Adam's Navel: A Natural and Cultural History of the Human Form Book

I struggled to get through this -- it gets three stars for fitfully engaging passages and plenty of trivia. The book reads like a 300-page New Yorker article, and coming from me, that is not a compliment. The author injects far too many opinionated asides as well, which are extremely distracting. He references classic literature and mythology extensively, disdaining more modern references and popular culture, which adds to the condescending tone of the book. Space constraints prevent the discussion of several areas of the body (knees! teeth! armpits!), according to the introduction, contributing to a somewhat cursory tone as well.
There is trivia aplenty here though - who knew that the platypus has 8 hours of REM sleep, more than many 'higher' mammals? I also found it curious that the author has no problem listing and discussing numerous slang terms for male and female genitalia, but is much more restrained when writing about the navel, for example.
Maybe it's just me...but I was expecting more. Disappointing. Read Diane Ackerman or Desmond Morris for better coverage of similar themes.