Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery Lab Girl by Hope Jahren I really loved both of these books, and I would have enjoyed discussing them with a book club, but was not part of one at the time.
Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, Catherine Asaro has some great books and she’s a physicist; Sam Leanne’s The Disappearing Spoon is a great, interesting read with the stories behind the discoveries of the elements of the periodic table.
If you are asking for real science, you can’t go wrong with George Gamow’s books explaining modern physics or his book Thirty Years That Shook the World. It’s about physicists like Nils Boheor and Enrico Fermi and their discoveries.
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt is an amazing work of fiction that while revolving around the art world involves a lot of science and math. Thinking about this book kept me up at night for days after I was done with it.
I’m a scientist and these are some I’d recommend: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
For something a little different, try this series, about a young girl who loves chemistry and solves murders in her British village using science. NOT a children’s book!
Hidden Figures, The Martian, or Rex Appeal. My book club has done all 3. Rex Appeal is true story of dinosaur bones found in South Dakota and the legal battle that followed as to who should own the bones.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Be warned though, it’s very weird. It’s my husbands favorite book, but it can be very frustrating for people without vivid imaginations
The Last Days of Night. It’s a fabulous book about the first efforts to electrify the USA. Also, if you like non-fiction, The Innovators describes the technology revolution.
Anything by Mary Roach (Gulp, Grunt, Bonk, Stiff, Spook, etc) or Sam Kean (Dueling Neurosurgeons, Caesar’s Last Breath, The Violinist’s Thumb and The Case of the Disappearing Spoon). Both write very accessibly about various scientific topics. Bill Bryson also does some good popular non-fiction science as well.
Do your book club members read a lot of science books? If not, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is wonderful. If they are science book readers they’ve read it.
I loved Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. It’s by Simon Winchester about the 1883 eruption. It was at a time when gentlemen had the newly invented barometers and participated in scientific inquiries. This made the eruption a worldwide event as it registered on barometers around the world. The scientific data and cultural impact was astounding.
‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers is a recent release and a great read. I’ve read many of the previous books suggested here, and they are equally delightful.
Also second the Mary Roach books. She takes a potentially disagreeable subject (several books worth) and digs deep. She has a fine voice and does a good amount of research. The book about Henrietta Lacks was good, history and science well explained.
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee or Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon.
“What If?” by Randall Munroe. He answers really crazy hypothetical questions in a humorous way, like: “What if a pitcher pitched a baseball at the speed of light?” It might spur some creative thinking from group members and help you come up with hypotheticals of your own.
I want to recommend also Julia Whitty’s non fiction The Fragile Edge. I love her short stories in A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga too. I recommend a whole science package: Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle, Moby Dick (whales and human psychology), and Julia Whitty’s books.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch would be great for an adult book club. Very thought provoking but also heart-wrenching.
VERY fascinating, and true! A huge city (or 2!) hidden in the rainforests of Honduras revealing a previously unknown culture; located by lidar aerial imaging.
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rosellini; Relativity by Albert Einstein; Here’s Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos; Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye; My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese; The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier.
Abraham Verghese’s My Own Country is a young physician’s encounter with patients in the rural South dying of a mysterious disease that would be called AIDS. A 1994 NYT notable book, it is now used in world wide in medical schools as an introduction to empathy & compassion.
Didn’t see them already mentioned, but I recommend any of Sam Kean’s books. The Disappearing Spoon (the periodic table of the elements- fascinating), The Violinist’s Thumb (evolution), Caesar’s Last Breath, and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons.
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. It may now be labeled October Sky, one of the four stories he tells, due to the popularity of the fine movie. [Stay for the credits. There are photos and brief bios of the real people.]
Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do by Wallace J. Nichols
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan. This title was featured in a different post and commenters were saying how well it went over in their various book clubs. It’s on my TBR list.
A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer, Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer and Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures. I am a big fan of Carl Zimmer’s books. His writing style is very engaging yet humorous while still being informative.
Neil Degrasse Tyson’s most recent, “Astrophysics fo People in a Hurry”. An easy, very interesting read. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand this one.
Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man who Pursed Him and the Age of Flimflam. by Pope Brock. I learned, I laughed, I guffawed, I was appalled and amazed. I would recommend this one for a book club because it goes places you would never ever think of 🙂
Soul of an Octopus has a lot of really great info on cephalopod behavior, but it’s more of a social science vibe. I loved it because I’m obsessed with octopuses, and I am convinced that they’re aliens.
