Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Max Arthur's compilation of First World War memories, Forgotten Voices of the Great War, offers a reminder of the scale of human experience within the 1914-18 conflict. Arthur, a military historian best known for his history of the RAF and his account of the Falklands campaign in 1982, has assembled hundreds of excerpts from the sound archives of the Imperial War Museum. Officers, rank-and-file troops, Australians, Americans, war widows, women in the munitions factories, and German soldiers too, all left oral testimony of their experiences, and these interviews provide the basis of the book. Arthur has put them in chronological and campaign order, and provided a general commentary, but beyond that, has left the rich and moving record to speak for itself.

The sheer humdrum ordinariness of modern warfare--the mud and rain, the relentless loss of life and inevitability of death, the pointless routine of attrition--come over in the matter-of-fact recollections of so many. But so too does the humanity and morality of the ordinary soldier--a factor that rather belies the recent emphasis amongst some historians on how soldiers loved to kill. Arthur might have intruded more. No biographical information is given about the owners of these "voices", nor does he say when, where and how this oral testimony was gathered.

These quibbles aside this is a worthwhile read and should encourage people not only to observe a minute's silence on Remembrance Day, but also to spend a few hours in the Imperial War Museum itself. --Miles Taylor

Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Compelling Reading, 18 Nov 2008
The recent 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War spurred me to seek out some literature on the subject. My mother's father fought at Ypres and Arras, and was invalided home after a mustard gas attack. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences. This book gives a potted history of each year of the war followed by accounts of various survivors who were interviewed in the 1970's. I aim to read more of the Forgotten Voices series to further my knowledge. I received Harry Patch's The Last Fighting Tommy in the post today and look forward to reading his highly acclaimed account of his time in the trenches.

A window through time, 05 Nov 2008
War is never going to be a pleasant thing to read about, and this is no exception - it consists of testimonies from survivors, which have been cut into chunks and organised so that they refer to events in the order that they happened.

I happened across this in a charity shop at the end of October, and I can think of no better way to understand the real meaning of Armstice day - the absolute horror of the things they went through is something that I'd never be able to do. You get a real flavour of the way people were then too - women back in England handing out feathers (the symbol of a coward) to men in the street, completely unaware that a lot of them were back from the trenches sans uniform, which really affected the soldiers.

I won't go into the individual stories, but you can hear the voices rising from the page as you read - as an ex-actor, this is excellent source material if you're doing something set in this period.

A REALLY REALLY GOOD READ. Not many books have affected me as much as this one.

Voices of the Lost Generation, 30 Jul 2008
Forgotten Voices of the Great War is a collection of real life experiences of the First World War, as told by the ordinary people who lived through it.
I must admit that my knowledge of the First World War is a little blank. My only previous experience of this period was through school lessons about trench warfare, or by watching Blackadder goes forth. Therefore I can't make an analysis about the historical accuracy of the book. But what I can say is that I found it a very powerful and poignant work.

The author, Max Arthur, has spent several years listening to thousands of recordings of the men and women who lived during this period. These tapes were kept as archival records in the Imperial War Museum, after they were collected in 1972. These are essentially the voices of a lost generation. The book is divided into chapters that cover every year of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Within these chapters are accounts taken from individual campaigns or battles such as Gallipoli, The Second Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Mons.

Arthur has sifted through these records to bring out the most varied and unique stories. We are told about gas attacks, boredom or banter between soldiers, but we also get to hear the points of view of people like Elizabeth Owen, who was a schoolgirl at the outbreak of the war. Many of these stories are touching and funny, while others can be truly horrifying. In the section on Gallipoli for instance, we get a story of the games played between British and Turkish soldiers, with some of them throwing tinned bully beef and strings of figs to each other as presents. In the same section it also tells you of the horrible and undignified deaths caused by dysentry and other diseases, which will probably be some of the most terrible accounts of the war you will ever read.

This is an incredibly powerful and important book. If you have ever wondered about life during the First World War, then this book should be the first one you read. Extraordinay.

Not everyone can get to source documents, 23 May 2008
This book is now part of a series collated from the IWM archives. Not everyone can get to source documents through time or distance. This book has brought some of the sources into the public arena. Naturally such short personal reminicences give a fragmented picture. If you want opinions handed to you, read a 'definitive' history. All history books, however good, are shaped by the author. If a book like this makes you question recived wisdom, it has done its job.

Good, but difficult to put in context., 22 May 2008
This is an excellent collection of first-hand accounts of the Great War, from a variety of different contemporary contributors to that war.

The only problem with this book is that it divorces the account from much of the wider picture, so it tends to foster a 'I've read that book, I know all about WW1 now' sort of attitude. Perhaps it's just a reflection of our rushed aged, but I think the many other books, which describe some of the development of the war and intertwine similar first-hand accounts, do more justice to those milions who gave their lives on all sides, than a quick flit through this collection of stand-alone, very short stories.

Admittedly, the book has a very important role to play in appealing to those who may othwerwise not take an interest in WW1, so for that reason alone, it is a worthwhile production.

Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Compelling Reading, 18 Nov 2008
The recent 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War spurred me to seek out some literature on the subject. My mother's father fought at Ypres and Arras, and was invalided home after a mustard gas attack. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences. This book gives a potted history of each year of the war followed by accounts of various survivors who were interviewed in the 1970's. I aim to read more of the Forgotten Voices series to further my knowledge. I received Harry Patch's The Last Fighting Tommy in the post today and look forward to reading his highly acclaimed account of his time in the trenches.

A window through time, 05 Nov 2008
War is never going to be a pleasant thing to read about, and this is no exception - it consists of testimonies from survivors, which have been cut into chunks and organised so that they refer to events in the order that they happened.

I happened across this in a charity shop at the end of October, and I can think of no better way to understand the real meaning of Armstice day - the absolute horror of the things they went through is something that I'd never be able to do. You get a real flavour of the way people were then too - women back in England handing out feathers (the symbol of a coward) to men in the street, completely unaware that a lot of them were back from the trenches sans uniform, which really affected the soldiers.

I won't go into the individual stories, but you can hear the voices rising from the page as you read - as an ex-actor, this is excellent source material if you're doing something set in this period.

A REALLY REALLY GOOD READ. Not many books have affected me as much as this one.

Voices of the Lost Generation, 30 Jul 2008
Forgotten Voices of the Great War is a collection of real life experiences of the First World War, as told by the ordinary people who lived through it.
I must admit that my knowledge of the First World War is a little blank. My only previous experience of this period was through school lessons about trench warfare, or by watching Blackadder goes forth. Therefore I can't make an analysis about the historical accuracy of the book. But what I can say is that I found it a very powerful and poignant work.

The author, Max Arthur, has spent several years listening to thousands of recordings of the men and women who lived during this period. These tapes were kept as archival records in the Imperial War Museum, after they were collected in 1972. These are essentially the voices of a lost generation. The book is divided into chapters that cover every year of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Within these chapters are accounts taken from individual campaigns or battles such as Gallipoli, The Second Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Mons.

