Investigating the field of fetal origins, this title states that many of our individual characteristics - from susceptibility to disease, to appetite and metabolism, to intelligence and even personality and temperament - begin in the womb. It probes the cultural mania that surrounds pregnancy.

Annie Murphy Paul is a Yale graduate and a former senior editor at Psychology Today. Currently a freelance writer, she has contributed to Discover, Salon.com, and Self, among others. She is also the author of The Cult of Personality (Free Press, September 2004).