The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of Microbes

The book is great but with an annoying writing style but as the previous review states it is more geared toward a teenager with stupid attemps at being funny or using "cool" words and phrases. It appears that the author is as much interested in writing comedy as he is about writing about microbes. Regarding the comedy he should go back to his day job. That said this is still a book worth reading. I devoured it in one sitting, albeit one annoying sitting. I learned alot. I can recommend it but just be forewarned about the attempts at humor. He was trying to make the topic more palatable but went overboard.

This short introduction (only 192 pages plus a glossary) to the world of microbes is extremely well-written and remarkably easy to read. Without using technical language, Idan Ben-Barak conveys the variety and importance of the hidden but in some ways all-powerful world of bugs. As he notes in one typically startling passage, if we could wipe out all microbes, all life, including our own, would cease immediately. Ben-Barak covers genes, proteins, bacteria, fungi, and viruses and gives vivid examples of the role each of them plays in the biology of life, in health, in agriculture, in science, and in industry. We learn how microbes develop, how they cooperate, how they evolve, and how they control our bodies. It is remarkable that he can pack in so much information and still keep his story clear and enjoyable. (The writing is very lively and never dry or academic.) While this is a book for adults, I have to say it would make a remarkably good gift for any smart teenager who has an interest in health, in biology, or in science in general. Or of course, an interest in bugs!