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The Origin of Feces: A top nonfiction pick


July 8, 2013
The Origin of Feces

David Waltner-Toews's The Origin of Feces: What Excrement Tells Us About Evolution, Ecology, and a Sustainable Society (ECW Press, May 2013) has earned critical acclaim from Publisher's Weekly and Huffington Post. Now Globe Books has named the book a top nonfiction read this summer.

The Origin of Feces may sound like a bathroom read, and although there are plenty of puns, this book comes with a serious message. Critics have drawn comparisons to Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

Book description:
"An entertaining and enlightening exploration of why waste matters, this cultural history explores an often ignored subject matter and makes a compelling argument for a deeper understanding of human and animal waste. Approaching the subject from a variety of perspectives—evolutionary, ecological, and cultural—this examination shows how integral excrement is to biodiversity, agriculture, public health, food production and distribution, and global ecosystems. From primordial ooze, dung beetles, bug frass, cat scats, and flush toilets to global trade, pandemics, and energy, this is the awesome, troubled, uncensored story of feces."

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