Dan Brown has written a couple…you’ll have to check the bookstore for the titles though…but they are fictional with a science background…not sure that’s what you want…
Rob Dunn is a scientist who writes about science in an engaging way (the wild life of our bodies, never out of season, the man who touched his own heart, every living thing) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=Rob+dunn
Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees by Roger Fouts This is written by the scientist who worked with Washoe and the other chimps that could communicate using American Sign Language
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitan Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shatterly Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age By James Essinger Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamar, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World By Richard Ford
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman explores the traditional Hmong beliefs regarding Epilepsy, and the traditional Western medical understanding of the disease and how to treat it. The book focuses on a young Hmong girl with Epilepsy in Merced, CA. I could not put this book down.
Non-Fiction: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly Lab Girl by Hope Jahren What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
When I was on the university’s undergraduate curriculum committee, we approved a course on Zoonoses and Zoonotic diseases. It sounded like an interesting course
Carolyn, NOT my field (retired elementary gifted program teacher); however, I caught a TED Talk on the Internet, was FASCINATED by the presentation, and ordered the book. OutSTANDING! I’ve even given away a couple of copies as gifts. 😀 P.S. Am involved with our local Humane Society. OH, the book, for the most part, was written on the laymen’s level. TG 😀
Fiction or non?
The Sixth Extinction:by Elizabeth Kolbert-excellent book!!
the invention that changed the world ..by Robert Buderi ..about the radar pioneers that that won the second world war
Anything by Mary Roach. Dava Sobel. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Fiction, The Other Eisntein.
I second Henrietta Lacks and anything by Mary Roach.
Stiff by Mary Roach is quite funny.
Mary Roach is in the vein of Bill Bryson for me…equally hilarious and informative.
@Jamie Hadn’t thought of that but I agree!
I took a few months off of all social media to read science and history last summer. The one that blew me away was this:
Fiction – MIchael Crichton
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickman. Non-fiction.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren.
The Martian
Any Robin Cook
Lab Girl
https://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826
Great book!
@Carre Wasn’t it?!?!
????????
As @Jacqueline knows…. it makes for a great bookclub discussion!
The Immortal Henrietta Lacks.
Jinx! Great minds think alike!
This is an excellent suggestion!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Signature of all things by Elizabeth Gilbert; immortal life of Henrietta lacks
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is great, and anything by Mary Roach. I’ve heard good things about The Radium Girls, but I haven’t read it yet.
Radium Girls is on my TBR and quickly moving up!
Radium Girls was heartbreaking and fascinating.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Chasing the Scream.
Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
I really loved both of these books, and I would have enjoyed discussing them with a book club, but was not part of one at the time.
Loved both of these too
Hot Zone by Richard Preston, several Michael Crichton books
The Hidden Life of Trees
Alex & me
Wouldn’t Andromeda Strain count?
Oh that book freaked me out!
Simon Winchester – start with Krakatoa
Steven Jay Gould – anything
Secret Life of Lobsters – great read
Martin by @Weir
One of my all-time favorites!
Restoree by Anne McCaffrey, Catherine Asaro has some great books and she’s a physicist; Sam Leanne’s The Disappearing Spoon is a great, interesting read with the stories behind the discoveries of the elements of the periodic table.
Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly
Astrophysics for people in a hurry by Neil Degraase Tyson
The Immortal Life it Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Sixth Extinction
Good book!
Short stories but I think would work well for club.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Philadelphia Chromosone
The Henrietta Lacks book
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks— many many votes!!!!
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
The Radium Girls
Yes! An excellent read.
I’ve been really enjoying The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28256439-the-hidden-life-of-trees
The Gene: An Intimate History by Sidhartha Mukherjee.
Henrietta Lacks.
The Martian
A book club I’m in recently read Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
Loved Lab Girl
Stiff or Gulp by Mary @Roach
Dark Matter
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore.
The Other Einstein….. You will never look at the man in the same way!
Hidden Figures by Margot lee Shetterly. The movie was largely based on this book.
Haha jinx!
