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The Best Books of 2023

A Smithsonian magazine special report

The Ten Best Science Books of 2023

From stories on the depths of the ocean to the stars in the sky, these are the works that moved us the most this year

Bridget Alex , Riley Black , Dan Falk , Shi En Kim , Carlyn Kranking and Joe Spring

In the past 12 months, record-breaking wildfires burned across Canada, and a tragic blaze swept through Maui . A piece of an asteroid landed on Earth after an epic space mission, and artificial intelligence advanced in leaps and bounds. In our oceans, a sub imploded on a fatal dive to the Titanic , and orcas gained our attention as they broke rudders off boats.

In between writing and editing articles about all of those stories, we read longer, more involved works of nonfiction. From these, we picked our ten favorites published between December of last year and this November. They range from a book about a group dedicated to rehabilitating injured turtles, to the story of a damaging wildfire that burned through a city in Canada, to a work on the amazing discoveries that have been made by scientists exploring the ocean’s depths. Check out these top science titles from the past year, selected by Smithsonian magazine’s editors and frequent contributors.

Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World by John Vaillant

In a year when record-setting forest fires raged across Canada and their smoke clouded the skies across North America , and a Maui forest fire incinerated the town of Lahaina in a deadly blaze, the most harrowing book we read about climate change featured a devastating forest fire. In Fire Weather , author John Vaillant crafts a thriller about a cataclysmic inferno that burned through the town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, in May 2016. (We ran an excerpt of the book here .) The blaze generated hurricane-force winds and lightning, and entire neighborhoods burned to the ground under a type of pyrocumulus cloud usually associated with volcanoes. Roughly 100,000 people evacuated what would become the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

Vaillant’s story of Fort McMurray’s destruction illustrates a perfect storm of sorts. Fort McMurray is in the middle of Alberta’s tar sands, or bituminous sands. As Vaillant colorfully writes, “Bituminous sand is to a barrel of oil what a sandbox soaked in molasses is to a bottle of rum.” Its deposits in Canada are one of the biggest known petroleum reserves in the world, and Fort McMurray is in the energy-intensive business of recovering it, upgrading it and transporting it. The fossil fuel that comes from Fort McMurray, when burned, releases the greenhouse gases that cause climate change—and the conditions in which fires can flourish. Vaillant weaves together the story of the tar sands industry, the impacts of climate change and the white-knuckle evacuation of the town into a frightening wake-up call of our new reality concerning wildfires. — Joe Spring

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters.

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery

Scuttling Earth for at least 220 million years, turtles have survived more than one mass extinction, including the one that offed dinosaurs. But in a geologic instant, humans have pushed more than half their 360 known species to near-extinction. And in an actual instant, animals slated to live a century or more can be killed—after their shells are crushed by cars, their mouths are snagged by fishhooks or their ponds are drained by developers.

Yet there is hope for some turtles. The Turtle Rescue League in Southbridge, Massachusetts, rehabilitates hundreds of ailing turtles each year. In Of Time and Turtles , author Sy Montgomery joins the small squad in spring of 2020, just as routine life freezes for Covid-19. The book recounts her year with the league, as they incubated eggs, injected antibiotics, mended shattered shells and returned healed patients to nature. Montgomery’s sensory-rich writing brings readers into the action: You’ll watch a cold-stunned sea turtle move “in ultra slow-mo, a toy whose batteries are almost run out”; smell a wetland “scented like pencil shavings”; and walk across “moss that cushions and squelches with every step.” You’ll bond with favorite patients like Fire Chief, a 42-pound snapper with a custom-built wheelchair, and Lucy, a tropical tortoise rejuvenated with watermelon slices. Between scenes of reptile rescue, Montgomery draws from research papers, news stories, novels and poetry to muse on turtles and the passage of time. Ultimately though, the shell-armored reptiles, “ancient, unhurried, long-lived beings,” are what help her make peace with mortality and growing old. — Bridget Alex

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

National Book Award finalist for The Soul of an Octopus and New York Times bestseller Sy Montgomery turns her journalistic curiosity to the wonder and wisdom of our long-lived cohabitants—turtles—and through their stories of hope and rescue, reveals to us astonishing new perspectives on time and healing.

Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb

From the start of Ben Goldfarb’s fascinating book on road ecology, Crossings , the reader is peppered with jaw-dropping facts. Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the Earth. While a half-century ago 3 percent of land-dwelling mammals died on a road, in 2017 that percentage had quadrupled. In 1995, researchers estimated that, in the United States, deer factor into more than a million vehicle crashes annually, injure 29,000 drivers and passengers, and kill more than 200. (We ran an excerpt of the book, with many more surprising facts, here .) And the book is engrossing for other reasons. In it, Goldfarb chronicles roads from California to Canada to Tasmania to show how they have impacted the natural world—and that includes us. He explores how roads have affected everything from butterflies to mountain lions to frogs.

His journey is not just a recounting of dismal experiences. He looks to those places where engineers have built overpasses and underpasses—and animals and humans have benefited as a result. Some of those creations are expensive, but animal crashes cost the U.S. more than $8 billion dollars a year, so fixes are in order. The Nugget Canyon underpasses, built in Wyoming, for example, prevented 95 crashes with animals annually, and so paid for themselves within five years. By citing so many interesting examples of things done right, Goldfarb invites us to contemplate a future of roads that could be much brighter, if we would just adopt an ethic, he says, in which roads embrace the land instead of conquer it. — J.S.

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager .

Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them) by Roberto Trotta

Without the stars, the history of our species would have been very different. That’s the central argument in Roberto Trotta’s engaging homage to the star-studded night sky, Starborn . The stars are more than just pretty: As Trotta shows, our efforts to understand the movements of the stars and planets (and the sun and the moon) played a crucial role in the development of navigation and precision timekeeping. In ancient Egypt, for example, the bright star Sirius was worshipped as a deity, and the start of the new year was signaled when Sirius first became visible in the pre-dawn sky. Seafaring Polynesians, meanwhile, traveled from island to island in the Pacific Ocean by memorizing the positions and movements of some 200 stars—aided by their knowledge of ocean currents, fish, birds and seaweed. Today’s most accurate timekeepers are atomic clocks , which count vibrations of a cesium atom—but even these need to be tweaked based on the sun and stars, because the Earth’s spin is gradually slowing.

But the night sky is no longer as visible as it once was. The author shows just how much we’re losing as light pollution—first from cities and industrialization and now from so-called constellation satellites like those launched by SpaceX—obliterates all but the very brightest stars and planets for millions of Earthlings. Though Trotta is a theoretical physicist, this is nothing like a textbook; rather, the author uses his own insightful observations and personal anecdotes to pay tribute to our evolving relationship with the universe. Perhaps above all, the book is a reminder to look up—and not to take that vista for granted. — Dan Falk

Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them)

A sweeping inquiry into how the night sky has shaped human history

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder

In Rough Sleepers , author Tracy Kidder profiles a dedicated doctor who treats Boston’s homeless. Harvard-educated physician Jim O’Connell is the founder and president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program . “The Program,” as O’Connell calls it, employs roughly 400 workers to treat more than 11,000 homeless people annually. O’Connell, who refers to the unhoused as “rough sleepers,” a 19th-century British term, is called Dr. Jim by his patients. He treats them in a clinic and drives a van to meet them on the streets. He addresses everything from lice and scabies to more advanced problems that patients have following years of neglect, including large tumors and, in one case, a hernia that dropped below a man’s knees. Aside from care, O’Connell sometimes hands out his own money and gift cards.

Homelessness is an overwhelming problem with lots of causes, from poverty to drug addiction to mental illness, and battling it is difficult. O’Connell is just the last line of defense, a committed pro who, by one account, is a man at a bottom of a cliff trying to catch people after they fall off. Although Kidder briefly delves into the increasing urban homelessness problem and organizations’ attempts to fight it, this book makes our list because of the author’s flowing narrative showing the bond among Dr. Jim, his co-workers and his unhoused patients. That often-overlooked sector of society is perhaps best illustrated in the book after one homeless person dies, and people in the clinic and on the street share stories and mourn his passing. “The community of rough sleepers, usually so loose and informal,” Kidder writes, “could sometimes seem as intimately connected as mycelium under a forest floor.” — J.S.