Arthur has sifted through these records to bring out the most varied and unique stories. We are told about gas attacks, boredom or banter between soldiers, but we also get to hear the points of view of people like Elizabeth Owen, who was a schoolgirl at the outbreak of the war. Many of these stories are touching and funny, while others can be truly horrifying. In the section on Gallipoli for instance, we get a story of the games played between British and Turkish soldiers, with some of them throwing tinned bully beef and strings of figs to each other as presents. In the same section it also tells you of the horrible and undignified deaths caused by dysentry and other diseases, which will probably be some of the most terrible accounts of the war you will ever read.

This is an incredibly powerful and important book. If you have ever wondered about life during the First World War, then this book should be the first one you read. Extraordinay.

Not everyone can get to source documents, 23 May 2008
This book is now part of a series collated from the IWM archives. Not everyone can get to source documents through time or distance. This book has brought some of the sources into the public arena. Naturally such short personal reminicences give a fragmented picture. If you want opinions handed to you, read a 'definitive' history. All history books, however good, are shaped by the author. If a book like this makes you question recived wisdom, it has done its job.

Good, but difficult to put in context., 22 May 2008
This is an excellent collection of first-hand accounts of the Great War, from a variety of different contemporary contributors to that war.

The only problem with this book is that it divorces the account from much of the wider picture, so it tends to foster a 'I've read that book, I know all about WW1 now' sort of attitude. Perhaps it's just a reflection of our rushed aged, but I think the many other books, which describe some of the development of the war and intertwine similar first-hand accounts, do more justice to those milions who gave their lives on all sides, than a quick flit through this collection of stand-alone, very short stories.

Admittedly, the book has a very important role to play in appealing to those who may othwerwise not take an interest in WW1, so for that reason alone, it is a worthwhile production.

What Are You Looking For?, 28 Nov 2007
I bought this book as I am studying complimentary therapies and anatomy and physiology is a big component. My intention was for it to be as an extra study aid but I think that I would have preferred something that offered a little more.
The book is okay and does what it says. If you are studying the muscular system and you need to know a large amount of inofrmation, look for something else.

Very handy little book, 11 Aug 2005
Just bought this book as a quick reference for when giving massages and I am not disappointed. It is very handy to use and the spiral binding is excellent and very adequate for the type of book this is as i can leave it open flat while massaging and don't have to fiddle with it continuously.
It does just what it says, but of course doesn't replace the bigger more detailed/thorough books on muscles and anatomy.
This book is for taking with you when you're out and about and can't /don't want to take the bigger books.
Great quick reference guide.

A little handy primer, 09 Jan 2005
This book is a great handy primer for those on anatomy & physiology courses who need something to carry around with them as they learn the muscular-skeletal system of the body.

The big plus for this book is the comb binding which allows the book to be opened flat, or worse, folded over.

The artwork is clear, and covers the major muscles and bones, with additional tables setting out the origins and insertions, and the origins of ennervating nerves.

In short, a good buy.

New edition *with corrections* superb for students, 27 Mar 2003
The new edition of this little book has all the mistakes corrected which marred the last edition. This makes it the most useful, portable booklet I have seen. It covers trunk and limbs systematically with clear illustrations of the bones and ligaments first, then the muscles in their different layers. It also contains charts of muscles, origins, insertions, innervation and function for each of the muscles by area. Further short sections on joints, posture and movement patterns, types of muscle contraction and muscle fibre types, nerve supply, energy systems and common types of injury make this book invaluable.

Definitely one forthe students, 04 Dec 2002
As a teacher of Body Massage, Beauty Therapy and Holistic Therapies at a further education college, I feel this book offers, clear, colourful pictures, easy understanding of how the body moves, all in a neat and moderately priced book. This is a useful and quick teaching aid that the majority of my students have found(on recommendation) useful - I should be on commission!!

Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Compelling Reading, 18 Nov 2008
The recent 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War spurred me to seek out some literature on the subject. My mother's father fought at Ypres and Arras, and was invalided home after a mustard gas attack. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences. This book gives a potted history of each year of the war followed by accounts of various survivors who were interviewed in the 1970's. I aim to read more of the Forgotten Voices series to further my knowledge. I received Harry Patch's The Last Fighting Tommy in the post today and look forward to reading his highly acclaimed account of his time in the trenches.

A window through time, 05 Nov 2008
War is never going to be a pleasant thing to read about, and this is no exception - it consists of testimonies from survivors, which have been cut into chunks and organised so that they refer to events in the order that they happened.

I happened across this in a charity shop at the end of October, and I can think of no better way to understand the real meaning of Armstice day - the absolute horror of the things they went through is something that I'd never be able to do. You get a real flavour of the way people were then too - women back in England handing out feathers (the symbol of a coward) to men in the street, completely unaware that a lot of them were back from the trenches sans uniform, which really affected the soldiers.

I won't go into the individual stories, but you can hear the voices rising from the page as you read - as an ex-actor, this is excellent source material if you're doing something set in this period.

A REALLY REALLY GOOD READ. Not many books have affected me as much as this one.

Voices of the Lost Generation, 30 Jul 2008
Forgotten Voices of the Great War is a collection of real life experiences of the First World War, as told by the ordinary people who lived through it.
I must admit that my knowledge of the First World War is a little blank. My only previous experience of this period was through school lessons about trench warfare, or by watching Blackadder goes forth. Therefore I can't make an analysis about the historical accuracy of the book. But what I can say is that I found it a very powerful and poignant work.

The author, Max Arthur, has spent several years listening to thousands of recordings of the men and women who lived during this period. These tapes were kept as archival records in the Imperial War Museum, after they were collected in 1972. These are essentially the voices of a lost generation. The book is divided into chapters that cover every year of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Within these chapters are accounts taken from individual campaigns or battles such as Gallipoli, The Second Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Mons.

Arthur has sifted through these records to bring out the most varied and unique stories. We are told about gas attacks, boredom or banter between soldiers, but we also get to hear the points of view of people like Elizabeth Owen, who was a schoolgirl at the outbreak of the war. Many of these stories are touching and funny, while others can be truly horrifying. In the section on Gallipoli for instance, we get a story of the games played between British and Turkish soldiers, with some of them throwing tinned bully beef and strings of figs to each other as presents. In the same section it also tells you of the horrible and undignified deaths caused by dysentry and other diseases, which will probably be some of the most terrible accounts of the war you will ever read.

This is an incredibly powerful and important book. If you have ever wondered about life during the First World War, then this book should be the first one you read. Extraordinay.

Not everyone can get to source documents, 23 May 2008
This book is now part of a series collated from the IWM archives. Not everyone can get to source documents through time or distance. This book has brought some of the sources into the public arena. Naturally such short personal reminicences give a fragmented picture. If you want opinions handed to you, read a 'definitive' history. All history books, however good, are shaped by the author. If a book like this makes you question recived wisdom, it has done its job.

Good, but difficult to put in context., 22 May 2008
This is an excellent collection of first-hand accounts of the Great War, from a variety of different contemporary contributors to that war.

The only problem with this book is that it divorces the account from much of the wider picture, so it tends to foster a 'I've read that book, I know all about WW1 now' sort of attitude. Perhaps it's just a reflection of our rushed aged, but I think the many other books, which describe some of the development of the war and intertwine similar first-hand accounts, do more justice to those milions who gave their lives on all sides, than a quick flit through this collection of stand-alone, very short stories.

Admittedly, the book has a very important role to play in appealing to those who may othwerwise not take an interest in WW1, so for that reason alone, it is a worthwhile production.

