David Montgomery and Ann Bikle peer into the scientific community's current understanding of the microbial world and its interactions with plants, insects, animals, and people. The writers, a husband and wife team, also bring a personal angle to their motivation for digging into the fast-emerging field of microbial medicine. The takeaway for me is that our day-to-day perception of ourselves as independent life units is just that--a perception, and an illusory one. We are part of a much bigger, more sophisticated life mechanism.
The writers (mostly) succeed in presenting this complex topic in a way that I, a non-scientist, can follow. My only reservation about the book, in fact, comes with the "mostly" note. The writing sometimes lapses into vocabulary and concepts that seem right for a more specialized audience. But please don't let that stand between you and a very informative book about a topic that is sure to become more and more visible in our medical, horticultural, agricultural, and other conversations.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.