The Radium Girls
Hidden Figures (nonfiction)–the book has more detail than the movie, which is also great
Met a woman last year in Williamsburg, VA who knew the author and worked with some of these women. My book club read and enjoyed it.
If you are asking for real science, you can’t go wrong with George Gamow’s books explaining modern physics or his book Thirty Years That Shook the World. It’s about physicists like Nils Boheor and Enrico Fermi and their discoveries.
Lab Girl
The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded went very well in one of my library’s clubs. Hidden Figures went well to.
“Microbe: Are we ready for the next plague” (hint:we aren’t) lol
“American Plague” by Molly Caldwell Crosby.
Adult or children?
Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan
The Sixth Extinction.
The Signature of All Things , Lab Girl
Two of my favorites!
Loved Signature of All Things!
The Martian
One of my favorites
Enders game
The uglies series by Scott westerfield (i messed up his name I know it) they’re YA but very good
Hot Zone, Rocket Boys,
Stiff
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt is an amazing work of fiction that while revolving around the art world involves a lot of science and math. Thinking about this book kept me up at night for days after I was done with it.
What age?
Stiff
My friend proofread this book. That was her job. Wouldn’t that be an awesome job! ??
The Great Influenza by John M Barry
Hidden Figures
“Apollo 8” by Jeffrey Kluger or “Rocket Men” by Robert Kurson
Mercies in Disguise by Gina Kolata
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson on the discovery of the cause of cholera.
How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming – Mike Brown
Another good one!
Einstein’s Dreams.
Lisa Genova’s Left Neglect
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
I’m a scientist and these are some I’d recommend: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson, Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly, The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel, Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Artemis
The Martian
House of the Scorpion (that was a library book club pick!)
The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett
I thought I would be the only one to suggest this!
A Beautiful Mind
Stiff by Mary Roach… interesting, sometimes funny, book about what happens to human cadavers that are donated to science.
Mary Roach is so entertaining and informative. I’m a fan.
Gulp. Bonk. Packing for Mars. All good.
Stiff, Gulp, anything by Mary Roach.
For something a little different, try this series, about a young girl who loves chemistry and solves murders in her British village using science. NOT a children’s book!
Oh, yes!
The immortal life of Henrietta lacks. Great book.
Hidden Figures, The Martian, or Rex Appeal. My book club has done all 3. Rex Appeal is true story of dinosaur bones found in South Dakota and the legal battle that followed as to who should own the bones.
Never Cry Wolf, Farley Mowat
The Pand’s Thumb, Steven Jay Gould
A Brief History of Time
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/72659.Never_Cry_Wolf?from_search=true
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Soooooo good!
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
The Lab Girl
Flat, Hot,& Crowded
The Demon in the Freezer. It’s about the eradication of small pox. Fantastic
Following
Awakenings or The Man who mistook his wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks. Interesting looks at neurological conditions.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
October Sky ….. Hidden Figures
The Radium Girls. I’ve not read it but I’ve heard really good things about it!
It is a good book.
Oh and The Signature of All Things was also really good and had some science in it. Great book club read!
I read it. It was a great book that I knew nothing about. How sad so many girls died from radium.
It’s a sad and interesting story but the quality if the writing was terrible.
Anything by Terry Pratchet. Discworld series.
That’s not a science book. That’s science fiction.
“The Smart Swarm”
My book club read “The Sixth Extinction.” The book led to good discussion.
Brilliant Green
The other Einstein by Marie Benedict
Anything by Atul Gwandi
Absolutely. I think everyone should read BEING MORTAL ….
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. Be warned though, it’s very weird. It’s my husbands favorite book, but it can be very frustrating for people without vivid imaginations
Far from the Tree, Andrew Solomon
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity https://www.amazon.com/dp/0743236726/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_l8ejBb23ATKYG
Two of the best books I’ve read:
“The Sixth Extinction” by Elizabeth Kolbert, and “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari.
The Martian
Rocket Boys
Seven Daughters of Eve, Oliver Sachs
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393323145/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_P-ejBbSY5ENT5
The Last Days of Night. It’s a fabulous book about the first efforts to electrify the USA. Also, if you like non-fiction, The Innovators describes the technology revolution.
