Interesting reading with a lot of historical and anecdotal information throughout, which makes it palatable for the lay person. My favourite chapter is the Story of Us (Chapter 8) which details advances in genetic anthropology and DNA fingerprinting.
The whole book gives some sense of genetic mapping, and the technology that helps arriving at the sequence of the human genome. ( )

Although a highly technical subject, I found this book about the race by academic versus the commercial groups to sequence the human genome easy to read and compelling.

It includes a lot of very interesting information on how genes work, their role in cancer, the advantages of genetic defects etc.

I agree that it seems a little too optimistic when describing the possibilities that arise from the sequencing of the genome. As is usual in science, the acquisition of knowledge serves to teach us how much we do not yet know. For example, we now know the sequence of proteins generated by genes but it turns out that what is really important is how the proteins collapse into a three dimensional molecule. So another huge project is born to work out how that happens. ( )