What Are You Looking For?, 28 Nov 2007
I bought this book as I am studying complimentary therapies and anatomy and physiology is a big component. My intention was for it to be as an extra study aid but I think that I would have preferred something that offered a little more.
The book is okay and does what it says. If you are studying the muscular system and you need to know a large amount of inofrmation, look for something else.

Very handy little book, 11 Aug 2005
Just bought this book as a quick reference for when giving massages and I am not disappointed. It is very handy to use and the spiral binding is excellent and very adequate for the type of book this is as i can leave it open flat while massaging and don't have to fiddle with it continuously.
It does just what it says, but of course doesn't replace the bigger more detailed/thorough books on muscles and anatomy.
This book is for taking with you when you're out and about and can't /don't want to take the bigger books.
Great quick reference guide.

A little handy primer, 09 Jan 2005
This book is a great handy primer for those on anatomy & physiology courses who need something to carry around with them as they learn the muscular-skeletal system of the body.

The big plus for this book is the comb binding which allows the book to be opened flat, or worse, folded over.

The artwork is clear, and covers the major muscles and bones, with additional tables setting out the origins and insertions, and the origins of ennervating nerves.

In short, a good buy.

New edition *with corrections* superb for students, 27 Mar 2003
The new edition of this little book has all the mistakes corrected which marred the last edition. This makes it the most useful, portable booklet I have seen. It covers trunk and limbs systematically with clear illustrations of the bones and ligaments first, then the muscles in their different layers. It also contains charts of muscles, origins, insertions, innervation and function for each of the muscles by area. Further short sections on joints, posture and movement patterns, types of muscle contraction and muscle fibre types, nerve supply, energy systems and common types of injury make this book invaluable.

Definitely one forthe students, 04 Dec 2002
As a teacher of Body Massage, Beauty Therapy and Holistic Therapies at a further education college, I feel this book offers, clear, colourful pictures, easy understanding of how the body moves, all in a neat and moderately priced book. This is a useful and quick teaching aid that the majority of my students have found(on recommendation) useful - I should be on commission!!

Lightweight but worthwhile, 03 Oct 2008
Whilst always very readable, there's something just a little unsatisfying about Neil Shubin's exploration of the evolution of the body up to the one currently occupied by homo sapiens. I think ultimately because it comes over as a little too lightweight, even though the subject is overwhelmingly big.

Nevertheless, there is no denying, ultimately, the level of fascination in the material.

It is, of course, not always comforting to find that, once analysed, human beings are based on the same blueprint as any other animal with a head (and anus, as it happens - Shubin seems to take delight in repeating the word) and some without, where mouth and anus (there it is again!) combine, as in the sea anemone.

Through words and pictures the author demonstrates the similarities between your nearest and dearest and sharks, salamanders, flies and all sorts of other creatures you normally wouldn't be inviting to a family reunion. There's an inevitable quantity of technical vocabulary, but it's never in torrents so it never overwhelms.

So whilst a trifle unsatisfactory as heavyweight Natural History, the book has more than enough going for it to recommend it to the general reader.

Post Script

Some way through the book I will admit to reflecting on first its potential as a treatise on evolution, but then second on the potential it holds for the Intelligent Design lobby - basic blueprint, materials reuse, continuous development.

Shubin doesn't tackle this, which is a shame; I'm reminded of the misuse of Nietzsche under different circumstances and wonder at the naïveté of it all. The ID myth is, of course, nothing more than that, but why give it a potential scientific credence?

A brief check confirms that Shubin is in the evolutionary camp, but that does not dispel some of the ambiguity of Inner Fish, with mentions of the Creator (his capital), no small amount of teleology (suggesting on a number of occasions that species determined for themselves in what direction to develop), and the suggestion that a basic "design" "arose" rather than that a pattern evolved - incredibly there is not much mention of the word "evolution".

In a period during which the forces of reaction are trying their best to roll back the gains of evolutionary science in dispelling superstition, it seems irresponsible to provide them with an open goal.


Good but not splendid, 28 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin, codiscoverer of the Tiktaalit, shows in this book that to become a human you must first become a fish. Its a wonderful argument against the notion of `intelligent design'. Or would you call a car manufacturer intelligent who makes a Mercedes by first building a wooden coach? Nevertheless there is an unwholesome streak of creationism and anti-darwinism in Shubins otherwise lucid descriptions, a streak which seems to belong to US-American culture like Samba belongs to Brazil. For example, he criticizes Haeckels `ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' understanding of the way evolution shows up in embryos when Haeckel "would compare a human embryo to an adult fish". But any changes in the features of an embryo - like going from fish to human - require the action of natural selection to have acted once - and not on an embryo. Natural selection operates on the reproduction success of an animal, and that means adults. Therefore, for any developmental stage of an embryo, there must have existed an adult creature that had evolved just to this stage; and when you trace the embryonic development, a fossil must exist at every level that had achieved just this stage. To understand the embyro, you need to understand Natural selection, which means you must understand the reproduction success of the adult. It does not suffice to compare the embryos of different species - their "blueprints" ; Shubin just loves to talk all the time about "blueprints", which is a typical design term. Tracing embryos runs parallel to tracing the fossils of adults.
For another example, look at the way he describes the recent research situation when it was found that "in many single-celled animals, much of the molecular machinery for cell adhesion, interaction, and so on is just not there", which "would seem to support the notion that the genes that help cells unite to make bodies arose together with the origin of bodies. And at first glance, it seems to make sense that the tools to build bodies should arise in lockstep with the bodies themselves." This idea makes sense, yes - if you are a creationist. If you think like Haeckel, this is nonsense because for selection to produce bodies there must have been a single cell animal with all the needed machinery existing. And as Shubin beautifully narrates, just such an animal turned up : the choanoflagellates.
Science has been kind to Haeckel, contrary to what Shubin asserts in the book.
Despite my reservations, I highly recommend his book because of Shubins genuine enthusiasm for his subject, and the wealth of new results that he presents. If it had more of Dawkins and much less Gould in it, it would have been splendid. The pictures are as miserable as I have come to expect nowadays in good books about science.


The Story of Fossils and Geneology, 26 Aug 2008
Through extensive fossil records and geneology, Mr. Shubin takes the reader through the development of single celled organisms (bacteria), multi-cell (jellyfish), bodies (worms), skull (fish), hands and feet (reptiles), three-boned middle ear (mammals), and finally, bipedal with large brain (humans).

We have in us anatomical design improvements that can take us only so far from our water borne ancestors. Mr. Shubin asserts if humans were designed from scratch, "we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer."

If, like me, you have always wondered why the male scrotum tucks close to the body in chilling weather, "Your Inner Fish" is an excellent source.

Curiously, Mr. Shubin made no mention of how a Cro-Magnon was able to win the U.S. presidency twice; in 2000 and 2004.

