About book Wicked Bugs: The Louse That Conquered Napoleon's Army & Other Diabolical Insects (2011)
This is the third book by this author in this series that I've read. They're quick books, meant to give you more of an overview with a dash of humor than any sort of in-depth trip into entomology. This isn't really a reflection on the author/book itself, but I think I enjoyed her other books more simply because I already knew most of what was in this one, whereas I learned a lot more about plants in the other two books. I'd recommend this to anyone, however--particularly those who haven't watched many nature shows like I have. If you think bugs are creepy now, wait till you read this!"Bugs" here is used to describe a broad range of critters, from the microscopic tot he large, and from insects and spiders etc. through various kinds of worms. The tags range from "deadly" to "horrible", with stops at "painful", "dangerous", and "destructive". It's a horror show!The writing and the wonderful production values in the book help to ease one through all the revoltingness, though, and make the book both an entertaining and darkly fun read. Each pest, or category of pest, gets its own short essay, complete with lurid details about what's so icky about them.The artwork by Briony Morrow-Cribbs adds much to the enjoyment. Even the most skin-crawly of critters somehow looks better in her wonderful illustrations (and somehow less likely to give one nightmares), especially combined with the excellent layout and the 2-color printing. It's a very elegant book.I got this at least a year ago, after loving 2 of her other books- "Drunken Botanist" and "Wicked Plants". I'd recommend these too. I'd put of reading this one, though, because bugs do make my skin crawl in general. I would not recommend it to the currently phobic!It's a great book on scary. revolting, and creepy topics that are nonetheless a part of life- and it's beautifully done. Recommended- with caution!
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I'm not really sure what i expected, more stories than just facts i guess, but i didn't get them...
—cnlap
