Sewage isn't something that we usually think about, but we should. This book covers all things toilet-related from weaknesses in US infrastructure to the lack of facilities in the developing world to fancy Japanese toilets. It's entertaining and thought-provoking. ( )

Adult nonfiction. George pursues the problem of human waste and sanitation with all of the curiosity and zeal of Mary Roach, but also makes it clear that this is a very serious problem (that unfortunately no one likes to talk about). "There is nothing funny," she writes, about 2.6 billion people being without sanitation--no toilet, no pit, no nothing. ( )

An interesting book on an icky subject. This is not a history book and so covers human poop disposal as is currently done (or not done as the case may be) in various countries. After a while it gets repetitive. ( )

Rose is a Brit that talks about the poor sanitary conditions in both India and China (Africa too). She describes various activists that have attempted to contain the problem via sustainable/non-polluting means, however there is no easy answer. ( )

As a typical Westerner ( I think) I had never thought about dirty latrines, or even "bush squatting" as anything more than a nasty inconvenience of traveling in developing countries. But George points out the great hazards to human health posed by ...poop. While the tone is often humorous, the subject is serious, and George provides an easy to read, interesting overview of the problems of human waste and safe drinking water. She visits India, China and Tanzania, among other places, to describe and analyze a variety of attempted solutions. The general conclusion of the book seems to be that this is a problem we can't afford to ignore, but that may have differing solutions in different places. Our Western solution (which is currently seen as the "gold standard") of washing waste away by mixing it with clean drinking water, seems wasteful to me after reading about the variety of other options being explored. ( )