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people

Tracy Kidder has been described by The Baltimore Sun as “a master of the nonfiction narrative.” In Rough Sleepers , Kidder tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a gifted man who invented a community of care for a city’s unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets—the “rough sleepers.”

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Nature is unabashedly queer. We are surrounded by species that live outside our human experience, points of reflective contrast to our terrestrial lives. Sabrina Imbler’s scientifically steeped memoir How Far the Light Reaches revels in these differences, using an aquarium of undersea creatures as foils for significant moments in the author’s life. The preserved remains of a whale are a foil for dissecting a breakup, and our sometimes leering fascination with a marine worm called the sand striker gives form to a meditation on consent. Imbler’s essay “We Swarm,” especially, is a treasure. Squishy marine organisms called salps, which spend part of their lives in aggregations of hundreds of individuals, open a warm recollection of Pride celebrations along the New York shoreline.

Each of Imbler’s chapters is rife with scientific information about the species they’ve chosen, but the book shines as an exercise in undersea empathy. “I want to know what kinds of transformation the cuttlefish is capable of when it is motivated not by fear but by community and sex,” Imbler writes, “and I am not interested in calling it a disguise.” A creature like a cuttlefish may seem so far removed from what we know, separated by over 500 million years of history, but Imbler beautifully demonstrates that we can catch glimmers of ourselves in lives that thrive from the photic zone to the deepest depths. — Riley Black

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature.

The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan

As chemicals go, phosphorus—number 15 on the periodic table—is something of a paradox. In The Devil’s Element , journalist Dan Egan explains how phosphorus is essential for all life; it can be found in every cell in your body. But it is also combustible and explosive. So-called white phosphorus is a waxy substance that spontaneously combusts when exposed to oxygen—and can cause temperatures to hit 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit. White phosphorus was the key ingredient in the bombs dropped by the Allies on Hamburg, Germany, during World War II, unleashing a firestorm that leveled the city and killed some 37,000 people.

First isolated by a German alchemist in the 1600s, phosphorus today is an essential ingredient in fertilizers; without it, millions would go hungry. But the United States may run out of phosphorus in just a few decades—a looming crisis that Egan says may rival the more talked-about shortages we may soon face with oil and water. Meanwhile, runoff from agricultural use is sending phosphorus into our lakes and rivers, leading to toxic algae blooms and rendering large swaths of water unsafe. A case in point is Florida, which holds more phosphorus deposits than any other state, but is also now plagued with smelly and even dangerous waterways, thanks to the over-use of the chemical. With a compelling mix of science, history and geopolitics, Egan illuminates our complex relationship with this enigmatic element. — D.F.

The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance

Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called “the oil of our time.”

My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by Sandeep Jauhar

Alzheimer’s disease robs a person’s memory, yes, but it also causes sweeping behavioral transformations that can include agitation and stubbornness. Those with the condition can become difficult patients, unrecognizable to their loved ones. The slow-acting and irreversible disease “is more feared than death itself,” writes Sandeep Jauhar in My Father’s Brain . After his father starts to show signs of dementia in 2014, Jauhar’s parents move states to be closer to their sons. But the close proximity does little to prevent his father’s Alzheimer’s from upending the lives of family members. Jauhar doesn’t shy away from narrating the ugly and difficult experiences of his father’s irrational behavior, which often leads to sibling fights and frustration for the author.

