Fuzz by Mary Roach is another of her scientific, humorous and informative books, this time about human and animal interactions over the ages and what has been done to and for these animals. Always factual and with much research, the subject is covered in a very readable way and the more I read of this author the more I want to go back and read all she has written.

I will buy this for my library. However I did not find this book as engaging as other books by Mary Roach that I have read.

I have long loved the novel of Mary Roach and she first introduced me to modern non-fiction writing. This novel is more difficult in some ways. The planet is not in harmony, humans are taking more then their fair share of the resources and not playing nicely with the other tenants of earth. Mary Roach takes her signature style of curiosity and sets it to animals and how they interact with people. It was a great book, just a bit sad. As human beings we are not being good co-habitants. So good but gloomy.

Mary Roach is one of my favorite nonfiction authors, and she delivers again with this newest book on how human tries to deal with animals and nature with the human-based laws and regulations.

I love Mary Roach's writing style. She takes complex, scientific material and writes about it in a way that feels like you are talking with a friend. She really understands how to make the material accessible. The facts of how we have tried to harness nature and how it has fought back are very interesting. I loved the reports of how we have historically tried to police wild creatures. Overall Roach gives the reader a wide view of how animals are seen across the world. The differences between how we treat animals that attack in the US vs the rest of the world was very interesting.

We need to become better about living with nature. We have taken over lands that provide food and shelter and are destroying those habitats. We need to find a way to coexist with creatures big and small and understand that they are just trying to live too. I loved this book.

A very funny and factual book! I have been a Mary Roach fan for ages, and this one has surpassed Stiff for my favorite! I love how Roach describes all of the people she meets--extremely vivid characters!

As usual for Roach, the book is another fun yet educational look at a specific topic.
I advise patrons that Roach's works are like book-length magazine articles and this one does not break her streak.

Do you love reading odd facts to your significant other? If so, Mary Roach is the author for you! From the woman who brought us <i>Stiff</i> and <i>Packing for Mars</i>, <i>Fuzz</i> takes us into the wild (pun intended) world of human/animal interaction. I learned so many alarming things about mountain lions! If you are someone who loves odd facts about nature, witty observations and humorous footnotes than <i>Fuzz</i> is a must read!

I would recommend this book to fans of light non-fiction, those looking for odd talking points for party banter, and of course fans of Mary Roach.

Mary Roach always has a fun approach to scientific topics and Fuzz was no different. It's got her sense of humor paired with real information. I learned a lot. I have already purchased this for my library.

I love Mary Roach's books. She dives into topics most of us have given only a passing thought to, whether it's death, sex, food, (maybe more than a passing thought to those last two) and now, wildlife/human conflict. She investigates and then presents to the reader an informative and often light-hearted (even funny at times) book that makes you think.

In Fuzz, Ms. Roach tackles the never-ending human/wildlife conflicts. She travels around the world meeting with experts and seeing first-hand the steps that are being taken to alleviate unnecessary damage or death. From bears to moose to elephants to mice, the reader goes on the journey with the author.

Some of the information is difficult. Reading details about killing methods (whether the death is of a person or a wild animal) is not always easy to take. Much of the conflict was economic - crops destroyed, property damaged, etc., and all of us can relate to some conflict when wildlife and people have come too close.

I appreciate that Ms. Roach ended the book on a positive note. The chapter with the cattle rancher and his mouse and bird problem was ultimately hopeful and there is a page or two of resources at the end of the book that help the reader learn how to coexist with wildlife. It is encouraging that there are so many people looking for less painful ways to control animal populations today than there were in the past.

My thanks to W.W. Norton and Co. and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and W. W. Norton & Company for access to this arc.

Roach tackles a topic that might at first seem odd but it turns out to be fascinating due to the breadth of her research and investigations plus the knowledge of the people she seeks out to interview. Be warned that much of what she discusses has no easy answers. In fact, many of the issues have been “problems” for eons and despite the hard work (for the cause of animals as well as the humans they must interact with) of most of the people she interviews, solutions are still being sought.

The book is not for the faint of heart. It starts with Roach attending a conference taught by Canadian wildlife experts trying to teach investigators how to differentiate between human deaths caused by other humans and those caused by animals. Explicit descriptions of what they look for are included. On one hand it is heartening that people are trying to be sure that if a person is determined to have been killed by (for instance) a bear or cougar the correct animal is caught and not just the next one to wander by. On the other hand, some of the forensics are emotionally difficult to read.