And a marvellous fish it is, 22 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin has an extraordinary gift for making science that can be difficult to sift through highly interesting. Drawing on his own and other's discoveries many of the more difficult areas of human development are covered with a truly admirable passion. Throughout the book Shubin's passion literally leaps of the page making the book an enjoyable one-sitting read

Shubin's Majestic Trek into the Human Body, Billions of Years in the Making, 08 Aug 2008
"Your Inner Fish" truly merits ample praise for being one of the best-written books on science I've read in years. It also ranks easily as an early, leading candidate as one of the finest books published this year. In clear, concise, and quite vivid, prose, this marvelous terse tome recounts in spectacular fashion, the incredible saga of the evolutionary history of our human body. Vertebrate paleobiologist and anatomy professor Neil Shubin is our enthusiastic, expert guide through this amazing journey into our body's primordial past, weaving with utmost brevity, a most compelling, and intricate, tale from fossils, genes and developmental biology. A fascinating trek through these aspects of evolutionary biology that represents too an intriguing personal scientific odyssey from a novice graduate student to a seasoned scientific veteran of major field expeditions in search of rare, often unique, vertebrate fossils across the globe and of substantial laboratory work in evolutionary developmental biology. In short, in terse, exquisite, well-written, prose, Shubin demonstrates the deep evolutionary connections that unite humanity not only with other mammals, but with other vertebrates too, and indeed, as well, with a veritable tree of life.

Most of Shubin's succinct chapters are devoted to the evolutionary history of both the human body plan and its major organs, such as the eyes and teeth. The opening chapters briefly explain man's kinship with other vertebrates, and recount the unexpected discovery by Shubin and his team of Tiktaalik, the earliest known transitional fossil between fish and tetrapods (land-dwelling vertebrates, including us). These are followed by an extremely short, quite lucid, introduction to the relevance of genetics in evolutionary developmental biology research (Chapter Three), in which Shubin clearly traces the evolution of limbs from fins to bird wings, and finally, human hands. Succeeding chapters include those devoted to the evolutionary history of teeth (Chapter Four), eyes (Chapter Nine) and ears (Chapter Ten). However, the two most intriguing chapters are those devoted to the development of the vertebrate body plan (Chapter Six) - drawing upon both classical embryology and modern molecular biology and genetics, emphasizing the importance of Hox genes - and the evolutionary developmental history of multicellular animals (Chapter 7), culminating in a terse discussion of the Precambrian Ediacaran fauna. Shubin concludes this fascinating little volume with an intriguing discussion (Chapter 11) of human ailments ranging from hiccups to hernias and obesity, demonstrating how these have their origins in our distant evolutionary past, as far back as four hundred million years ago. Without a doubt, "Your Inner Fish" will delight not only students - and others - interested in evolutionary biology, but also those seeking a deeper understanding of both human anatomy and medicine from the perspective of evolutionary biology.

Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Compelling Reading, 18 Nov 2008
The recent 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War spurred me to seek out some literature on the subject. My mother's father fought at Ypres and Arras, and was invalided home after a mustard gas attack. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences. This book gives a potted history of each year of the war followed by accounts of various survivors who were interviewed in the 1970's. I aim to read more of the Forgotten Voices series to further my knowledge. I received Harry Patch's The Last Fighting Tommy in the post today and look forward to reading his highly acclaimed account of his time in the trenches.

A window through time, 05 Nov 2008
War is never going to be a pleasant thing to read about, and this is no exception - it consists of testimonies from survivors, which have been cut into chunks and organised so that they refer to events in the order that they happened.

I happened across this in a charity shop at the end of October, and I can think of no better way to understand the real meaning of Armstice day - the absolute horror of the things they went through is something that I'd never be able to do. You get a real flavour of the way people were then too - women back in England handing out feathers (the symbol of a coward) to men in the street, completely unaware that a lot of them were back from the trenches sans uniform, which really affected the soldiers.

I won't go into the individual stories, but you can hear the voices rising from the page as you read - as an ex-actor, this is excellent source material if you're doing something set in this period.

A REALLY REALLY GOOD READ. Not many books have affected me as much as this one.

Voices of the Lost Generation, 30 Jul 2008
Forgotten Voices of the Great War is a collection of real life experiences of the First World War, as told by the ordinary people who lived through it.
I must admit that my knowledge of the First World War is a little blank. My only previous experience of this period was through school lessons about trench warfare, or by watching Blackadder goes forth. Therefore I can't make an analysis about the historical accuracy of the book. But what I can say is that I found it a very powerful and poignant work.

The author, Max Arthur, has spent several years listening to thousands of recordings of the men and women who lived during this period. These tapes were kept as archival records in the Imperial War Museum, after they were collected in 1972. These are essentially the voices of a lost generation. The book is divided into chapters that cover every year of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Within these chapters are accounts taken from individual campaigns or battles such as Gallipoli, The Second Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Mons.

Arthur has sifted through these records to bring out the most varied and unique stories. We are told about gas attacks, boredom or banter between soldiers, but we also get to hear the points of view of people like Elizabeth Owen, who was a schoolgirl at the outbreak of the war. Many of these stories are touching and funny, while others can be truly horrifying. In the section on Gallipoli for instance, we get a story of the games played between British and Turkish soldiers, with some of them throwing tinned bully beef and strings of figs to each other as presents. In the same section it also tells you of the horrible and undignified deaths caused by dysentry and other diseases, which will probably be some of the most terrible accounts of the war you will ever read.

This is an incredibly powerful and important book. If you have ever wondered about life during the First World War, then this book should be the first one you read. Extraordinay.

Not everyone can get to source documents, 23 May 2008
This book is now part of a series collated from the IWM archives. Not everyone can get to source documents through time or distance. This book has brought some of the sources into the public arena. Naturally such short personal reminicences give a fragmented picture. If you want opinions handed to you, read a 'definitive' history. All history books, however good, are shaped by the author. If a book like this makes you question recived wisdom, it has done its job.

Good, but difficult to put in context., 22 May 2008
This is an excellent collection of first-hand accounts of the Great War, from a variety of different contemporary contributors to that war.

The only problem with this book is that it divorces the account from much of the wider picture, so it tends to foster a 'I've read that book, I know all about WW1 now' sort of attitude. Perhaps it's just a reflection of our rushed aged, but I think the many other books, which describe some of the development of the war and intertwine similar first-hand accounts, do more justice to those milions who gave their lives on all sides, than a quick flit through this collection of stand-alone, very short stories.

Admittedly, the book has a very important role to play in appealing to those who may othwerwise not take an interest in WW1, so for that reason alone, it is a worthwhile production.

What Are You Looking For?, 28 Nov 2007
I bought this book as I am studying complimentary therapies and anatomy and physiology is a big component. My intention was for it to be as an extra study aid but I think that I would have preferred something that offered a little more.
The book is okay and does what it says. If you are studying the muscular system and you need to know a large amount of inofrmation, look for something else.

Very handy little book, 11 Aug 2005
Just bought this book as a quick reference for when giving massages and I am not disappointed. It is very handy to use and the spiral binding is excellent and very adequate for the type of book this is as i can leave it open flat while massaging and don't have to fiddle with it continuously.
It does just what it says, but of course doesn't replace the bigger more detailed/thorough books on muscles and anatomy.
This book is for taking with you when you're out and about and can't /don't want to take the bigger books.
Great quick reference guide.

A little handy primer, 09 Jan 2005
This book is a great handy primer for those on anatomy & physiology courses who need something to carry around with them as they learn the muscular-skeletal system of the body.

The big plus for this book is the comb binding which allows the book to be opened flat, or worse, folded over.