The book is an excellent introduction to the impacts of Alzheimer’s—on the patient and caregivers. It shines the brightest when detailing the factors that add financial and logistical challenges to families caring for the chronically ill. Millions of people care for a family member with Alzheimer’s, but Jauhar’s voice is unique; he taps into his dual identity as a doctor and son of immigrants to explore the ethics and cultural expectations of long-term care. Although the book doesn’t offer hope for a preventative or cure, readers will find comfort in Jauhar’s honesty—and, for those going through the same journey of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, solidarity. — Shi En Kim

My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's

A deeply affecting memoir of a father’s descent into dementia, and a revelatory inquiry into why the human brain degenerates with age and what we can do about it

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

In June, the world paid more attention than usual to deep-sea exploration when OceanGate’s Titan submersible went quiet while exploring the Titanic . Later, the public learned the craft imploded . That was the rare tragic episode of deep-ocean adventures, one years in the making due to the company’s failure to test and heed warnings. But a much more awe-inspiring exploration of the deep has been taking place for decades, and Susan Casey’s enthralling book, The Underworld , documents it in stunning detail. (We ran an excerpt of the book here .) As Casey points out, though you can view maps of Mars on your iPhone, 80 percent of Earth’s seafloor hasn’t been charted in sharp detail. So much remains to be discovered, and Casey makes it a point to see what is out there by interviewing deep-sea pioneers and even heading down thousands of feet in submersibles herself. As she goes, she shares the amazing sights around her—fish that light up like a meteor shower, shrimp doing wheelies and orange microbial mats. She also chronicles the history of deep-sea exploration and details the current efforts to discover more about a world that deserves our attention now more than ever. Many companies are considering mining the seafloor for precious metals, and Casey’s book is a testament to the fact that so many beautiful and important things live down there that we should learn about before doing damage. — J.S.

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean

Susan Casey is our premiere chronicler of the aquatic world. For The Underworld , she traversed the globe, joining scientists and explorers on dives to the deepest places on the planet, interviewing the marine geologists, marine biologists, and oceanographers who are searching for knowledge in this vast unseen realm.

Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

In little more than two minutes captured on video in May 2020, the life of New York City birder Christian Cooper drastically changed. He saw a dog run through a forested section of Central Park and asked its owner, a white woman, to leash her pet in accordance with the law. When she refused, he began to film her with his smartphone, and as he did, she said she would call the police on him and tell them “an African American man is threatening my life.” As the racist incident came to national attention, Cooper quickly became the best-known birder in America. And, amid a hobby that is largely older and white, “the fact that that birder is Black turned heads,” Cooper writes.

With his memoir, Better Living Through Birding , the self-described “Black, gay nerd” pulls back the curtain on the rest of his life outside those two minutes. He begins with an inside glimpse into the world of Central Park birders that he entered as a child. Alongside other binocular-toting enthusiasts, he wakes up at the crack of dawn to chase rarities, like the gray-and-yellow Kirtland’s warbler, and finds beauty in the more mundane, like the iridescent sheen of a common grackle. But Cooper’s story takes readers beyond Central Park, to awe-inspiring destinations around the world, from Australia’s Uluru rock to the Everest Base Camp. He also shares experiences from inside the walls of the Marvel Comics offices, where he worked as a writer and editor, and from the streets of New York, where he protests following an incident of violence against a gay couple in upper Manhattan. Every bit of Cooper’s experience is intertwined with his appreciation for nature, and his memoir is punctuated with descriptions of birding so imbued with passion—from watching a fiery-orange Blackburnian warbler in Central Park to sprinting after chimney swifts in Selma, Alabama—that they could make even a non-birder’s veins pulse with excitement. — Carlyn Kranking

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

Better Living Through Birding recounts Christian Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.

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A Note to our Readers Smithsonian magazine participates in affiliate link advertising programs. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission.

Bridget Alex | | READ MORE

Bridget Alex is an anthropologist and science writer based in Pasadena, California. Her stories can be found in outlets including Discover , Science , and Atlas Obscura . She tweets @bannelia .

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian  magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications. 

Dan Falk | | READ MORE

Dan Falk is a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time .

Shi En Kim | | READ MORE

Shi En Kim is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance science journalist. Her work has appeared in  National Geographic ,  Scientific American , the  Atlantic ,  Popular Science  and others. In 2021, she interned at  Smithsonian  magazine as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

Carlyn Kranking | | READ MORE

Carlyn Kranking is the assistant web editor for science and innovation.

Joe Spring | READ MORE

Joe Spring is the associate digital science editor for Smithsonian magazine.

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73 best science books you need to read in 2024

Our team has hand-picked the very best science books you should read in 2024.

