Section five is what I was "looking for" when I picked up this book--info on medicine quackery. Finally, I thought, I'd get to read about Professor Miracle Q. Crazypants' Magic Elixir For All What Ails You! But the section is surprisingly weak, sticking to topics like homeopathy, ayurveda, aromatherapy and qigong. While Wanjek does, for the most part, do a solid job of explaining why these "remedies" aren't valid, including a rather amusing explanation of how homeopathic medicine invalidates itself, the author takes a sharp detour into a chapter on herbs (which, as the author astutely points out, sometimes actually do things--duh) and how people used to be "a-feared" of vaccines.

The book is then wrapped up by another two very short sections that seemed tacked on--section six is on medical studies, containing four short chapters (the whole chapter is 22 pages all told) that read like eighth grade science class reading assignments. The final seventh section deals with medical fallacies as portrayed in the movies, but is written in a less-than-compelling kind of way that led me to believe that the author had, more-or-less, lost interest in the book and just wanted to get it done and into his editor's hands. (Perhaps he had some crap that he was more interested in drinking, instead of writing a better final section.)

The book, written by a guy who doesn't really have any academic credentials to speak of, aside from serving as an in-house science writer for NASA, MIT and the NIH (his bio also plugs his joke-writing skills as provided to both The Tonight Show and Saturday Night Live), is definitely funny in places, to be sure. But he relentlessly hammers on his pet peeves in the book, regardless of whether or not they're relevant to the topic at hand--including his opinion of how anyone who watches TV is apparently "brain dead." Plus there are fundamental weaknesses in the text, primarily consisting of faulty logic, or a dearth of actual research and facts, or both. (A glimpse at the footnotes reveals that Wanjek is guilty of quoting his own medical stories, which almost entirely discredits him in my own mind.)

I can't entirely pan the book, as it wasn't a terrible read--I did finish it, after all. But, at the same time, it has serious flaws and is much, much too weak to stand on its own as any kind of an authoritative tome on the subject of quack medicine--especially considering that all of 42 pages is spent on this particular element of the book. Middle school students looking for an interesting book to do a book report on would do well to grab this text, but for those who hold more than a passing interest in medicine, this book is very nearly an insult to the intelligence.