Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin (2008)

Science books for the public can often be tricky - they need to carefully balance the writing style and content to appeal to non-scientists while also conveying a complex topic.  Neil Shubin does a good job balancing these opposing needs in Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body.

Your Inner Fish is all about evolution, specifically human evolution, by tracing our physical and genetic structure back in time to an ancient ancestor - an intermediary between fish and land-living animals, Tiktaalik (Inuktitut for "large freshwater fish" and it is represented on the cover).

Cover image: University of Pennsylvania

The book is well laid out and systematically goes through the various reasons why Tiktaalik is the "missing link" that fills in the evolutionary chart.  Shubin describes how the way our bones and nerves are laid out, how our body plans are designed, even how our DNA works are all linked back to these ancestors.  It is a thought-provoking work by a leading scientist in the field.

Shubin, who heads The Field Museum and lectures on anatomy at the University of Chicago, blends scientific data and explanations with personal stories and a friendly voice in his book.  The text can sound a bit condescending at times, but overall Shubin is able to simplify the topic enough for a novice to understand.  He also is able to tie together tangents to his overall theme and not allow them to steer the story off course.