A good science book won't just teach you some interesting facts: it will help you to look at the world around you in a different way. Whether it's an archaeology book that helps you to re-evaluate humans' place in the natural world, or a cosmology book that takes you back to how it all began, you'll come out the other side with a brand new perspective.

For those with a curious mind, science books are an invaluable resource for learning about subjects you have no idea about. From the more mainstream subjects like health, psychology and wildlife, to the more intense topics like quantum physics and geometry, to the more light-hearted subjects like food science, there's sure to be plenty of new stuff to learn.

Whatever your taste, there are new, brilliant science books being released every week. We've picked our choice of the very best, so read on for plenty of inspiration to expand your personal library.

If you're in the mood for something specific, we also have plenty of reading lists on various subjects to help you choose.

In no particular order, here are some of our very favourite science books.

The best science books to read in 2024

The joy of science.

Jim Al-Khalili

In Jim Al-Khalili’s latest offering, The Joy of Science , we are presented with eight lessons in how to lead a more rational life and see things as they really are. It’s an easily digestible, pocket-sized guide in how to think more scientifically, and how this can benefit us in everyday life.

Looking at things objectively can help break down social constructs and pre-existing beliefs, and the ideas at the heart of scientific method are deeply relevant as we try to navigate the complicated times that we live in.

• Listen to Jim explain the origins of the Universe on the Science Focus Podcast

Insectpedia: A Brief Compendium of Insect Lore

By Eric. R. Eaton

With hand-drawn illustrations, anecdotes, and curious facts about some of the most fascinating bug species on the planet, this pocket-friendly encyclopaedia is a delightful and entertaining collection of insect lore and storied history of entomology.

From murder hornets and jumping beans to mole crickets and zombie lady-beetles, Insectpedia has a charming blend of insect facts and mythology. It’s presented in an A-Z format, making it easy to pick up and read for only a few seconds to learn something new. This is an ideal book if you like to start conversations with, “Hey, did you know…”

Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities

By Marcia Bjornerud

Discover a treasure trove of bizarre and awe-inspiring geologic wonders that have captured our imagination over the millennia with Geopedia: A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities . From areology (the study of the geology of Mars) to zircon (a mineral that can outlast almost all other materials on Earth), this is an engaging and entertaining lexicon on the diversity of rocks and our interactions with them.

It covers mythology, geologic processes, and imports from diverse languages, all written with a healthy helping of humour and wit. This pocket-sized book is illustrated, and the hardback comes bound in real cloth, so it’s ideal to toss in your bag and dip into on the go.

The Science of Can and Can’t: A Physicist’s Journey Through the Land of Counterfactuals

Chiara Marletto

Most laws of physics tell us what must happen. Throw a ball in the air and it will come back down. But physicist Chiara Marletto, a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, says that laws like this only tell us part of the story.

The rest, she says, lie in 'counterfactuals': things that could be. A notebook could be written in. There is no law of physics that tells us whether it will be – but we can't describe what it's for without talking about the possibility.

Marletto believes that counterfactual properties like this could hold the key to solving some of the biggest problems in science, from the biology of life, to artificial intelligence , to climate change.

• Listen to Chiara on the Science Focus Podcast

Project Hail Mary

An important memo to all fans of Andy Weir’s debut novel The Martian (and the Hollywood adaptation): read Project Hail Mary. Now.

While the premise of the new story sounds near identical to the author’s earlier work – a lone man is forced to use his scientific cunning after he becomes stranded from Earth – the introduction of a mystery lifeforce, which we won’t spoil here, blasts the plot in an unexpected direction.

Significantly, the protagonist is no Mark Watney, the astronaut played by Matt Damon in The Martian movie, either. The main character is, well, he doesn’t know what he is, waking from a coma next to two corpses, his memory banks empty. And if that’s not enough to draw you in, we don’t know what will.

