additional information, but just because they are so great. This was one of the books, that when I got to the end, I was sad to say goodbye to the author and illustrator. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in science. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advance reader copy.
I loved this book. Alex Bezzerides is a great science writer. The book has everything I want in science writing. Bezzerides gives good explanations of the science and writes with a great sense of humor. Indeed, some of his writing made me laugh out loud. He also puts himself into the story, creating a closer bond with the reader. Peter Davidson provided great illustrations that helped clarify the information. I think the book could have used more illustrations, not to clarify any additional information, but just because they are so great. This was one of the books, that when I got to the end, I was sad to say goodbye to the author and illustrator. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in science. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the advance reader copy.
June 10, 2021
An entertaining and informative book about why the human body suffers in predictable ways. The scientific writing is clear and educational without ever slipping into confusing jargon. Each page is packed with interesting insights into how evolution has shaped the human body. Alex Bezzerides infuses each chapter with bouts of humor that helps to keep the reader engaged. He also finds ways to use stories from his own life to bring elevated scientific concepts down to the personal level. After reading this book, I feel like I know what Alex is like as a teacher and I want to take his class!
June 23, 2021
Very entertaining look into the flaws evolution "created" in the human body. Interesting and insightful, but the conversational style used by the author was a bit off-putting to me. Personal anecdotes and metaphorical examples were overused, in my most humble opinion. Still, a worthwhile read.
February 6, 2022
Great book, generally engaging style, and even though I know plenty about some of the “chesnuts” such as bad backs and fallen arches, plenty new here.
Totally new to me: Why humans menstruate. Technically, it’s why human women only, of course, EXternally menstruate, or overtly menstruate, as all mammalian females slough off their uterine lining at the end of an estrus cycle.
Definitely NOT new in the pregnancy chapter is that, due to various chromosomal abnormalities, 30 percent of human conceptions end in spontaneous abortion within 6 weeks or so of conception. The Religious Right, which generally doesn’t even accept evolution, probably doesn’t even know that.
Bezzerides goes on to discuss sperm count and many other issues.
==
Besides all the above, Bezzerides discusses the old standbys of bad backs, fallen arches and crappy teeth, along with stuff like knee injuries. New to me? It probably is NOT differing pelvic angle that increases ACL blowouts in women.
Bezzerides closes with an “it’s not all bad” chapter, noting what bipedalism plus large brains have led us to do, and also noting that some evolutionary “fails,” like the eye, as least in part, aren’t just a human issue, but part of all vertebrate land animals’ shortcoming, being out of an aqueous environment.
I liked the conversational, anecdotal style of writing, by the way. This seems to have a love/hate split among reviewers.
That said, while it gets five stars, I’m surprised Bezzerides didn’t write about how upright posture has affected the sinuses and breathing issues.
Totally new to me: Why humans menstruate. Technically, it’s why human women only, of course, EXternally menstruate, or overtly menstruate, as all mammalian females slough off their uterine lining at the end of an estrus cycle.
Definitely NOT new in the pregnancy chapter is that, due to various chromosomal abnormalities, 30 percent of human conceptions end in spontaneous abortion within 6 weeks or so of conception. The Religious Right, which generally doesn’t even accept evolution, probably doesn’t even know that.
Bezzerides goes on to discuss sperm count and many other issues.
==
Besides all the above, Bezzerides discusses the old standbys of bad backs, fallen arches and crappy teeth, along with stuff like knee injuries. New to me? It probably is NOT differing pelvic angle that increases ACL blowouts in women.
Bezzerides closes with an “it’s not all bad” chapter, noting what bipedalism plus large brains have led us to do, and also noting that some evolutionary “fails,” like the eye, as least in part, aren’t just a human issue, but part of all vertebrate land animals’ shortcoming, being out of an aqueous environment.
I liked the conversational, anecdotal style of writing, by the way. This seems to have a love/hate split among reviewers.
That said, while it gets five stars, I’m surprised Bezzerides didn’t write about how upright posture has affected the sinuses and breathing issues.
April 16, 2022
Biologist and writer Alex Bezzerides has written a book on the interrelated topics of evolution, biology and physiology. In an interview Bezzerides says that “the books about the amazing way that evolution has led us down this path of incredible minds and adroit hands...have already been written, and I wanted to explore the other side of the coin.” He brings along a great sense of humor which makes for a lively and informative book.
If evolution has been at work for millions and millions of years, then why “is the human body so uniquely prone to aches and pains.” Why hasn’t evolution produced better bodies for us humans? Why do we suffer from teeth that need braces, eyes that need glasses, backs and knees that fail us, fallen arches, difficult childbirths, and on and on. According to Bezzerides, these aches and pains (and many more) don’t happen despite our evolutionary history, but rather because of it.
Bezzerides helps us understand that a lot of the things about our bodies that don’t work are evolutionary trade-offs for the positive things that evolution has given us. When hominid ancestors began to walk on two feet, it freed up the hands to be able to do things other than locomotion.
As hands began to evolve and become more dexterous that drove larger brains. Larger brains gave us things like “film festivals, tooth fairies, and snowboarding competitions.” But the physiological trade-offs include things like back pain. As Bezzerides notes, “you cannot take a horizontal spine and make it vertical and not expect a few problems”.
Walking upright adds stress to our knees and feet as well. The knee is the “joint that puts more people under the knife than any other.” Bezzerides tells us about his own knee problems, including ACL repair from an injury playing basketball.