From there, Roach journeys to various places across the globe to look into areas of human and animal conflict. They are many and varied. And often can be traced back to our own behaviors. From restaurants not securing food waste that will entice bears into downtown Aspen, CO, to tourists who will bribe macaques with food to get their stolen iphones back (the tourists’ phones, that is), to loss of habitat forcing animals out of what was wilderness, to introducing invasive species to try and eliminate the previously introduced invasive species that are killing the native species – humans are the cause of much of it.

Past methods of dealing with “pests” have been horrific while at the same time generally yielding little to no tangible results. Agencies that are tasked with wildlife management and conservation are sometimes funded by hunting licenses. Towns that fret over potentially dangerous animals injuring people can blithely produce pamphlets suggesting to residents to plant the very types of trees that will lure these animals in. Majestic forests depend on stately old growth trees to get people to visit there but those visitors object to removing trees that might be rotting inside and thus prone to falling on the visitors.

There are people trying to find different ways to head off conflicts which usually result in animals losing. Sometimes this is done to protect the animals and sometimes figuring out ways to keep animals from damaging “people things” such as planes and cars might end up saving the animals, too. Other scientists are trying to find non-lethal or more humane ways to avoid “humans vs animals” or “predatory animals vs other animals” encounters.

Animal lovers, there is hope. Wildlife officials in India host educational seminars explaining ways to avoid being trampled by elephants or hunted by leopards. Two scientists have been working on a way to get deer to try other survival tactics besides “deer in the headlights” when a car is bearing down on them. Pope Francis has decreed that in Vatican City, biological pest control will be used in place of pesticides. Public perceptions of coexistence with wildlife appear to be (positively) shifting. At the end of the book are some resources that can be checked out that offer options other than death for ways to deal with critters you might not want in or around your house. Roach’s dry humor had me laughing a lot plus I learned some neat new Scrabble words like kerf and frass. B

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

However, I am totally biased in favor of Mary Roach's books, but it's the old fashioned kind of bias of really consistently getting a kick out of her work. Her sense of humor works for me and she brings a delightful amount of perverse enthusiasm to the subjects she writes about! It's been longer than usual between publications for her, and this one surprised me since I do periodically check in on her Twitter to see if she's talking about any upcoming releases. I was a little nervous for this topic, though -- how many ways can you write about "humans meets wildlife, humans (eventually)(mortally) win"? Thankfully, it was not so bleak, and I don't mean because she balanced out anecdotes of animal-kills-human with human-kills-animal! We get to dive into the people-management aspects of wildlife management, the pursuit of more targeted and human "mouse traps" and other efforts to draw a line between theirs and ours... and yes, a little human/animal mutual attacks (accidental or otherwise).

In order, she looks at (spoilers?): wolves, bears, elephants, leopards, monkeys, cougars, trees, poisonous plants , birds, deer, birds again, and rats. The conflicts/human-nature interactions can be loosely sorted into food (animals getting at trash, picnics, crops); wrong place, wrong time crossover (like trees falling on you); car vs future roadkill; invasive species and pest control.

As always, Roach speckles in tiny detours and trivia, like window-shopping along your commute. Surprisingly, her somewhat unfortunate namesake, the roach, didn't really steal the spotlight anywhere, nor did the loathsome mosquito, but one can infer the state of their human interactions based on the various sections on pest control and so forth.

Interestingly, I've managed to more than once find opportunities to expound on my learnings from this book to other people on three separate occasions in as many weeks! The fight-or-flight timings of deer (and other animals) in the headlights -- and the research in preventing their paralysis -- accounting for two of those occasions. It made an impression and found its way into my conversations... jolly good for any book!

Like any prognosticating charlatan, it is easier to work backwards from a known future to find the seeds all along. Some of this book (albatrosses, chicken guns) definitely had its start in Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (which in turn had at least one lead from her research for Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex). So of course, as always, I wonder what the next topic may be. Plants got short shrift here, so maybe a book on poisons? And/or one to do with fermentation and alcohol (which counts as toxin, to go with the poison theme)? Orrrr insects, which also were notably even more sparse. I eagerly await.

