Hey M!

I've got the top three listed on the site. (Gosh, that site brings me back to last summer...) I'm actually planning on taking them with me and really reading each one next week - have a "spa day" (ozone stuff) scheduled at a beachside hotel, yippee. I've had them sitting around and have used them as reference here and there (via index, etc.) but haven't read from beginning to end.

That said, here's how I'd break them down:

parasite Rex is probably the one I want to read first. It is graphic in content, scientific in nature, and seems to get at stuff that the other's do not. I've read works by Zimmer before and he's always on point and always has something "new" to release.

The other two I've got are more "quick" reads. Guess What Came to Dinner is really a simple book, and I'm guesssing you already all the stuff she wants to talk about. Some interesting info, but it's definitely written from the mind of a nutritionist. Gittleman has a website:
http://www.annlouise.com/


Kinda' similar reading is parasite Menace. Weintraub is a pretty well known naturopath. This book can be compared to an extent w Guess Who, but looks a bit more worth the read to me.

I'll list table of contents of each book so you get the picture:

parasite Rex

1 Nature's Criminals - How parasites came to be hated by just about everyone

2 Terra Incognita - Swimming through the heart, fighting to the death inside a caterpillar, and other parasitic adventures

3 The Thirty Years' War - How parasites provoke, manipulate, and get intimate with our immune system (strike a chord??)

4 Precise Horror - How parasite turn their hosts into castrated slaves, drink blood and manage to change the balance of nature ((HELLO!!!)) - (this part is particularly graphic, photos ((one where a parasite has taken the place of a fish's tongue!!! Wild stuff.))

5 The Great Step Inward - Four billion years in the reign of Parasite Rex

6 Evolution from Within - The peacock's tail, the origin of species, and other battles against the rules of evolution

7 The two legged host - How Homo sapiens grew up with creatures inside (wow kind of stuff)

8 How to LIve in a Parasitic World - A sick planet, and how the most newly arrived parasite can be part of the cure

Guess What Came to Dinner

1 What you don't know can hurt you
2 The warning signs of parasites
3 Guide to parasites
4 The water and food connection
5 Man's best friend
6 Are parasites your problem?
7 Diagnosis
8 Treatment
9 Prevention
10 Closing comments

Parasite Menace

1 The parasite menace
2 Do I have parasites?
3 What puts us at rist
4 Diet and digestion
5 The Immune System's role
6 What parasites are feeding on you?
7 Animal care
8 Laboratory analysis for parasites
9 Water filters
10 Internal body clean-up
11 Medicinal herbs
12 Holistic Treatment for Parasites

I'd boil it down to this: Guess Who is for the housewife. Parasite Menace for the student. Parasite Rex, the professor.

(I'd start from the end of the list first. There one or more on that site that look better then PM or GW, but Parasite Rex is definitely at the top of the list for good reason.)

Good luck! Feeling any better?

Regarding the first three on the list: parasite Rex will give you an understanding of what you are dealing with, in the evolutionary scheme of things. The next two will tell you what you can do to get rid of them and stay free from them.