Eye problems trace a different path. Eyes evolved among ocean living creatures. As a result, eyes work by passing light through a lens, across a liquid filled space to light sensing cells on the retina. The fluid in our eyes is there because it once controlled light refraction in water for our ocean living ancestors. Eyes on land don’t achieve the same control for light refraction to allow consistently sharp vision. Luckily for us, glasses can refract light into our eyes, correcting the less than sharp vision some of us are born with.
From problems with teeth and eyes, and why choking is so common, the book proceeds through issues with bones and muscles, and on into problems with human reproduction. Like the rest of the book, the chapters on reproduction use frank biological terminology mixed in with Bezzerides’s humorous asides. This includes a whole section on menstruation, where he explains the term “spontaneous decidualization” and how it helped him to understand why menstruation evolved. He leans heavily on metaphors in these chapters, some of which are pretty hilarious.
Written with humor, this is an engaging and informative book, and one I can easily recommend. It’s a Four Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for me.
NOTE: I listened to the audiobook and narrator Joe Knezevich did an outstanding job. He really leans into the humor in the book and I thought his narration really fit the material.
If evolution has been at work for millions and millions of years, then why “is the human body so uniquely prone to aches and pains.” Why hasn’t evolution produced better bodies for us humans? Why do we suffer from teeth that need braces, eyes that need glasses, backs and knees that fail us, fallen arches, difficult childbirths, and on and on. According to Bezzerides, these aches and pains (and many more) don’t happen despite our evolutionary history, but rather because of it.
Bezzerides helps us understand that a lot of the things about our bodies that don’t work are evolutionary trade-offs for the positive things that evolution has given us. When hominid ancestors began to walk on two feet, it freed up the hands to be able to do things other than locomotion.
As hands began to evolve and become more dexterous that drove larger brains. Larger brains gave us things like “film festivals, tooth fairies, and snowboarding competitions.” But the physiological trade-offs include things like back pain. As Bezzerides notes, “you cannot take a horizontal spine and make it vertical and not expect a few problems”.
Walking upright adds stress to our knees and feet as well. The knee is the “joint that puts more people under the knife than any other.” Bezzerides tells us about his own knee problems, including ACL repair from an injury playing basketball.
Eye problems trace a different path. Eyes evolved among ocean living creatures. As a result, eyes work by passing light through a lens, across a liquid filled space to light sensing cells on the retina. The fluid in our eyes is there because it once controlled light refraction in water for our ocean living ancestors. Eyes on land don’t achieve the same control for light refraction to allow consistently sharp vision. Luckily for us, glasses can refract light into our eyes, correcting the less than sharp vision some of us are born with.
From problems with teeth and eyes, and why choking is so common, the book proceeds through issues with bones and muscles, and on into problems with human reproduction. Like the rest of the book, the chapters on reproduction use frank biological terminology mixed in with Bezzerides’s humorous asides. This includes a whole section on menstruation, where he explains the term “spontaneous decidualization” and how it helped him to understand why menstruation evolved. He leans heavily on metaphors in these chapters, some of which are pretty hilarious.
Written with humor, this is an engaging and informative book, and one I can easily recommend. It’s a Four Star ⭐⭐⭐⭐ read for me.
NOTE: I listened to the audiobook and narrator Joe Knezevich did an outstanding job. He really leans into the humor in the book and I thought his narration really fit the material.
October 24, 2024
Ever wonder why you're knees hurt? Or why we grow wisdom teeth that we need to remove? Or maybe you're reading this through a pair of prescription glasses? Evolution Gone Wrong has the answers!
A very readable evolution book looking at all the kinks yet to be worked out from our evolutionary past!
A very readable evolution book looking at all the kinks yet to be worked out from our evolutionary past!
July 12, 2021
Funny and interesting.
March 25, 2022
A fun and interesting read!
April 15, 2023
Informative and surprisingly funny
May 17, 2023
Like a community college course on why the human back is a travesty, and other terrible things about our bodies. So, ya know, great.
October 19, 2025
Very interesting book on how evolution has led to common human issues. I enjoyed the author putting humor throughout the book, as it kept it very engaging despite being a dense subject.
June 16, 2021
This book was off to a good start! It is interesting from an evolutionary perspective to find out why so many of us wear glasses and have too many teeth for our small jaws. The menstruation and birthing sections did not work for - I don't need a male perspective on those issues. He is also incredibly negative and dismisses our animal cousins as beneath us.
July 2, 2021
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I often find books on science to be some combination of repetitive, dull, or hard to understand but the writing in this book was engaging, funny, and comprehensible. I would definitely be interested in reading other books by this author!
January 8, 2022
The idea behind this book had me excited to read it. I'm a big fan of Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body and this book sounded like it would be in the same vein, and it was! However, I can't give it more than 3 stars, because the writing annoyed me. The jokes, oh the jokes. The dad jokes. A joke like that here and there is fine! But by the end of the book, I was sick of them. I could smell the next one coming a page away. And most of them weren't even good jokes, either. Some were downright cringey, especially the ones in the chapter on human fertility. Example:
> Absence makes the heart grow fonder... and the penis thrust more deeply. Put that on a greeting card.
It makes sense in context, but still, eww. And when he wrote "Most male mammals peace out immediately after mating season ... ". Peace out?? Come on.
So, an interesting idea, spoiled somewhat by someone thinking he was funny when really, he just wasn't. Not bad enough to knock it down to 2 stars, but.... almost.
> Absence makes the heart grow fonder... and the penis thrust more deeply. Put that on a greeting card.
It makes sense in context, but still, eww. And when he wrote "Most male mammals peace out immediately after mating season ... ". Peace out?? Come on.
So, an interesting idea, spoiled somewhat by someone thinking he was funny when really, he just wasn't. Not bad enough to knock it down to 2 stars, but.... almost.
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