Really enjoyed this book. There were some funny bits, interesting anecdotes and a healthy dose of science. I see a few reveiwers felt she was a bit too "scintific" but I really didn't feel this to be the case. I think the large number of components in the venom made it difficult to completely avoid "jargon," but she always did a great job of explaining things. Worth a read just to find out there are venomous sharks! Who knew? ( maybe everyone but me, until now) ( )

Really expected more. Just a broad brush about venom. Which is what the book is about. But was hoping for thoughts on how evolution worked. Some deeper history. Info about some of the animals was great but much of it I was already aware of. ( )

Venomous and I did not get off to a great start. You'd think it would be a sure bet, since Chapter 1 kicks things off with the platypus, possibly my most favourite non-domesticated animal, and one she visited with - as she notes on page 1 - at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary "in Melbourne Australia". I've been to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and I have a picture of myself and the koala that peed on me to prove it (fun fact: koala pee smells sooooo bad). The thing is, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is in Brisbane, not Melbourne. Not a small error, either; one is at the bottom of the continent and the other at the top. Plus, Wilcox was there, so you'd like to think she knew she was in Brisbane and not Melbourne. Unless the koala pee stench got to her.

Anyhoo ... I was understandably feeling a bit cynical after that illustrious beginning, and the first few chapters were not enough to sway me either way, but I began to find myself invested - as measured by how much I started reading out to MT (I am a trial to this poor man, I know) - by chapter 6: "All the better to eat you with". This is the chapter about necrotising venoms, proving that I'm really no better than a 12 year old boy sometimes. But chapter 8 was even better: Mind Control. OMG.

Chapter 9 is about the pharmacological miracles that have been wrought by venom research, and reading it made me want to rush out to the world and scream nobody touch anything! simply because at the rate humanity is going, we'll exterminate the cure for cancer, et al long before we ever knew it existed.

Venomous is a popular science book and as such is filled with anecdotes that make it easier for the average arm chair science nerd to connect with the material being discussed; it also has a not insignificant amount of the harder science in the form of detailed descriptions of neural chemical pathways, etc. but I wouldn't call it inaccessible. In comparison, my recent read, Venom, is a far more hard-core scientific discussion and breakdown of the study of venom. (And it had much better pictures).

In an interesting six-degrees-of-separation chain of my TBR reads, Venom cited this book, Venomous, in the text, and Wilcox has cited The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, so I guess I know what my next non-fiction book is going to be. ( )

Lots of fascinating information explained plainly for us non-scientists. ( )

To paraphrase the author, this book is Dr. Christie Wilcox's ode to the fearsome power of venomous creatures and her tribute to their incredible scientific potential. This is a beautifully written book on the little discussed and known subject of venom. The book is an investigation into venom and some of the weird and wonderful creatures that use them. The author takes a look at how venomous creatures interact with other species and ecosystems, how these interactions have effected the evolutionary path of these species (including humans). Dr. Wilcox reveals how the different types of venom work, what they do to the human (and prey) body, adaptation and immunity to venom, and how these substances can revolutionize biochemistry and the medical field.

The author is a molecular biologist writing for an intelligent public (of any age - teenagers might enjoy this book too). The author manages to balance all the interesting science with amusing or illustrative anecdotes without making these personal stories seem like useless filler. Who could find stories about Komodo Dragons, venomous mammals, bullet ants which inflict one of the most painful sting in the world, bees, spiders, snakes, wasps that turn cockroaches into zombies, and spikey caterpillars that turn your insides into mush, boring? She includes enough well-explained biochemical detail to show how different venom functions, without bogging the reader down with excruciating detail, and she does not "dumb-down" the science either (THANK YOU!). There are numerous photographs and illustrations which would probably be more legible (or at least larger) in the paper version of the book than the Kindle version I read.

This book is both informative and entertaining to read. I learned a great deal of new stuff (which is the point to reading science books) and had fun while doing all this learning. This is an author who I hope writes more science books in the future. ( )