Carol Ann RinzlerReseñas

There is too much in this book that is not about the foot. Pardon the pun, but a lot of the background information should be, uh, in foot notes. Sorry.

There is also a lot about gout, club foot and flat foot, but not much about other disorders of the foot.

A term paper fluffed up to meet a page count or to show how much the author knows about other stuff.

Although I read this six months ago, I remember finding "Leonardo's Foot" an interesting read. It was an odd book, however, and I agree with the last reviewer who called the author a wannabe Mary Roach. Perhaps because I'm a physician, I didn't feel I needed to know more about foot anatomy and I found the digressions on other medical topics intriguing. I enjoyed the trivia and I remember thinking that it would make a nice gift for a doctor or chiropractor with some reading time on his/her hands (perhaps retired, like me).

Summary: Our feet don't get enough love. Although Leonardo da Vinci said that "the human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art," for most of us, are feet carry us through our days without our giving them much thought beyond making sure that our socks match and our shoes stay tied. But Rinzler does her best to remedy that, tackling the ways in which the our feet have been integral to human life and human history. She starts with "Destiny", in which she addresses the evolution of the foot and an upright posture. She then moves on the "Disability" (the medical and historical ramifications of clubfoot), "Difference" (flat feet and their use as a social and cultural indicator), "Diet" (gout), and "Desire" (you can probably guess).

Review: This book should have been like catnip for me. A microhistory of an anatomical structure, and hey, we know I think anatomy's cool (see: my extreme geeking out over The Resurrectionist, all tied in with relevant history and biology and culture. I love all of those things, but somehow this book didn't quite hit the mark. In some ways, it was great: I love books like this as a good source of trivia, and this one had some awesome ones. (a quarter of the bones in the human skeleton are in the feet! Gout was historically a disease of rich white men because the uric acid crystals that cause it are the products of protein metabolism, and rich white men were the ones historically eating most of the meat! The Sistine Chapel ceiling contains an anatomically correct image of a brain!) It even provided me with an anatomical justification for why I'm so picky about my shoes: my extremely high arches mean that I tend to clutch my toes against the ground to get better purchase, so I need something with enough straps to keep them on my feet... but at least those high arches mean I'm probably not a witch! (See? Lots of fun trivia.)

My problem with this book was that I felt like Rinzler was trying to emulate Mary Roach, and that it wound up with her getting in her own way. There were some humorous bits that just fell flat, the writing style often felt a little cumbersome, the tangents and the digressions went on for extended periods without coming back around to the feet, and in general, it wasn't quite as light and easy as I think she was aiming for. I also really wish there'd been more of an introduction. The current Intro is really more of an Acknowledgements, and I think the book could have used a more factual introduction, going over some of the basic anatomy of the foot (maybe with some labelled diagrams, which are conspicuously absent) before diving into the first chapter and its specific topic.

So, overall, I found this book interesting, and full of good facts, but the writing style wasn't my favorite, and it kept it from being a total winner. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Even though Rinzler doesn't have Mary Roach's knack for easy prose, Roach's books are still the closest readalikes. If you like that style of microhistory, this one's got enough interesting information to make it worth your while.½

Despite the slimness of this volume, Rinzler had trouble staying on topic. Many of her asides were very interesting, but often only vaguely related to her point. I found that the story strayed a bit too far a bit too often. I feel like I picked up some random trivia about feet and many other assorted topics, but did not leave with an overall message or theme. Rinzler is a talented author, but I wish this book was a little more than an assemblage of cool things she came across during her research.

A nice, easy non-fiction read covering evolutionary, medical and cultural issues involving human feet. I was most interested in the first part, describing the role of the foot and of standing upright on human evolution. There is also an interesting section on medical issues including clubfoot and gout.
The book deteriorates in the last chapters, which cover cultural and sexual issues. The writer has a meandering style, bring up many interesting but sometimes loosely connected facts. I enjoyed many of the facts, but suspect this would have been a stronger offering if it were shortened by about 30-50 pages.½

I did try, really I did. Despite an engaging writing style and a love of investigative non-fiction, this is just more information about the foot than I want to know. I was hoping for more Leonardo and less foot. I gave up halfway through.

I am halfway through the book and am enjoying it so far. Due to some tendon damage in my hand, I will not be able to post a detailed review for a couple of months but I plan on doing so. The short version: I recommend the book!