• Listen to Andy on the Science Focus Podcast
• Read an interview with Andy

Foodology: A Food-lover’s Guide to Digestive Health and Happiness

Saliha Mahmood Ahmed

Foodology is part recipe book, part science book, all food. Gastroenterologist and food writer Saliha Mahmood Ahmed takes us on a tour of the digestive system, from the very first bite to... the other end. On the way, she also dives into why food makes us so happy and how a delicious smell can make our mouths water.

On top of all of this, of course, are 50 recipes designed not just to be delicious, but to support your gut health.

Always On: Hope and Fear in the Social Smartphone Era

Rory Cellan-Jones

Wake up. Check social media. Send a 'good morning' text. Check the weather app. Check the news... From the moment our alarm apps go off in the morning to when we finally log off Instagram at night, our smartphones are always by our sides.

On the one hand, we can connect with more people than ever before and we have unlimited access to information. But on the other, these devices are encroaching on every aspect of our lives, giving tech companies more access to and more control over everything about us.

Either way, the smartphone has arguably changed our lives more than almost any tool ever invented. In Always On , Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC's chief technology correspondent, explores whether this is cause for hope or fear.

Handmade: A Scientist’s Search for Meaning through Making

Anna Ploszajski

Scientists tend to think about materials in terms of quantities like their melting point, their density and how much pressure they can withstand. But humanity's earliest materials scientists didn't work in a lab measuring how much stress an object could withstand: they worked with their hands and made things.

Anna Ploszajski, herself a materials scientist, goes back to these ancient roots to explore in a hands-on way. She learns from the trial-and-error wisdom of generations of experts in clay, sugar, steel, glass, paper and more.

Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change

Christian Jarrett

The promise of changing your personality to become who you aspire to be might sound like the domain of life coaches and unconvincing self-help books. But it turns out that such a thing is possible, says psychologist Dr Christian Jarrett.

Using genuine science, Jarrett explains how you really can alter your personality to your liking, whether that's becoming more extroverted or conscientious, or even learning to use the 'Dark Triad' – narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy – to your advantage.

• Read an extract from Be Who You Want
• Listen to Christian on the Instant Genius podcast

The Motherhood Complex: The Story of Our Changing Selves

Melissa Hogenboom

People often say that becoming a parent is one of the best things someone can do. But we talk a lot less about how pregnancy and giving birth change the body.

Science journalist Melissa Hogenboom takes on this topic in The Motherhood Complex . She describes every aspect of the experience, from the psychological effect of your changing body to how pregnancy affects the brain.

She also looks at the social side of parenting, drawing on her experience as a mother of two to explore how a parent’s sense of self and relationship to the rest of the world are altered after they have a child.

Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything

Jordan Ellenberg

Geometry is undoubtedly among most people's least favourite topics from school. Not only is it complicated, it often seems to have no value for the real world. When am I ever going to need to know how to draw an equilateral triangle using only a ruler and a pair of compasses?

It turns out, though, that geometry really does have real-world uses. As Jordan Ellenberg explains in Shape , not only does geometry have uses in physics and artificial intelligence, it also pops up in finance, US politics and even poetry.

• Listen to Jordan on the Instant Genius podcast

Swearing Is Good For You

The next time someone tells you off for swearing, give them a copy of this book. Byrne explains all the ways in which swearing is good for us, from pain relief to team bonding, and reveals what cursing chimpanzees can tell us about the origin of dirty words.

Mysteries Of The Quantum Universe

Thibault Damour & Mathieu Burniat

Billed as ‘Tintin meets Brian Cox’, this book performs the tricky task of making quantum physics accessible. Join Bob and his dog Rick on a journey through the world of the very small, talking atoms with Einstein and eating crêpes with Max Planck.

Only Connect: The Official Quiz Book and Only Connect: The Difficult Second Quiz Book

Jack Waley-Cohen and David McGaughey

Train yourself to win an episode of Only Connect , the BBC’s fiendish quiz hosted by Victoria Coren Mitchell. Both books of puzzles get you to find the connections, finish the sequences, defeat the Connecting Walls and decode the phrases with missing vowels.

The puzzles are classics taken from the TV programme, arranged in increasing difficulty. Start with a warm-up from the first heat, and gradually work your way up to questions worthy of the final round.