Very interesting book
Anything by Mary Roach (Gulp, Grunt, Bonk, Stiff, Spook, etc) or Sam Kean (Dueling Neurosurgeons, Caesar’s Last Breath, The Violinist’s Thumb and The Case of the Disappearing Spoon). Both write very accessibly about various scientific topics. Bill Bryson also does some good popular non-fiction science as well.
We are Legion (We are Bob)
Dennis E Taylor
Mary Roach is excellent!
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Radium Girls by Kate Moore
Stiff https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stiff+the+curious+lives+of+human+cadavers+by+mary+roach&crid=YD5US51KG722&sprefix=stiff
The Martian
Jurassic Park
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Dark Matter!!! Science with LOTS of things to discuss! ?
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Lab Girl, Packing for Mars, The Martian 🙂
Oh, and The Emperor of Scent
The Other Einstein
Both mentioned previously THE RADIUM GIRLS by Kate Moore (nonfiction) and Elizabeth Gilbert’s THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS (literary fiction).
The Disappearing Spoon. The Poisoner’s Handbook
The Girl With All The Gifts (sci-fi, good read, read for my book club).
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, Walter Isaacson’s bio Einstein
Both of these are good reads
Hidden Figures
Great book and great movie
The Other Einstein; Hidden Figures; The Right Stuff
Immortal life of Henrietta lacks, radium girls…. Both great books
The Humans
“Electric Universe” by David Bordanis, “The Martian” by Andy Weir and last but not least “A short history of nearly everything” by Bill Bryson.
Anything by Mary Roach. She is my favorite Science writer.
And quite entertaining.
The Immortal Life of Hentietta Lacks (science, biography, history, and ethics all in one book)
The Hot Zone
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Henrietta Lacks
Oliver Sacks “Awakenings” or “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. “
Breakthrough
Do your book club members read a lot of science books? If not, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” is wonderful. If they are science book readers they’ve read it.
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore. It’s fiction about Tesla, Westinghouse and Edison and the legal battle over who invented the light bulb. We did it for a book club. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Last_Days_of_Night.html?id=T5oEvgAACAAJ&hl=en
Oh my gosh..adding this to my list now… the battle between Edison, Tesla Westinghouse and JP Morgan Chase for innovation is a remarkable story .
It was fiction but well researched
@Susan historical fiction usually has a lot of truth so I’m sure it’s a great read. Thanks! 🙂
O.M.G. this book is AMAZING
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is really sad and amazing.
The Martian by Andy Weir
Soooo good. I was disappointed by “Artemis,” though.
@Sarah SAME. I was so excited, but I’m tempted to say he’s a one-trick pony, but I’ll give his third book a chance if he writes another one…
@Peachy I’m hoping it was just a sophomore slump.
I haven’t read it yet but The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is supposed to be very good. My daughter is a science teacher and she recommended it.
Very good and based on real events. The Martian on the other hand is science fiction
Excellent and heart-wrenching look at science before real medical ethics.
The Andromeda Strain, Martian, and ditto Henrietta Lacks book
Lab Girl
I thoroughly enjoyed Lab Girl!,
The Chemist
The Poisoner’s Handbook, any Mary Roach book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
The World Without Us
Last Days of night. Bad blood (nonfiction)
Napoleon’s Buttons
State of Wonder by Anne Patchett.
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum. Absolutely fascinating.
“The Radium Girls” by Kate Moore
Here’s one not mentioned yet – Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson. About the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and the early days of the National Weather Service.
Excellent suggestion!
I want to read this!
@Victoria, you wouldn’t regret it. Absolutely fascinating.
“Evidence of Things Unseen” by Marianne Wiggins
Ditto Henrietta Lacks my book club loved it!
Lab Girl; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Cutting For Stone
Hidden Figures
I loved Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded. It’s by Simon Winchester about the 1883 eruption. It was at a time when gentlemen had the newly invented barometers and participated in scientific inquiries. This made the eruption a worldwide event as it registered on barometers around the world. The scientific data and cultural impact was astounding.
Adding that to my tbr list
@Mags, I hope you love it as much as I did.
The Immortal Cells of Henrietta Lacks
This is a fantastic book!
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf.
‘The Overstory’ by Richard Powers is a recent release and a great read. I’ve read many of the previous books suggested here, and they are equally delightful.
Unbelievable
Lab Girl
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies Of Harvard University Took the Measure of the Stars by Dava Sobel
So good!