The goodreads description of Leonardo’s Foot claims that it will “[stretch] back to the fossil record and forward to recent discoveries in evolutionary science to demonstrate that it was our feet rather than our brains that first distinguished us from other species”. In reality, I found it be far more playful and less goal oriented. This book covers everything from evolution to foot fetishes to famous people with foot-related illnesses.

I could tell from the first page that I was going to like the author’s conversational writing style. She’s often funny and clearly excited to share with you all sorts of fun facts related to feet. Actually, a lot of the time I felt like I was listening to a friend who had just read such an exciting wikipedia article that they couldn’t wait to tell someone about it. This was largely a good thing and made for enjoyable reading.

There was, however, one problem with the casual tone of the book. One advantage of reading a book instead of just listening to an excited wikipedia-reading friend is that the author has had time to organize their thoughts. Sometimes it seemed like that step got skipped here. It rambled. It digressed. It took such long detours to get to some fun facts that I completely forgot where we started. In some cases, such as run on sentences, that might be fixed (I had a pre-print copy). In other cases, there were uninteresting and unrelated anecdotes that should have been cut earlier. There were also sections were there was waaaay too much detail. I found this particularly confusing in the anatomy sections which were accompanied by equally confusing pictures.

At the end of the day, while this book could have been stronger, it was still a very fun read. I love authors who are enthusiastic about their topic, knowledgeable, and funny. Rinzler was very much all of these things. The book also had a ton of fun little tidbits, which are one of my favorites parts of non-fiction. Most highly recommended to other people who also enjoy some good trivia.

This review first published on Doing Dewey.

This was an interesting, well-written book. I learned a lot about conditions such as clubfoot and gout. The gout chapter was especially fascinating; I really enjoyed hearing about gout's supposed influence on the American Revolution. However, I felt the pictures could have been better; it's very difficult to read about a condition like flatfeet without knowing what it looks like. Another thing I didn't like was how the author went on these long tangents into topics such as evolution and separation anxiety; I was there to read about feet!½

Feet are interesting! This book is a fun look at an important part of our anatomy. The author starts off with the debated theory which claims that humans got a “leg up” on other species, not because of our brain size, but by standing up straight on two feet. So right from the start we learn that we have our feet to thank (possibly) for our present evolutionary status. Without being too exhaustive or overly technical the author discusses subjects including anatomy, evolution, disease, desire and art as they refer to feet. Two big toes up for a fun read.

A very intriguing and interesting nonfiction book that touches on all sorts of aspects related to the foot.

My only slight qualm about the book is that some tangential topics weren't connected to feet... at least not for several pages. I still enjoyed reading those areas, but it felt a bit weird.½

A witty, clever nonfiction book. It is well researched and informative. Rinzler reaches out to different philosophical aspects of the human race, in general, and then ties it back to the foot. It is not difficult to read and covers from man's earliest writings to references to 2013 documentations. I also learned more about clubfoot, gout and corns/bunions. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to any person interested in reading fun nonfiction.

I immediately read this book on receiving it. A very interesting book which broadened my knowledge concerning clubfoot, flatfeet and gout. The author touches on history, genetics, and methods of treatment for these conditions. Although the author uses many medical terms, she gives their etymology and thus makes for a more readable book.

This book is good for reference. I used it to look up foods with lots of iron, since I am not supposed to have very much.

Very good reference book. Lays out the general principles well, although becomes somewhat technical for the 'lay' reader, and adopts a rather certain tone for a branch of science that is still finding its feet.

Pretty good for the person who has discovered they have high cholesterol for the first time or those who want to prevent it in the first place.½

A very easy way to understand supplements, nutrition and the food we eat. It has a great chart of the nutritive and caloric values of lots of foods in it. I like the chart because it is up to date on some of the fruits and vegetables which are now available to us in our stores.

"Feed a cold and starve a fever!
Copper coins can cure warts!
Never eat a three-leaved plant!
Wear a tight hat and you'll go bald!
Medical folklore is a part of daily life. Sometimes it's helpful, sometimes it's harmless, sometimes it can be fatal.
Hundreds of domestic remedies, popular beliefs, do's and don'ts and old wives' tales are collected in this easy-reference handbook -- and their truth examined in the light of current medical science.
As you might expect, about two thirds are true and helpful. But perhaps it's for the other third or so of entries that you'll particularly want to have this entertaining and invaluable book."