Poison: Sinister Species with Deadly Consequences by Mark Siddall

3 stars
nonfiction

So I saw this on the new arrivals display at the library and it looked manageable in my pregnant I-can't-think-enough-to-read state.  Filled with quick anecdotes about various poisonous or toxic critters it seemed like easy bite-sized chunks perfect for reading in the doctor's waiting room.

But I only managed part of the intro at my final appointment... and ended up reading the rest after having the baby.  Like... while feeding the baby in the middle of the night.

Problem with that is, you're not super coherent on pain pills at 3 am.... and when the anecdotes are rambling and incoherent to begin with that's a rough combination.

And it wasn't just me.  I reread some sections during the day, wide-awake.  And then I read parts to my friend.  Yeah, she didn't get it either.

Some sections were better than others that way.  Some were really all over the place.  Some were a little too focused on wordplay and not enough on making sense, lol.

(Though really, you've got to admire someone who can use the phrase "erroneously erogenous coital conjecture" without sounding completely insane.)

This review is starting to feel incoherent and rambly too...

A little more background on the author and how/when/why he put together the book would have been nice at the beginning instead of buried in the end.  Knowing going in that he's a field biologist would have made some of the sections make more sense.  By the same token, more of his personal anecdotes might have been nice.

Overall, some of it made me nuts, some of it was creepy, and some of it was really interesting.  It was a random collection that way.