Had another author told me his publisher was sending me a copy of a book on Escherichia coli, I would have been perhaps quietly unenthusiastic. But best selling science writer Carl Zimmer is a master story teller and superb researcher. He's also renowned for effortlessly slipping a giant payload of scientific knowledge into the reader, sweetened with human drama, one so comprehensive a student struggling with a dry textbook would have had to hammer into their head over the course of an entire semester.Carl didn't disappoint: within a few short pages he had me completely, delightfully hooked. Not until I sat down to write this review did it really hit me just how packed this book is with science, each chapter written so well it can stand alone as a specific object lesson, and each lesson coming together in the book with biology, historical characters, and eureka moments in a scrumptious blend of mind candy.
--From a review of Microcosm at Daily Kos, which comes a few days after another enthusiastic review in the right-leaning New York Sun. E. coli can bring us together!
Life Science
Medicine & Health
Comments
Hey! I liked Microcosm a lot! I have to read your other books now!
Posted by: andrew | May 18, 2008 10:17 AM
I bought Microcosm to read on the flight back home, but ended up giving it as a gift to one of my Mongolian hosts instead. So I predict soon you'll be huge in Mongolia...
Posted by: Tara C. Smith | May 18, 2008 11:19 AM
i just received the review copy of your book and will begin reading it very soon!
Posted by: "GrrlScientist" | May 18, 2008 11:58 AM
I know that my recommendation is not needed to tip the scales, so I'll just say that it may be the best Zimmer book to date.
That's intended as high praise. And based on past Zimmer books, I paid it the ultimate compliment - without opening it, I bought a copy with my own money. :-)
Posted by: Scott Belyea | May 18, 2008 1:49 PM
Still waiting for my copy. Grr Amazon.
Posted by: Steven | May 18, 2008 5:04 PM
To you and your publisher: thanks for the Kindle edition!
Posted by: TexasYellowDog | May 19, 2008 2:26 AM
congrats on the DailyKos bump!
Posted by: Brian Baker | May 19, 2008 1:20 PM
Now, if you could just get on the Colbert Report. . . . :-)
Posted by: Blake Stacey | May 19, 2008 5:16 PM
My pre-ordered Amazon-ordered copy *finally* arrived yesterday - but it's really badly made (badly cut pages, already wrinkled by damp, etc). Has anyone else found this?
Posted by: outeast | May 20, 2008 5:00 AM