David Grann has written a heck of nonfiction book with “The Lost City of Z.” The book is about a British explorer named Percy Fawcett and his search for a lost city in the Amazon Basin. He called the city “Z.” He never found it and he and his companions disappeared without a trace in 1925 while on an expedition in the Amazon basin to find “Z.”

But really who cares about Percy Fawcett? What I loved about this book was the bugs, the diseases, the critters, and the fierce tribes. How about flies that could deposit eggs into your skin, from outside your clothes? The eggs hatch worms and then the worms dig through your flesh. Pretty amazing huh? What about the natives who could whistle the worms out? I love it. What about uncurable tropical brain diseases that can take 20 years to develop? How about tiny candiru (aka “toothpick fish”) that can swim up any orifice, including the urethra, and then stop and feed off your blood? They have external spines so when they get where they want to go, you cannot make them leave. As one web site put it they can be “resolved” only through “surgical intervention.” In other words they have to be cut out. OUCH!! I always wondered why I was never much into resolutions, now I know why. I’m not booking any tours to the Amazon either.

Of course the boring old piranhas are covered but so are electric eels that have a shock so powerful they can kill you without touching you.

The natives can be fierce, especially way back when. Some of them supposedly were cannibals. The author claims that the Brazillian government estimates there are about 60 tribes that have never encountered anyone from the outside. Or at least anyone that lived to tell about it. To be fair the tribes, yhey are very unfriendly because, the author reports, to this day – in 2009, many of the tribes people are enslaved under terrible conditions by loggers who are illegally cutting down the rain forest.

All these are the real stars of this book. Yes, the story about Percy Fawcett is interesting, but I think the guy was crazy. I like reading about the stuff that drove him crazy.

I read this book in one day. It is a great read, especially if you read just the real good parts about the bugs, diseases, critters, and fierce tribal guys.

I rate this a solid 3.5 stars out of 4.