Earthly Materials: Journeys Through Our Bodies' Emissions, Excretions, and Disintegrations

Bill Bryson'sThe Bodymeets Mary Roach'sGulp(with a dash ofWhat's Your Poo Telling You?)in this delightfully weird, richly informative, and unexpectedly lyrical tour of our bodily emissions-revealing that the very parts of us that we seek to hide in embarrassment are actually an essential part of human health, with fascinating social history.

In biology class, we learn that the body is a fundamentally cohesive organism, a collection of organs and tissues working together to a common purpose, ...