Mars! That book is as sciency as it gets. Way more sciency than the movie.
A very easy informative read. I followed it with Demon Under the Microscope
Def Henrietta Lacks
Also second the Mary Roach books. She takes a potentially disagreeable subject (several books worth) and digs deep. She has a fine voice and does a good amount of research. The book about Henrietta Lacks was good, history and science well explained.
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee. The Life and Death of the Great Lakes by Eagen. Quakeland by Kathryn Miles. The Water Will Come by Jeff Goodell.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
This book was very interesting.
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Gutenberg’s Apprentice
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee or Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25733983-lab-girl
Remarkable Creatures
“What If?” by Randall Munroe. He answers really crazy hypothetical questions in a humorous way, like: “What if a pitcher pitched a baseball at the speed of light?” It might spur some creative thinking from group members and help you come up with hypotheticals of your own.
Loved this. He had me laughing out loud more than once
Shine, Shine, Shine
https://books.google.com/books/about/Silent_Spring.html?id=6sRtTjwwWYEC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button
I want to recommend also Julia Whitty’s non fiction The Fragile Edge. I love her short stories in A Tortoise for the Queen of Tonga too. I recommend a whole science package: Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle, Moby Dick (whales and human psychology), and Julia Whitty’s books.
Lab Girl, by Hope Jahren. !! @Pamela and I were adding this one at the same time. The Secret Life of Fat, by Sylvia Tara, PhD
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch would be great for an adult book club. Very thought provoking but also heart-wrenching.
Stiff by Mary Roach
Galileo’s Daughter
Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich. Science and ethics.
Gulp and Stiff by Mary Roach are fantastic!!!
Also Lab Girl, When Breath Becomes Air, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry…
Stiff is my favorite of Mary Roach. Great read!
Recently finished When Breath Becomes Air…loved it. Science, literate, heart.
Emperor of all Maladies
Einstein: his life and universe
The Other Einstein
I loved The Other Einstein!
The Other Einstein
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
THE SPARROW. Fascinating.
Gifts from the Sea
Cutting for Stone
The Man Who Found Time by Jack Repcheck
Flatland
The Seashell on the mountaintop by Alan Cutler
The Birth of the Pill
Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time
Lab Girl
The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester
The Martian!
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
I just have to follow this thread. Great stuff!!!
The Silent Spring,
The Control of Nature by John McPhee
Lab Girl
Mary Roach books!!! Scientific and funny!
Henrietta Lacks, Hidden Figures, radium Girls
Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
The Wizard and the Prophet by Charles C. Mann
Evolution’s Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who Sailed Darwin Around the World by Peter Nichols
That sounds interesting!
The Unit
The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
This is another awesome choice
A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
by Aldo Leopold
Darwin
What If by Randall Monroe
Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery
by Scott Kelly
The Hidden Life of Trees.
Napoleon’s Buttons
Toms River
Mary Roach writes really good science titles that are funny and factual.
Yes Mary Roach
The Martian……I really enjoyed the science behind the fiction. Super smart author and a nail biter ending.
World Without Us
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe
by Jennifer Lindsey
Jurassic Park, book is much better then the movie!
I felt so so about Lab Girl by Hope Jaron, but friends love it. I like Ladt Child in the Woods about the fact that kids don’t play outside anymore
Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas
by Sy Montgomery
Also “The Lost City of the Monkey Gods,” by Douglas Preston
VERY fascinating, and true! A huge city (or 2!) hidden in the rainforests of Honduras revealing a previously unknown culture; located by lidar aerial imaging.
Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the …
Book by Deborah Cadbury
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Anyone else spend the last half hour going through this list and adding some to their own?
Yes!?
Heinlein, Asimov, Chu.
I love this post! I have added so many books to my “to read” list.
Stiff by Mary Roach
THE BOTANY OF DESIRE by Michael Pollan
Following…my TBR list is growing exponentially!
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks is written by a science writer.
We are all completely beside Ourselves.
Mary Roach books, or The Female Brain by Brizendine
Lab Girl!
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Martian ?
Soul made flesh, a history of modern neurobiology
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rosellini; Relativity by Albert Einstein; Here’s Looking at Euclid by Alex Bellos; Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye; My Own Country: A Doctor’s Story by Abraham Verghese; The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier.
