Earthly Materials: Journeys Through Our Bodies’ Emissions, Excretions, and Disintegrations

Journalist Wood (Love and Death in the Sunshine State) delivers an offbeat examination of blood, milk, semen, and other products of the human body. He delves into the biological functions of each, describing, for instance, how mucus in the gut protects bacterial diversity by providing sugars to microorganisms “in such a way that their more virulent functions are suppressed,” ensuring no strain eliminates the others. Other sections focus on how secretions interact with society. For instance, he details the case of a Florida mother who was arrested on racketeering charges for illegally reselling formula sourced through a federal welfare program for low-income mothers, suggesting that the considerable demand for formula that fueled her grift stems from inhospitable workplaces that make it difficult to hold a job while breastfeeding. Elsewhere, Wood contends that individuals who solicit advice from Reddit on how to masturbate less are really seeking to feel more in control of their lives, and that disagreements over whether to exhibit human hair collected by Nazis at Auschwitz testifies to how hair is often used to represent personhood. With a flair for storytelling, Wood pulls unexpectedly profound insights from deeply strange anecdotes. The result is an utterly unique tour of the human body. Photos. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)