Welcome to Litsy!

The extremely informal, conversational tone of this book took a little getting used to, but it was a fantastic read. I learned so much about the immune system. His analogies made really complicated topics easy to understand. And as others have mentioned, the illustrations are beautiful. Highly recommended!

An enthusiastic pick! The immune system is a complex, beautiful dance that tries to keep itself in balance, and Dettmer makes this really clear. There are places where he explains the relevance to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as well, and tackles vaccine hesitancy... but the bulk of the book is just understanding all the lovely moving parts of the immune system.

Also the illustrations are beautiful.

"The pincers are for enemies, the cute butts are for friends."

Welp, I just absolutely died. ???

I've learned two new things from this book so far, which makes me glad I decided to read it properly and not assume I knew more. I didn't know the theory of how platelets are formed by a cell creating long “ribbons“ off itself that extend into the blood vessels and then break off bit by bit to become free-floating platelets.

Also about the nets neutrophils make from their own DNA, and doubt I'll ever forget thanks to the colourful analogy.

This footnote about imagining the bacteria on you as bunnies made me laugh.

Obviously this book is gonna be way too simple in level for me in terms of the text, which should be a restful revision exercise. I'm hoping that the diagrams and illustrations will help me a lot though: I'm not visual at all, so thinking about clear ways to present images of the immune system is nooot something I'm good at.

Book 5 of 2022.

The human immune system is amazing & indispensable. It‘s also incredibly complex, so I was happy to have its multiple layers explained with humour & many analogies in this entertaining science book. The #audiobook has frequent information summaries & is read by Steve Taylor, who also voices the Kurzgesagt science channel on YouTube. I have just ordered a print copy from my local bookstore so that I can refer back to this book in the future.

To most living things, you are not a person, but a landscape covered with forests, swamps and oceans, filled with rich resources and plenty of space to start a family and settle down.

Same quilt, new audiobook. I‘m hand tying the top and bottom layers together with embroidery thread. #audiocrafting