Abraham Verghese’s My Own Country is a young physician’s encounter with patients in the rural South dying of a mysterious disease that would be called AIDS. A 1994 NYT notable book, it is now used in world wide in medical schools as an introduction to empathy & compassion.
Didn’t see them already mentioned, but I recommend any of Sam Kean’s books. The Disappearing Spoon (the periodic table of the elements- fascinating), The Violinist’s Thumb (evolution), Caesar’s Last Breath, and The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons.
Also Uncle Tungsten. It was fascinating.
I absolutely love The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons! And Sam Keaton’s books are also very good reads. ??You have great taste
I forgot about Oliver Sacks! Love him. Also liked Napoleon’s Buttons. I’m fascinated by any stories about the elements!
@Kristin me too!!
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. It may now be labeled October Sky, one of the four stories he tells, due to the popularity of the fine movie. [Stay for the credits. There are photos and brief bios of the real people.]
The soul of an octopus by Sy Montgomery
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum.
Space by Michener.
The Botany of Desire.
Our book club’s next book.
@Sandra I loved it.
Gulp
Prey
The Other Einstein. !
The Lab Girl. Well written memoir by scientist Hope Jahren
The Martian
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Young Reader’s Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/0147510422/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_51ijBbM6SCHKN
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/994292.Snow_Crystals
Spare Parts,
Napoleon’s Buttons
Blue Mind: The Surprising Science That Shows How Being Near, In, On, or Under Water Can Make You Happier, Healthier, More Connected, and Better at What You Do by Wallace J. Nichols
I just requested it from the library. It sounds interesting.
Flu or Rethinking Thin by Gina Kolata.
The Martian
The Atomic City Girls
Radium Girls
Such a great book!
@Melanie horrific and eye- opening. I knew nothing of this story.
@Lisa Me neither! It just blew my mind and broke my heart. So well written too, I couldn’t put it down.
Anything by Mary Roach!!!!!
Booksellers and librarians are a great resource, always have been!
Immortal life of Henreitta Lacks
The sparrow
Any by Rachel Carson! “Rats, Lice and History” “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”—psychology.
immortal-life-of-henrietta-lacks.
What if
Your inner fish by Neil shubin
The Man Who Touched His Heart. The History of Cardiology
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Spare Parts.—-and going back several years, The Hot Zone.
anything by Mary Roach
Stiff was great!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Hidden Figures
DeGrasse’s newest, title escapes me…
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
@Yolanda Yes, that’s it! Thank you!
Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003HO5UW4/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis!
Beethoven’s Hair by Russell Martin
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (Great Discoveries)
by David Quammen
Undeniable by Bill Nye
Anything by Dava Sobel or The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
The Immortal Henrietta Lacks.
Flight behavior
The Other Einstein was GREAT!
Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright
The Gene
When Breathe Becomes Air. This is about a brain surgeon who gets brain cancer.
Contact
Stephen Jay Gould, Lewis Thomas, so many great books!
Lab Girl
https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386925134l/16884.jpg
Universal readers
Book Trek
Girls of Atomic City
Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA. A must-read about one of the women scientists who was overlooked for her work and contributions to science.
Too Smart for Our Own Good: The Ecological Predicament of Humankind by Craig Dilworth
Seveneves
Hidden Life of Trees. Oliver Sacks,The Man who mistook his Wife for Hat.
I love Oliver Sacks – and that book in particular is terrific.
Fiction, but well done: Critical Mass by Sara Paretsky.
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
This is science and a lot more, excellent
The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan. This title was featured in a different post and commenters were saying how well it went over in their various book clubs. It’s on my TBR list.
https://www.amazon.com/Whats-Your-Genes-Revealing-Genetic/dp/1440567646
A Planet of Viruses by Carl Zimmer, Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer and Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures. I am a big fan of Carl Zimmer’s books. His writing style is very engaging yet humorous while still being informative.
https://www.amazon.com/Immortal-Life-Henrietta-Lacks/dp/1400052181?gclid=Cj0KCQjw6pLZBRCxARIsALaaY9bzy4niFy7G2R19W-Xf7T7iqpvdlgbHJfyhaDYTuVQ1WLwO-EJUdV4aAv4rEALw_wcB&hvadid=242642295242&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9031936&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t3&hvqmt=b&hvrand=3967382008975283142&hvtargid=kwd-14599120555&keywords=the+immortal+life+of+henrietta+lacks&qid=1529158198&sr=8-1&tag=hydsma-20
https://www.popsci.com/best-science-books-2017
This list has so many interesting titles I hadn’t heard of, I had to include them on my list. Thanks for sharing!
