SPINELESS WONDERS: STRANGE TALES FROM THE INVERTEBRATE WORLD

Bugs, bugs, bugs. But what do you know about them, other than that some of them make your skin crawl? Here in the safe remove of narrator Richard M. Davidson's crisp, timed, dramatic reading are the wonderful and weird facts journalist Richard Conniff has gathered about such invertebrates as leeches, moths, fire ants, tarantulas and other spiders, squid, wasps, worms and grubs. Davidson's is the perfect voice for Conniff's hilarious report from down under in the bugs' world. Davidson reports that Conniff found the common medicinal leech had more "inherent dignity and complexity" than any member of the New Jersey board of free-holders. The humor never lets up, and our view of nature is turned upside down. No wildlife lover--whether serious biologist or curious layperson--should pass up this version of life around us. It's as if the Marx Brothers wereinterpreting Darwin for us, except it's all true. D.W.H. ©AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 99]