When I was a kid, I loved to read the non-fiction books of Issac Asimov.

I was fascinated by how things worked, be they natural of something man-made and Asimov wrote to inform the layman like me of the wonders of everything from physics to biology (and even the Bible).

Once I worked as a lowly night janitor in a Bell Telephone office. I couldn't wait for my lunch hour to run to the basement, pull up a chair and dig into what Asimov had to say on the structure of the atom and how electricity worked.

It wasn't hard for him to come up with whole chapters on fairly narrow topics so there was plenty of reading to keep me busy.

So what does this have to do with Neil Shubin's book?

Shubin has not just matched the quality of Asimov's writing, he has surpassed it by being able to cover the most basic, yet captivating ideas in a minimum of words while leaving the reader fully satisfied that real understanding has been gained.

Your Inner Fish should be read by everyone because it asks and answers so many questions we have about our favorite topic - ourselves.

How did we get to be the way we are? How did eyes and ears and arms and heads and jaws come about? How is it possible that we are related to other animals as lowly as a jellyfish? How come all of life isn't still the bacteria that has been around for hundreds of millions of years - in other words, how is it that multi-celled and multi-structured bodies came about?

Well, aren't you interested?

Shubin talks of the clues found in fossils and DNA with a simplicity that makes this book a snap to read, but accompanies it with beautiful drawings that illustrate his points. I don't believe anyone can get through this book without saying "wow, no kidding!" at least half a dozen times.

A central theme of science in the last century has been the confirmation of kinship in all life and the leveling of humanity from the once separate and superior species to just another form of animal that shares almost every feature with at least one other species and often several. After getting over the dazzling picture men held of themselves (even women were a lesser breed!), we are finally learning the fascinating truths of evolution, "descent with modification" as Darwin put it. Not only has this opening up of our mental picture of the natural world brought better self-understanding, it has brought greater appreciation for all our relatives on Earth that, though they may look entirely different than we do, are our companions in ways never before realized.

Shubin ties it all together in a simple but powerful way. Your Inner Fish is a tiny masterpiece.