The Body: A Guide for Occupants (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

Bill Bryson has done it again! With his trademark charm and stylistic wit, Bryson offers a unique system-by-system tour of your own body. While his previous foray into science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, offered an expansive look outward, here he focuses inward. With frequent detours highlighting fascinating medical innovations and oddities along the way, he’s able to capture the fullness of the bodily experience in ways both incisive and entertaining. A perfect gift for the curious.

Erudite, encyclopedic, and entertaining romp through our hugely varied, energetic, mind-bogglingly numerous, infinitely helpful and often perplexing inner and outer parts. Whether he's describing the spleen, ligaments, insulin, hiccups, the aorta, bones, or that funny thing that dangles in the back of our mouth, Bryson's enthusiasm bursts through the skin. — Mike Hare

From brains to blood vessels, hearts to hormones, and everything in between, this whirlwind romp through the body and its organ systems is both informative and highly entertaining. Bryson’s musing digressions abound in this book, be it about murder or vitamins or how much a human would cost to build (hint: less than a house, more than a fridge). The Body will almost certainly leave you highly satisfied and with a passionate love for a random, very specific organ. Mine’s the liver. Man, that thing is cool. — Patrick Molluso