The artwork is clear, and covers the major muscles and bones, with additional tables setting out the origins and insertions, and the origins of ennervating nerves.

In short, a good buy.

New edition *with corrections* superb for students, 27 Mar 2003
The new edition of this little book has all the mistakes corrected which marred the last edition. This makes it the most useful, portable booklet I have seen. It covers trunk and limbs systematically with clear illustrations of the bones and ligaments first, then the muscles in their different layers. It also contains charts of muscles, origins, insertions, innervation and function for each of the muscles by area. Further short sections on joints, posture and movement patterns, types of muscle contraction and muscle fibre types, nerve supply, energy systems and common types of injury make this book invaluable.

Definitely one forthe students, 04 Dec 2002
As a teacher of Body Massage, Beauty Therapy and Holistic Therapies at a further education college, I feel this book offers, clear, colourful pictures, easy understanding of how the body moves, all in a neat and moderately priced book. This is a useful and quick teaching aid that the majority of my students have found(on recommendation) useful - I should be on commission!!

Lightweight but worthwhile, 03 Oct 2008
Whilst always very readable, there's something just a little unsatisfying about Neil Shubin's exploration of the evolution of the body up to the one currently occupied by homo sapiens. I think ultimately because it comes over as a little too lightweight, even though the subject is overwhelmingly big.

Nevertheless, there is no denying, ultimately, the level of fascination in the material.

It is, of course, not always comforting to find that, once analysed, human beings are based on the same blueprint as any other animal with a head (and anus, as it happens - Shubin seems to take delight in repeating the word) and some without, where mouth and anus (there it is again!) combine, as in the sea anemone.

Through words and pictures the author demonstrates the similarities between your nearest and dearest and sharks, salamanders, flies and all sorts of other creatures you normally wouldn't be inviting to a family reunion. There's an inevitable quantity of technical vocabulary, but it's never in torrents so it never overwhelms.

So whilst a trifle unsatisfactory as heavyweight Natural History, the book has more than enough going for it to recommend it to the general reader.

Post Script

Some way through the book I will admit to reflecting on first its potential as a treatise on evolution, but then second on the potential it holds for the Intelligent Design lobby - basic blueprint, materials reuse, continuous development.

Shubin doesn't tackle this, which is a shame; I'm reminded of the misuse of Nietzsche under different circumstances and wonder at the naïveté of it all. The ID myth is, of course, nothing more than that, but why give it a potential scientific credence?

A brief check confirms that Shubin is in the evolutionary camp, but that does not dispel some of the ambiguity of Inner Fish, with mentions of the Creator (his capital), no small amount of teleology (suggesting on a number of occasions that species determined for themselves in what direction to develop), and the suggestion that a basic "design" "arose" rather than that a pattern evolved - incredibly there is not much mention of the word "evolution".

In a period during which the forces of reaction are trying their best to roll back the gains of evolutionary science in dispelling superstition, it seems irresponsible to provide them with an open goal.


Good but not splendid, 28 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin, codiscoverer of the Tiktaalit, shows in this book that to become a human you must first become a fish. Its a wonderful argument against the notion of `intelligent design'. Or would you call a car manufacturer intelligent who makes a Mercedes by first building a wooden coach? Nevertheless there is an unwholesome streak of creationism and anti-darwinism in Shubins otherwise lucid descriptions, a streak which seems to belong to US-American culture like Samba belongs to Brazil. For example, he criticizes Haeckels `ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' understanding of the way evolution shows up in embryos when Haeckel "would compare a human embryo to an adult fish". But any changes in the features of an embryo - like going from fish to human - require the action of natural selection to have acted once - and not on an embryo. Natural selection operates on the reproduction success of an animal, and that means adults. Therefore, for any developmental stage of an embryo, there must have existed an adult creature that had evolved just to this stage; and when you trace the embryonic development, a fossil must exist at every level that had achieved just this stage. To understand the embyro, you need to understand Natural selection, which means you must understand the reproduction success of the adult. It does not suffice to compare the embryos of different species - their "blueprints" ; Shubin just loves to talk all the time about "blueprints", which is a typical design term. Tracing embryos runs parallel to tracing the fossils of adults.
For another example, look at the way he describes the recent research situation when it was found that "in many single-celled animals, much of the molecular machinery for cell adhesion, interaction, and so on is just not there", which "would seem to support the notion that the genes that help cells unite to make bodies arose together with the origin of bodies. And at first glance, it seems to make sense that the tools to build bodies should arise in lockstep with the bodies themselves." This idea makes sense, yes - if you are a creationist. If you think like Haeckel, this is nonsense because for selection to produce bodies there must have been a single cell animal with all the needed machinery existing. And as Shubin beautifully narrates, just such an animal turned up : the choanoflagellates.
Science has been kind to Haeckel, contrary to what Shubin asserts in the book.
Despite my reservations, I highly recommend his book because of Shubins genuine enthusiasm for his subject, and the wealth of new results that he presents. If it had more of Dawkins and much less Gould in it, it would have been splendid. The pictures are as miserable as I have come to expect nowadays in good books about science.


The Story of Fossils and Geneology, 26 Aug 2008
Through extensive fossil records and geneology, Mr. Shubin takes the reader through the development of single celled organisms (bacteria), multi-cell (jellyfish), bodies (worms), skull (fish), hands and feet (reptiles), three-boned middle ear (mammals), and finally, bipedal with large brain (humans).

We have in us anatomical design improvements that can take us only so far from our water borne ancestors. Mr. Shubin asserts if humans were designed from scratch, "we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer."

If, like me, you have always wondered why the male scrotum tucks close to the body in chilling weather, "Your Inner Fish" is an excellent source.

Curiously, Mr. Shubin made no mention of how a Cro-Magnon was able to win the U.S. presidency twice; in 2000 and 2004.

And a marvellous fish it is, 22 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin has an extraordinary gift for making science that can be difficult to sift through highly interesting. Drawing on his own and other's discoveries many of the more difficult areas of human development are covered with a truly admirable passion. Throughout the book Shubin's passion literally leaps of the page making the book an enjoyable one-sitting read

Shubin's Majestic Trek into the Human Body, Billions of Years in the Making, 08 Aug 2008
"Your Inner Fish" truly merits ample praise for being one of the best-written books on science I've read in years. It also ranks easily as an early, leading candidate as one of the finest books published this year. In clear, concise, and quite vivid, prose, this marvelous terse tome recounts in spectacular fashion, the incredible saga of the evolutionary history of our human body. Vertebrate paleobiologist and anatomy professor Neil Shubin is our enthusiastic, expert guide through this amazing journey into our body's primordial past, weaving with utmost brevity, a most compelling, and intricate, tale from fossils, genes and developmental biology. A fascinating trek through these aspects of evolutionary biology that represents too an intriguing personal scientific odyssey from a novice graduate student to a seasoned scientific veteran of major field expeditions in search of rare, often unique, vertebrate fossils across the globe and of substantial laboratory work in evolutionary developmental biology. In short, in terse, exquisite, well-written, prose, Shubin demonstrates the deep evolutionary connections that unite humanity not only with other mammals, but with other vertebrates too, and indeed, as well, with a veritable tree of life.