Neil Degrasse Tyson’s most recent, “Astrophysics fo People in a Hurry”. An easy, very interesting read. You don’t have to be a scientist to understand this one.
Lab Girl
The Martian
Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man who Pursed Him and the Age of Flimflam. by Pope Brock. I learned, I laughed, I guffawed, I was appalled and amazed. I would recommend this one for a book club because it goes places you would never ever think of 🙂
https://smile.amazon.com/Astrophysics-People-Hurry-deGrasse-Tyson-ebook/dp/B01MAWT2MO/ref=sr_1_1
The Gene and The Emperor of All Maladies both by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Stiff by Mary roach
Anything by Mary Roach is good.
Soul of an Octopus has a lot of really great info on cephalopod behavior, but it’s more of a social science vibe. I loved it because I’m obsessed with octopuses, and I am convinced that they’re aliens.
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Dan Brown has written a couple…you’ll have to check the bookstore for the titles though…but they are fictional with a science background…not sure that’s what you want…
Rob Dunn is a scientist who writes about science in an engaging way (the wild life of our bodies, never out of season, the man who touched his own heart, every living thing) https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/s/ref=is_s?k=Rob+dunn
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver!
Broca’s Brain
Henrietta Lacks
The Beak of the Finch
Lab Girl
The Devil in the White City
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.
YES!
The Secret Life of Trees.
The Island of the Colorblind
by Oliver Sacks
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us
by Alexandra Morton
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/159607/musicophilia-by-oliver-sacks/9781400033539
Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees
by Roger Fouts
This is written by the scientist who worked with Washoe and the other chimps that could communicate using American Sign Language
The Martian.
A Beautiful Mind…The Imitation Game.
Can’t even display all the comments!
The Other Einstein
The Great Influenza (a coming of age in scientific medicine)
Frankenstein
Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J Levitan
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shatterly
Ada’s Algorithm: How Lord Byron’s Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched the Digital Age By James Essinger
Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamar, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World By Richard Ford
Polio: An American Story by David M Oshinsky
*A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.
This was so interesting!
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The tennis partner by verghese
I couldn’t put this down!
6th extinction
Lab Girl
The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
Read this months ago and relate it to experiences every day
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501144324/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Y3CjBbN0D9TSY
Space by James Michner. It’s pretty lengthy.
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman explores the traditional Hmong beliefs regarding Epilepsy, and the traditional Western medical understanding of the disease and how to treat it. The book focuses on a young Hmong girl with Epilepsy in Merced, CA. I could not put this book down.
I, Robot…Issac Asimov
The Other Einstein
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
by Richard Holmes
Excellent!
Your Inner Fish and The Secret Life ofTrees
The immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and any Sam Keen books.
Fiction or nonfiction?
Fiction:
The Martian by Andy Weir
Non-Fiction:
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
My son read What If? Four times! He also enjoyed the website!
THE EMPORER OF ALL MALADIES
Nonfiction: Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health
Both fascinating and interesting
When I was on the university’s undergraduate curriculum committee, we approved a course on Zoonoses and Zoonotic diseases. It sounded like an interesting course
Carolyn, NOT my field (retired elementary gifted program teacher); however, I caught a TED Talk on the Internet, was FASCINATED by the presentation, and ordered the book. OutSTANDING! I’ve even given away a couple of copies as gifts. 😀 P.S. Am involved with our local Humane Society. OH, the book, for the most part, was written on the laymen’s level. TG 😀
“Longitude” by Dava Sobel!! Wonderful book!!
The Lathe of Heaven was written in the 60s I think. Wonderful book that can create some good discussions
I saw that as a short film many years ago, and was completely blown away.
The Canon by Natalie Angier, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Planets by Dava Sobel
The Disappearing Spoon – Sam Kean – Loved it!!!
Another vote for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – it is unforgettable!
Never Cry Wolf!
Napoleon’s Buttons –
Explains how 17 groups of molecules influenced the course of history.