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meganpbennett's review
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
2.5
Fuzz was my first Mary Roach book, and it's an interesting look at animals who break human laws. I found that the writing was very much aimed at fiction readers, and was much more pop than science. I also found the emphasis on how to kill various "problem" animals unnecessary and would have like far more history than the book gave.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Vomit
kirstym25's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
zalouis's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Car accident and Violence
schnaucl's review against another edition
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
This is the second book of Mary Roach's that I've read, and like before I found her prose to be very readable.
This was an interesting book but also a sad one. I hadn't realized how rarely relocation works out well for the animal being relocated and in fact may ultimately be crueler euthanasia. Of course, that was a chapter focusing on a specific species in a specific place, so maybe that's not universally true but there are lines in other chapters that made me think it often doesn't work as well as the public would like to believe.
Much of the book was focused on the United States but there were a few chapters that took place in other countries and it was interesting to see how other cultures reacted to "nuisance" animals. There was also a chapter on dangerous plants which focused on castor beans and one that focused on falling trees.
There were lots of interesting tidbits on things like the forensics of animal attacks, and how good prey animals are at judging distance and speed for predators. But my main takeaway is that humans are really good at causing problems for other species and then often make those problems worse when they try and solve it. Or else we're completely ineffective and can't change anything. I don't think there were any chapters involving animals where humans were able to make a positive long term difference (although maybe the one about deer will turn out that way). Obviously there are cases where humans helped bring species back from the verge of extinction but usually after we put them there in the first place (and that wasn't covered in the book since it didn't fit the topic).
This was an interesting book but also a sad one. I hadn't realized how rarely relocation works out well for the animal being relocated and in fact may ultimately be crueler euthanasia. Of course, that was a chapter focusing on a specific species in a specific place, so maybe that's not universally true but there are lines in other chapters that made me think it often doesn't work as well as the public would like to believe.
Much of the book was focused on the United States but there were a few chapters that took place in other countries and it was interesting to see how other cultures reacted to "nuisance" animals. There was also a chapter on dangerous plants which focused on castor beans and one that focused on falling trees.
There were lots of interesting tidbits on things like the forensics of animal attacks, and how good prey animals are at judging distance and speed for predators. But my main takeaway is that humans are really good at causing problems for other species and then often make those problems worse when they try and solve it. Or else we're completely ineffective and can't change anything. I don't think there were any chapters involving animals where humans were able to make a positive long term difference (although maybe the one about deer will turn out that way). Obviously there are cases where humans helped bring species back from the verge of extinction but usually after we put them there in the first place (and that wasn't covered in the book since it didn't fit the topic).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty
Minor: Animal death
booknerdbetty's review against another edition
dark
informative
slow-paced
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Excrement, Body shaming, and Violence
missbsbookshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, and Animal death
jhbandcats's review
dark
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Mary Roach is likely the greatest science writer ever. She writes science books for the layman. Her intelligence and curiosity combine to gives us laugh-out-loud funny, educational books on things we *think* we know but don't. In the past I have loved her books Stiff (cadavers), Bonk (sex), Spook (ghosts), and Packing for Mars (space travel). (I was so excited reading Fuzz that I've decided to reread Stiff.) At some point I intend to read Gulp (the alimentary canal) and Grunt (the military). She can make any topic entertaining.
I learned all sorts of things: rodents can't vomit, the peregrine falcon stays aloft only six minutes because flying is too hard, and hungry bears know how to raid refrigerators. The least dangerous way of removing the rotting top of a 100'-plus tree is to blow it up - just the top, though. Rural people in India may be terrified of elephant and cougar attacks but are accepting that occasional deaths are the cost of living in proximity to one another. It's often easier to just give up than to try to eradicate a troublesome animal: Midway Island, with its thousands of airplane-whacking albatrosses, was once a key part of US defense but is now a wildlife sanctuary.
For me, an ardent animal advocate, parts of this were very hard to read. The chapter on humane methods of killing "pests" was inexpressibly sad to me. Luckily, the wacky stories of chicken guns, danger trees, and drivers wanting deer crossings moved to safer locations made up for it.
I learned all sorts of things: rodents can't vomit, the peregrine falcon stays aloft only six minutes because flying is too hard, and hungry bears know how to raid refrigerators. The least dangerous way of removing the rotting top of a 100'-plus tree is to blow it up - just the top, though. Rural people in India may be terrified of elephant and cougar attacks but are accepting that occasional deaths are the cost of living in proximity to one another. It's often easier to just give up than to try to eradicate a troublesome animal: Midway Island, with its thousands of airplane-whacking albatrosses, was once a key part of US defense but is now a wildlife sanctuary.
For me, an ardent animal advocate, parts of this were very hard to read. The chapter on humane methods of killing "pests" was inexpressibly sad to me. Luckily, the wacky stories of chicken guns, danger trees, and drivers wanting deer crossings moved to safer locations made up for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
beholderess's review
funny
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
ehmannky's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
3.25
I don't think this is Roach's best work, but there's still a lot of really interesting tidbits about the ways that humans are constantly trying to live with/near nature and how our attitudes of "managing wildlife" has changed in the past century and how it's likely to change in the next century. An interesting read overall.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Death
Minor: Child death
surlyjackson's review against another edition
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Medical content, and Animal death
Moderate: Death