Beasts of the Earth

Animals, Humans, and Disease

By E. Fuller Torrey, MD, and Robert H. Yolken, MD.

Well, this book is exactly about what the subtitle says: how we got our diseases through our various interactions with animals, and how those interactions changed over the years and as our technology advanced. Sometimes amusing, most of the time frightening, the descriptions here are pretty factuals, which is not to say it is a difficult read. Some interesting points about food safety and the cost of exotic pets (did you know you could get a buffalo for just $2,000? A giraffe is a bit more pricy: $60K). [191 pp., including a bunch of references, comments, and an index.]