"It isn't good to take for granted something as important as skin," writes Nina G. Jablonski.

With the publication of her most recent book, Skin: A Natural History (University of California Press), Jablonski—professor and head of Penn State's anthropology department—delivers a thought-provoking remedy to our nonchalance about the human body's largest organ. Her book, which she describes as "more an idiosyncratic guidebook" than a "systematic treatise or manual" is an engaging tour of skin's evolutionary history and cultural significance.