Most of Shubin's succinct chapters are devoted to the evolutionary history of both the human body plan and its major organs, such as the eyes and teeth. The opening chapters briefly explain man's kinship with other vertebrates, and recount the unexpected discovery by Shubin and his team of Tiktaalik, the earliest known transitional fossil between fish and tetrapods (land-dwelling vertebrates, including us). These are followed by an extremely short, quite lucid, introduction to the relevance of genetics in evolutionary developmental biology research (Chapter Three), in which Shubin clearly traces the evolution of limbs from fins to bird wings, and finally, human hands. Succeeding chapters include those devoted to the evolutionary history of teeth (Chapter Four), eyes (Chapter Nine) and ears (Chapter Ten). However, the two most intriguing chapters are those devoted to the development of the vertebrate body plan (Chapter Six) - drawing upon both classical embryology and modern molecular biology and genetics, emphasizing the importance of Hox genes - and the evolutionary developmental history of multicellular animals (Chapter 7), culminating in a terse discussion of the Precambrian Ediacaran fauna. Shubin concludes this fascinating little volume with an intriguing discussion (Chapter 11) of human ailments ranging from hiccups to hernias and obesity, demonstrating how these have their origins in our distant evolutionary past, as far back as four hundred million years ago. Without a doubt, "Your Inner Fish" will delight not only students - and others - interested in evolutionary biology, but also those seeking a deeper understanding of both human anatomy and medicine from the perspective of evolutionary biology.

"It helps us understand what it means to be human", 15 Aug 2007
This is a brilliant examination of the rise of mankind from just another species of big mammal to our current domination of the earth, and an important exposition of our position in the world today.

Diamond combines many disciplines to produce a riveting dissection of humanity to dispel any myths of inimitable human nature, presenting examples of "human" nature in the animal kingdom, and the reasons for our sudden rise in The Great Leap Forward.

Diamond continues by warning the reader of the severe consequences of ignoring the destruction of the environment, ideas he pursued further in Collapse. Diamond, however, remains optimistic of our ability to learn from our mistakes and those if fallen civilisations, sentiments I don't share.

Like all of Diamond's books, this is immensely readable, and tackles a subject of great importance to how we perceive ourselves, our place in the universe, and the world around us.



Interesting, informative and entertaining, 17 May 2007
2006 Harper Perennial reissue of 1st edition (1992), 368 pages

This is another of the twenty books Charlie Munger recommends in the second edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (which I recommend very strongly you get and read). Two of Jared Diamond's books make it on to the list (this one plus Guns, Germs and Steel), so I had high hopes for his first book, The Third Chimpanzee. I wasn't disappointed.

A big theme in Poor Charlie's Almanack is the importance of multi-disciplinary learning. Munger believes that many/most academic disciplines suffer from `man with a hammer syndrome': if your only tool is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. Jared Diamond is a man who comes equipped with a full tool kit: he started off in medical research, then pursued a parallel second career in bird ecology, evolution and biogeography and is learning his twelfth language.

The first part of this book is about where we came from and how we have become so different to all of the other animals, when, for example, only 1.6% of our DNA differs from that of a chimpanzee. The second part is about our likely future as evidenced by our relatively recent past (though these broad headings are actually subdivided into five sections by the author).

The book is full of interesting facts and surprising (and well argued) theories. The evidence that he discusses when looking at whether we ever lived in harmony with nature and how far back and regularly our human genocidal tendencies manifested themselves is rather disquieting. It suggests strongly, for example, that my own laissez faire attitude towards the environment is emphatically not justified by human history. The difference between us and the Easter Islanders or Anasazi Indians is that we have a global resource base to compromise before we run into serious trouble.

Diamond also has a theory of how the plant and animal species available for domestication may well have proved the decisive factor in determining which of our societies spread and became dominant. I had not come across it before at all and I found it extremely interesting - it is a prime example of how broadening the information under review may lead to completely different and unusual conclusions.

The Third Chimpanzee is an excellent and interesting book and I have already purchased his next book Guns, Germs and Steel. (I particularly recommend the 2006 Harper Perennial reissue as it contains an interesting addendum at the back with information about Diamond, some recommended further reading, and, most importantly he also discusses new scientific discoveries made since the original 1992 edition.)

Good book but dodgy conclusion, 17 Apr 2007
This book is a good read, and is about what enabled the 'European' nations to reign supreme over the rest of the world.
Jared decides it was all down to luck. The luck of having the right crops and livestock available, the right climate and the right location.
The "Wealth and Poverty of Nations" by Landes, takes another view and attributed the West's power and wealth down to it's culture of relative freedoms - freedom to own and keep ones wealth for example - it's relatively free economies, that led to the quest for trade, expansion and invention.
The amazing thing is, that where Jared states that America, Africa and Australia were 'unlucky' with their lot, once the Europeans transplanted their culture & freedoms to South Africa, Canada, Australia and the USA these areas became some of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world.
A good book non the less, but a dodgy 'politically correct' conclusion.
I'd reccomend you buy this and the Landes book for comparison and then make your own conclusion.


Too many ideas, but a useful primate primer, 02 Sep 2006
"The Third Chimpanzee" was Diamond's first major book, and it sows the seeds for his three more recent works, "Why is Sex Fun?", "Guns, Germs and Steel", and "Collapse". Many of the chapters here introduce the ideas of the later books prior to their later expansion and development.

Diamond's aim is to view human history through the lens of biology: given that we are about 98% genetically identical to chimps, what light does that shed on our own life-cycle, culture, history and destiny?

The book's first section briefly documents our genetic history - our divergence from a proto-chimp ancestor, and the development of homo sapiens over about six million years (homo erectus, homo habilis etc). Diamond is always keen to draw out the political implications of his science, and suggests that if we were to label chimps as "homo troglodytes" rather than "pan troglodytes", we might make different ethical decisions about their treatment. I found this first section all too-brief - I'd have liked to see a lot more detail on the biological commonalities and differences between humans and chimps.

The second section reviews the human life-cycle, particulary our sexuality - why are we monogamous? How do we choose mates? What can sexual selection suggest about human races? This draws heavily on comparisons and contrasts with other animal species and I found it all interesting.

The third section covers the evolution of things that might seem "uniquely human" - language, art, agriculture, drug use - and traces animal precursors to see whether we really are as unique as we think. I found all of this to be far too brief - a whole book on this area would have been interesting. I did find sympathy with Diamond's argument that the development of agriculture was as much a curse as a blessing (being the source of the apparatus for political oppression).

The next section enters the territory of "Guns, Germs and Steel", discussing how much of human history has been determined by geographical and biological accident e.g. the difficulty in migrating crops across continents with a strong north-south axis (Africa and America) leading to a slower pace of development. This section also asks why the human race seems to be prone to genocide, again with a strong political slant.

The final section covers extinction - both analysing the countless past extinctions of other species that humans have caused, and the implications for our own future.

Throughout, the book's willingness to spell out political implications is very welcome. I also appreciated the extent to which the content draws on Diamond's own extensive work in New Guinea. On the downside, there are just too many ideas here, and it would be nice to see them all explored at greater length - although of course that's exactly what the author has since done in other books.

Marvellous, 06 Aug 2006
All i have to say is that this book its one of the best books i ever read Dont pass it!

Comprehensive, but with some minor annoyances, 29 Oct 2008
This is a very interesting book, and certainly succeeds in providing a good introduction to the wonders of the human body.

