A Genetic and Cultural Odyssey: The Life and Work of L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza Book

"No snake kills with more ruthless efficiency than the many-banded krait, which dwells in the jungles of India and Southeast Asia." How can you not love a book that starts out like this?! The Snake Charmer appears on the surface to be a biography of a "herper", or snake guy, but it's much more than that. It's a travelogue of both far away places and local fossil hunting grounds, it's a treatise on the academic world of scientists, it's a terrifying study of venomous snakes worldwide. It's an adventure story following the exploits of Joe Slowinski, one of the most brilliant biologists of his time'and the first academic herpetologist ever to die of snakebite in the field.

This book contains fascinating information about spitting cobras, flying snakes, pythons, the deadly Australian Inland taipan, coral snakes, copperheads, and the many-banded krait, which is the most toxic land snake found outside of Australia. And it contains the record of Joe's slow death as the neurotoxin affects his ability to move, breathe, or speak'as his colleagues perform round the clock CPR on him while they try to get a helicoptor to save him.

Even though you know from the beginning that Joe is killed by the snake, the writing is riveting and you hope against hope that he is saved...

I recommend for anyone who likes science, snakes, or true adventure books!