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

"Bacteria, viruses and fungi cause of all kinds of major and minor plagues and pestilences: bird flu, Ebola, smallpox, athlete's foot. We blast the critters with antimicrobials and recoil in horror should a cookie we're about to eat fall on the ground. (Unless there's no one watching--in which case many folks, we suspect, eat the cookie.) As for worms: Well, think tapeworm. And cringe. But there is another way to think about microbes and worms--as entities that have lovingly helped shape the human form. Such is the viewpoint of evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk." -- Los Angeles Times

"Fascinating." --Natalie Angier, The New York Times

"What's eating you? Or to put it more politely, "sharing your space," which happens to be your body? The answers are oddly consoling in evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk's witty "disease appreciation" course... Beguiling." -- O, The Oprah Magazine

"Witty and erudite, Zuk writes in a conversational tone, complete with wry observations not only about her subject but also about science and scientists. Her book may not make you happy about the various pathogens, bacteria and diseases that thrive in our world, but Zuk will give you new appreciation to their complexity and how some of them have even help us." -- Seattle Times

"Thought-provoking and sublimely witty." -- Boston Globe