The previous reviewers on here seemed to love this book, and while I found it a good read, I would like to mention a few minor annoyances that prevented it from earning a top rating from me.

Firstly: anatomy books need to have a lot of pictures or diagrams. While this book does have some, I felt that there weren't nearly enough. More often that not, the uninitiated reader is given a text description, and left to draw a picture in their head (or look it up somewhere else).

Secondly, the book has far, far too many cross references, in the form of text in brackets referring the reader to an earlier/later chapter/section/paragraph. Though the author states at the start that the book is designed to be read in any order, this overuse of references really breaks up the flow - and is, in any case, not necessary, as there is perfectly good table of contents at the front, and an index at the back!

Thirdly, terms are sometimes used before they're defined, which can be a little confusing.

Finally, the author tries to lighten the mood by use of puns and jokes. I'm sure that lots of readers will enjoy her sense of humour. I, regrettably, found it quite annoying.

So to summarise: a comprehensive beginners' guide to the human body, let down by some minor annoyances.

Superb, 12 Apr 2007
As with all Dummies books, this one is excellent. Covers all areas of Anatomy and Physiology from A'Level and through to at least 2nd Year Degree level. Physiological Systems and Anatomy are explained in a humorous way with many well thought out analigies to really give you a understanding of complex subjects. once again if you are doing A'Level or starting a degree in any human based science then this is a must have. Superb

Ain't the body great?, 21 Dec 2006
This book is really good at getting someone from basic biology to understanding how the body works. The book flows through from cells to organs and then onto how the organs work together, just so that you can still be alive to read this review!

It does try to make light of things, with jokes here and there (you may even giggle at some of them too) and also lots of examples to help things sink-in.


Great book that's really easy to understand., 22 Oct 2004
This is a great book which I highly recommend. It explains everything in very simple terms making it easy to get your head round. I am a nursing student and used it to help me through my anatomy and physiology exam. It was fantastic for helping me to lay the foundations needed to get to grips with some of the more complicated aspects of a&p. That said it was not as detailed as I would have needed to completely get me through the exam. I found it worked well as a book to read before looking at the more detailed and technical text books which are a lot more daunting.

It uses lots of every day examples to make things easier to understand and remember. For example it likens the negative and positive feedback systems within the body to a thermostat like you might have in your home which will only make changes if the environmental temperature changes.

Makes anatomy & physiology very accessible.

Compelling Reading, 18 Nov 2008
The recent 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War spurred me to seek out some literature on the subject. My mother's father fought at Ypres and Arras, and was invalided home after a mustard gas attack. I was only 10 years old when he died, but I wish I could have talked to him about his experiences. This book gives a potted history of each year of the war followed by accounts of various survivors who were interviewed in the 1970's. I aim to read more of the Forgotten Voices series to further my knowledge. I received Harry Patch's The Last Fighting Tommy in the post today and look forward to reading his highly acclaimed account of his time in the trenches.

A window through time, 05 Nov 2008
War is never going to be a pleasant thing to read about, and this is no exception - it consists of testimonies from survivors, which have been cut into chunks and organised so that they refer to events in the order that they happened.

I happened across this in a charity shop at the end of October, and I can think of no better way to understand the real meaning of Armstice day - the absolute horror of the things they went through is something that I'd never be able to do. You get a real flavour of the way people were then too - women back in England handing out feathers (the symbol of a coward) to men in the street, completely unaware that a lot of them were back from the trenches sans uniform, which really affected the soldiers.

I won't go into the individual stories, but you can hear the voices rising from the page as you read - as an ex-actor, this is excellent source material if you're doing something set in this period.

A REALLY REALLY GOOD READ. Not many books have affected me as much as this one.

Voices of the Lost Generation, 30 Jul 2008
Forgotten Voices of the Great War is a collection of real life experiences of the First World War, as told by the ordinary people who lived through it.
I must admit that my knowledge of the First World War is a little blank. My only previous experience of this period was through school lessons about trench warfare, or by watching Blackadder goes forth. Therefore I can't make an analysis about the historical accuracy of the book. But what I can say is that I found it a very powerful and poignant work.

The author, Max Arthur, has spent several years listening to thousands of recordings of the men and women who lived during this period. These tapes were kept as archival records in the Imperial War Museum, after they were collected in 1972. These are essentially the voices of a lost generation. The book is divided into chapters that cover every year of the war, from 1914 to 1918. Within these chapters are accounts taken from individual campaigns or battles such as Gallipoli, The Second Battle of Ypres, or the Battle of Mons.

Arthur has sifted through these records to bring out the most varied and unique stories. We are told about gas attacks, boredom or banter between soldiers, but we also get to hear the points of view of people like Elizabeth Owen, who was a schoolgirl at the outbreak of the war. Many of these stories are touching and funny, while others can be truly horrifying. In the section on Gallipoli for instance, we get a story of the games played between British and Turkish soldiers, with some of them throwing tinned bully beef and strings of figs to each other as presents. In the same section it also tells you of the horrible and undignified deaths caused by dysentry and other diseases, which will probably be some of the most terrible accounts of the war you will ever read.

This is an incredibly powerful and important book. If you have ever wondered about life during the First World War, then this book should be the first one you read. Extraordinay.

Not everyone can get to source documents, 23 May 2008
This book is now part of a series collated from the IWM archives. Not everyone can get to source documents through time or distance. This book has brought some of the sources into the public arena. Naturally such short personal reminicences give a fragmented picture. If you want opinions handed to you, read a 'definitive' history. All history books, however good, are shaped by the author. If a book like this makes you question recived wisdom, it has done its job.

Good, but difficult to put in context., 22 May 2008
This is an excellent collection of first-hand accounts of the Great War, from a variety of different contemporary contributors to that war.

The only problem with this book is that it divorces the account from much of the wider picture, so it tends to foster a 'I've read that book, I know all about WW1 now' sort of attitude. Perhaps it's just a reflection of our rushed aged, but I think the many other books, which describe some of the development of the war and intertwine similar first-hand accounts, do more justice to those milions who gave their lives on all sides, than a quick flit through this collection of stand-alone, very short stories.

Admittedly, the book has a very important role to play in appealing to those who may othwerwise not take an interest in WW1, so for that reason alone, it is a worthwhile production.

What Are You Looking For?, 28 Nov 2007
I bought this book as I am studying complimentary therapies and anatomy and physiology is a big component. My intention was for it to be as an extra study aid but I think that I would have preferred something that offered a little more.
The book is okay and does what it says. If you are studying the muscular system and you need to know a large amount of inofrmation, look for something else.

Very handy little book, 11 Aug 2005
Just bought this book as a quick reference for when giving massages and I am not disappointed. It is very handy to use and the spiral binding is excellent and very adequate for the type of book this is as i can leave it open flat while massaging and don't have to fiddle with it continuously.
It does just what it says, but of course doesn't replace the bigger more detailed/thorough books on muscles and anatomy.
This book is for taking with you when you're out and about and can't /don't want to take the bigger books.
Great quick reference guide.

A little handy primer, 09 Jan 2005
This book is a great handy primer for those on anatomy & physiology courses who need something to carry around with them as they learn the muscular-skeletal system of the body.

