This book was fascinating and well narrated. Lots of information on bugs and their habits and the diseases they carry. I started this book during a power outage due to severe thunderstorms. Quite creepy.

Though the introduction claims this book is NOT a reference guide or to be used as one, that is how it is written and how it reads. It reads like an arbitrarily put together reference guide on "bugs," (in the broad sense), written by a non-scientist/non-doctor.
The book is long and gives a survey of hundreds of "bugs," to the point where they blend together and get confusing. As one reviewer said it would be better on paper.
As a result the individual entries/chapters are short and often contain only basic information.
From the title "The Louse that Conquered Napoleon." I was expecting detailed and interesting histories highlighting 10 or 20 bugs, and how they have changed human history.
Instead the chapter on the louse was only a few minutes long and simply said that Napoleon's army may have been weakened by Louse and the diseases they carried, so that they were overcome easily by the Russian winter. Then she moves on to another bug.
The narration was great! And the information was interesting if a little repetitive, so I give it two stars for that. But in general this book is a short bug encyclopedia written by someone who professes not to be qualified for such an endeavor and so it is not worth it.

Easier to understand.

The ticking is the Death Watch Beetle that taps on the rafters looking for a mate.
The only character is the narrator and she is very good. She has a precise voice that is soothing and easily understood. That is what is needed for this book This book is a compenduim of many of the wicked bugs known and their habits. It is wonderful to listen to but you might not want to leave the house, much less travel too far. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

This might be better as an actual book rather than an audio book. What captured me in the title was "the louse that conquered Napoleon's Army," and I was thinking there would be good and quirky info about that. Well, not really. Each chapter gives technical info on some kinds of bug, and there is a story to go with each one, but the scientific info far outweighs the quirky info. I can imagine reading this book in print and being able to skim through the scientific info to get to the quirky stuff, and getting through it all during a short trip to Starbucks. Sadly, in an audio, there is no skimming, or at least it's very difficult. Also, the chapters on the audio did not match up with actual chapters, so skipping ahead to the next chapter didn't work. I'm sorry I spent a credit on this. It was definitely not worth it.

Admittedly, I haven't finished listening to it. Fine performance, and even better book, however, I do believe that it is better in the printed version (which I don't have). I found myself frantically googling the names and pictures of the animals, trying to guess the latin spelling from listening. After the fifth bug I had to stop listening as I am living in a tropical climate and just about anything can live here (our wasps are as big as a child's thumb), and I got a bit scared. So, great concept, fantastic research, and next time I'll get the printed book to peruse at my own leisure.

This is an entertaining book, though she picked many bugs common to the more sciencey TV channels so I knew some of this already. I like bugs, so I was surprised how my skin still crawled at some of the descriptions though in my head I wasnt grossed out at all. People with weaker constitutions towards creepy crawlies should probably stay away from this book.

I kept waiting for the 'meat' in this book -- it is not in depth enough and written more as a coffee table book -- also the author should hire a better reader for her material.

Really don't listen to this while eating. And now I'm totally afraid to travel to anywhere south for fear of picking up a parasite, or to eat anywhere other than home and to be sure to cook my food thoroughly. Because with my luck I'll get a dreadful disease from a bug; Ms. Stewart happily points out. And if this isn't all enough, one would think at least think this an interesting book on bugs, but it really didn't hold my interest. It wasn't so much the content per se, I think. I felt as though it all moved along almost too quickly so that I wasn't able to take in what was being presented. Oh well.......

An audio book is the wrong format for this book. It's essentially a list and short bio of various diseases and/or their vectors. An audio presentation is way too linear and cannot be indexed for what you want to see.

I love books like this. Each chapter gives you knowledge on a special thing. In this case various bugs. If you are spooked easily and do not like bugs in general this is not the book for you. If you can take stories about bugs though it is great. Thought you knew alot about some bugs you better read this book. The cockroach chapter was amazing.

The cockroaches.

I enjoyed her narration.

Yes. This is the type of book I love.

Read it.