FUZZ by Mary Roach, subtitled "when nature breaks the law," is yet another entertaining work of non-fiction from the author of Stiff, Grunt and many more texts. Roach (called America's funniest science writer) explores forensic science for animal attacks, looks at the lives of elephants, studies leopards, and generally continues to surprise readers with amusing and unusual facts about other species (bats, birds, squirrels, etc.) that frequently interact with humans. Perhaps you are wondering how to handle a hungry bear or have another question about wildlife? Roach shares numerous stories that will have you laughing and provides a helpful appendix with resources (like links to the Humane Society of the United States, PETA, and suggestions about professional help), plus a useful bibliography. Plan on smiling as you read – FUZZ received starred reviews from Booklist ("quirky angle on a timely topic [that] will go down easy with readers of all ages"), Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly.

In Fuzz, science writer Mary Roach deep-dives into the rabbit hole of human/animal interaction and conflict. As in her other books (Stiff and Packing for Mars are two of my faves), she has an eye for the absurd, she's not afraid to follow her curiosity, and she's effing funny. Roach's superpower is to expose the science behind obscure subjects with sharp wit and eye for detail. Are they fascinating subjects? Or is Roach such an effective science writer that she makes the subjects fascinating? Read the book. You win either way.

[Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.]

It's been awhile since I've read a Mary Roach book, and I definitely missed it! Fuzz lived up to the science and the hype in every way. Covering a wealth of animal-human conflicts, the author offers a broad amount of information in fascinating detail, and one mustn't skip the footnotes, which are just as full of humor as they are history and science.

From bears, coyotes, and mountain lions to tigers and macaques to albatross and mice - even trees! - Fuzz covers quite a lofty amount of animal-human conflicts. Roach discusses what the issues are, what's been tried, what happens now, and what the impact is, which is the question at the crux of the book. Who's really at conflict with who? Who's to say our needs are more important? What is a sentient being? Fuzz is a book about ethics, and their evolution as much as ours.

I learned so much from this book and laughed out loud often too. Ultimately, Roach's book is a modern discussion of overpopulation and conservation, examining research and processes from around the world. The simple fact is as humans require more space to live in, we should expect more animals to enter that space. If we make their lives more difficult, or their territory smaller, they will encroach into our spaces more. Quite often, we are the ones teaching them bad habits.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a review copy.

Science writer Mary Roach turns her pen to the intersection of humans and animals. Did you know that there are forensic investigators for animal attacks? Neither did I. And what to do about animals who are seemingly a nuisance like squirrels destroying your garden. Should anything BE done or are humans the one encroaching on *their* world. There is so much in this book that will make readers pause and think...and be entertained.

Interesting, informative, and irreverently funny—this book portends to look at the animals that don’t conform to our expectations but it realistically says at least as much about us humans and our compassion for and treatment of other living species.

Thanks to NetGalley and W.W. Norton and Company for the ARC to read and review.

As always, Mary Roach hits it out of the park - this book is thoughtful, informative, and funny. It's also timely - human-wildlife interactions will only increase as we build farther into wildlife habitat, and Roach strikes a good balance and explains well the arguments and emotions on all sides.

One thing I’ve learned in my 18 years of bookselling—when a customer tells me a book is funny and I “need to” read it, they are always wrong, It is never funny. It takes a lot for me to laugh at a book, but I always, without exception, find Mary Roach’s books humorous. Since she is not an expert on whatever science or subject she tackles, she approaches her storytelling as a novice explaining her concepts to another novice. She is always entertaining and informative.

Where this book doesn’t work for me is its concept—it’s not *really* about when animals break the law, though there are a few such examples at the beginning. It’s more about how farmers and other city and country dwellers deal with animals encroaching on their habitats and ruining their crops. While Roach’s work is, as always, impeccably researched, the book devolves into a question of the ethics of exterminating pests and how best to humanely kill them. That isn’t animals breaking the law—it’s animals being a nuisance when they inconvenience humans. While it’s all well-done, this book isn’t as quirky or entertaining as the publisher’s description makes it out to be.

Exactly what you'd expect from Mary Roach: funny, weird, and accessible science writing.
The catchy premise is "nature behaving badly", when in reality it's more of a study of the ways humans trying and failing to co-exist with wild animals.