The big plus for this book is the comb binding which allows the book to be opened flat, or worse, folded over.

The artwork is clear, and covers the major muscles and bones, with additional tables setting out the origins and insertions, and the origins of ennervating nerves.

In short, a good buy.

New edition *with corrections* superb for students, 27 Mar 2003
The new edition of this little book has all the mistakes corrected which marred the last edition. This makes it the most useful, portable booklet I have seen. It covers trunk and limbs systematically with clear illustrations of the bones and ligaments first, then the muscles in their different layers. It also contains charts of muscles, origins, insertions, innervation and function for each of the muscles by area. Further short sections on joints, posture and movement patterns, types of muscle contraction and muscle fibre types, nerve supply, energy systems and common types of injury make this book invaluable.

Definitely one forthe students, 04 Dec 2002
As a teacher of Body Massage, Beauty Therapy and Holistic Therapies at a further education college, I feel this book offers, clear, colourful pictures, easy understanding of how the body moves, all in a neat and moderately priced book. This is a useful and quick teaching aid that the majority of my students have found(on recommendation) useful - I should be on commission!!

Lightweight but worthwhile, 03 Oct 2008
Whilst always very readable, there's something just a little unsatisfying about Neil Shubin's exploration of the evolution of the body up to the one currently occupied by homo sapiens. I think ultimately because it comes over as a little too lightweight, even though the subject is overwhelmingly big.

Nevertheless, there is no denying, ultimately, the level of fascination in the material.

It is, of course, not always comforting to find that, once analysed, human beings are based on the same blueprint as any other animal with a head (and anus, as it happens - Shubin seems to take delight in repeating the word) and some without, where mouth and anus (there it is again!) combine, as in the sea anemone.

Through words and pictures the author demonstrates the similarities between your nearest and dearest and sharks, salamanders, flies and all sorts of other creatures you normally wouldn't be inviting to a family reunion. There's an inevitable quantity of technical vocabulary, but it's never in torrents so it never overwhelms.

So whilst a trifle unsatisfactory as heavyweight Natural History, the book has more than enough going for it to recommend it to the general reader.

Post Script

Some way through the book I will admit to reflecting on first its potential as a treatise on evolution, but then second on the potential it holds for the Intelligent Design lobby - basic blueprint, materials reuse, continuous development.

Shubin doesn't tackle this, which is a shame; I'm reminded of the misuse of Nietzsche under different circumstances and wonder at the naïveté of it all. The ID myth is, of course, nothing more than that, but why give it a potential scientific credence?

A brief check confirms that Shubin is in the evolutionary camp, but that does not dispel some of the ambiguity of Inner Fish, with mentions of the Creator (his capital), no small amount of teleology (suggesting on a number of occasions that species determined for themselves in what direction to develop), and the suggestion that a basic "design" "arose" rather than that a pattern evolved - incredibly there is not much mention of the word "evolution".

In a period during which the forces of reaction are trying their best to roll back the gains of evolutionary science in dispelling superstition, it seems irresponsible to provide them with an open goal.


Good but not splendid, 28 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin, codiscoverer of the Tiktaalit, shows in this book that to become a human you must first become a fish. Its a wonderful argument against the notion of `intelligent design'. Or would you call a car manufacturer intelligent who makes a Mercedes by first building a wooden coach? Nevertheless there is an unwholesome streak of creationism and anti-darwinism in Shubins otherwise lucid descriptions, a streak which seems to belong to US-American culture like Samba belongs to Brazil. For example, he criticizes Haeckels `ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny' understanding of the way evolution shows up in embryos when Haeckel "would compare a human embryo to an adult fish". But any changes in the features of an embryo - like going from fish to human - require the action of natural selection to have acted once - and not on an embryo. Natural selection operates on the reproduction success of an animal, and that means adults. Therefore, for any developmental stage of an embryo, there must have existed an adult creature that had evolved just to this stage; and when you trace the embryonic development, a fossil must exist at every level that had achieved just this stage. To understand the embyro, you need to understand Natural selection, which means you must understand the reproduction success of the adult. It does not suffice to compare the embryos of different species - their "blueprints" ; Shubin just loves to talk all the time about "blueprints", which is a typical design term. Tracing embryos runs parallel to tracing the fossils of adults.
For another example, look at the way he describes the recent research situation when it was found that "in many single-celled animals, much of the molecular machinery for cell adhesion, interaction, and so on is just not there", which "would seem to support the notion that the genes that help cells unite to make bodies arose together with the origin of bodies. And at first glance, it seems to make sense that the tools to build bodies should arise in lockstep with the bodies themselves." This idea makes sense, yes - if you are a creationist. If you think like Haeckel, this is nonsense because for selection to produce bodies there must have been a single cell animal with all the needed machinery existing. And as Shubin beautifully narrates, just such an animal turned up : the choanoflagellates.
Science has been kind to Haeckel, contrary to what Shubin asserts in the book.
Despite my reservations, I highly recommend his book because of Shubins genuine enthusiasm for his subject, and the wealth of new results that he presents. If it had more of Dawkins and much less Gould in it, it would have been splendid. The pictures are as miserable as I have come to expect nowadays in good books about science.


The Story of Fossils and Geneology, 26 Aug 2008
Through extensive fossil records and geneology, Mr. Shubin takes the reader through the development of single celled organisms (bacteria), multi-cell (jellyfish), bodies (worms), skull (fish), hands and feet (reptiles), three-boned middle ear (mammals), and finally, bipedal with large brain (humans).

We have in us anatomical design improvements that can take us only so far from our water borne ancestors. Mr. Shubin asserts if humans were designed from scratch, "we would not have to suffer everything from hemorrhoids to cancer."

If, like me, you have always wondered why the male scrotum tucks close to the body in chilling weather, "Your Inner Fish" is an excellent source.

Curiously, Mr. Shubin made no mention of how a Cro-Magnon was able to win the U.S. presidency twice; in 2000 and 2004.

And a marvellous fish it is, 22 Aug 2008
Neil Shubin has an extraordinary gift for making science that can be difficult to sift through highly interesting. Drawing on his own and other's discoveries many of the more difficult areas of human development are covered with a truly admirable passion. Throughout the book Shubin's passion literally leaps of the page making the book an enjoyable one-sitting read

Shubin's Majestic Trek into the Human Body, Billions of Years in the Making, 08 Aug 2008
"Your Inner Fish" truly merits ample praise for being one of the best-written books on science I've read in years. It also ranks easily as an early, leading candidate as one of the finest books published this year. In clear, concise, and quite vivid, prose, this marvelous terse tome recounts in spectacular fashion, the incredible saga of the evolutionary history of our human body. Vertebrate paleobiologist and anatomy professor Neil Shubin is our enthusiastic, expert guide through this amazing journey into our body's primordial past, weaving with utmost brevity, a most compelling, and intricate, tale from fossils, genes and developmental biology. A fascinating trek through these aspects of evolutionary biology that represents too an intriguing personal scientific odyssey from a novice graduate student to a seasoned scientific veteran of major field expeditions in search of rare, often unique, vertebrate fossils across the globe and of substantial laboratory work in evolutionary developmental biology. In short, in terse, exquisite, well-written, prose, Shubin demonstrates the deep evolutionary connections that unite humanity not only with other mammals, but with other vertebrates to