Book Review: Survival of the Sickets

Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
by Sharon Moalem (Author), Jonathan Prince (Author)

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060889659
ISBN-13: 978-0060889654

My Rating:

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Over all the book was a good read, but I think it lacked what I was looking for, which was a little more science and a little less casual writing style. This of course did not come as a huge surprise because its a mass marketed book. I did after all hear about it on the Daily Show.

The book is written for the layman and breaks everything down into cute little metaphors that I think anyone could understand. Even complex subjects such as methylation and telomeres are broken down into bit sized bits that require no previous understanding of Biology. No one should get stuck in a rut slogging threw difficult terms and concepts.

So for the average reader, it's a great book. For some one who was looking for a little more science in it, it was lacking. The book mostly discussed theories I had already herd about or studied and cast little new light on the subjects. It just reiterated what I already knew, some defects are there for a reason. I am always eager to hear about genetic diseases and their origins and this book did provide a few new links.