• 10 of the best quiz collections and puzzle books

The Animals Among Us

John Bradshaw

Why do we keep pets? Bradshaw argues that it goes beyond cuteness and companionship, and all the way back to an ancient connection in our shared past. Weaving together psychology and evolutionary science, the book will give pet owners a newfound appreciation for their furry friends.

• Listen to John on the Science Focus Podcast

Beyond Infinity

Eugenia Cheng

It takes a talented writer to bring the concept of infinity to life, but Cheng’s infectious enthusiasm makes maths a delight. Discover why some infinities are bigger than others, and why there’s always room at an infinite hotel, even if it’s full.

• Read an extract from Beyond Infinity
• Five fascinating facts about infinity

Graphic Science: Seven Journeys of Discovery

Darryl Cunningham

With his crisp comic art, Cunningham tells the stories of seven scientists who history has rather overlooked. Mary Anning, Alfred Wegener, Fred Hoyle, Jocelyn Bell Burnell… they’re names you may have heard of, but Graphic Science underlines the importance of their work.

Testosterone Rex

Cordelia Fine

The winner of 2017's Royal Society books prize, Fine cuts through gender stereotypes with panache, dispelling the myth that testosterone creates a deep-rooted division between the sexes and discussing what this means for the society we live in.

• Read an extract from Testosterone Rex
• Read an interview with Cordelia

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong – and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story

Angela Saini

Another book on our list tackling gender stereotypes, Saini discusses how centuries of science have painted a distorted picture of sex differences, the impact this has had on women in society, and how we’re finally beginning to redress the balance.

• Listen to Angela on the Science Focus Podcast

Other Minds

Peter Godfrey-Smith

The octopus is essentially an alien species right here on Earth – a sentient being whose intelligence has evolved entirely independently from our own. Godfrey-Smith peers into the minds of these cephalopods, revealing what they can tell us about the nature of consciousness itself.

• Read an extract from Other Minds

Gastrophysics

Charles Spence

In this breezy introduction to the new science of gastrophysics, Spence explains why our mealtimes are a truly multisensory experience. It turns out that everything from the background music to the colour and shape of our plates affects the taste of our food.

• Read an interview with Charles

Women In Science

Rachel Ignotofsky

Discover (or rediscover) the work of 50 trailblazing women in science in Ignotofsky’s gorgeously illustrated book. Familiar names like Marie Curie and Ada Lovelace sit alongside lesser-known pioneers such as Maria Sibylla Merian, one of the first and more important entomologists.

• Read an extract from Women in Science

Ask An Astronaut

Who better to describe life in space than someone who’s walked the (space)walk? Tim pens answers to the public’s burning questions, revealing what space smells like, how he enjoyed a cosmic cuppa, and what it felt like to return to Earth.

• Read an interview with Tim after his return to Earth

Caesar’s Last Breath

Every breath we take tells a story as old as the Earth. Kean’s eye-opening guide to the science and history of our atmosphere takes in everything from radioactive pigs and spontaneous combustion to Julius Caesar’s final moments and some unforgettable performance art at the Moulin Rouge.

• Read an interview with Sam

Out Of Nothing

Daniel Locke & David Blandy

Combining science fact with dreamlike imagery, Locke and Blandy’s eye-popping graphic novel celebrates the ingenuity of the human mind. We travel across centuries from Gutenberg’s printing press to Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web, via Picasso, Einstein, Rosalind Franklin and more.

Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery

Henry Marsh

Following up 2014’s much-lauded Do No Harm was never going to be easy, but this second part of Henry Marsh’s memoir is an equally honest, human and beautifully written account of the ups and downs of his life as a brain surgeon.

To Be A Machine

Mark O’Connell

With shades of Jon Ronson and Louis Theroux, O’Connell explores the world of transhumanism, meeting the cyborgs, utopians and futurists who hope to use technology to improve the human condition. It makes for an engrossing, witty and at times disturbing read.

• Read an extract from To Be A Machine
• Listen to Mark on the Science Focus Podcast

Anatomy: A Cutaway Look Inside the Human Body

Hélène Druvert & Jean-Claude Druvert

A cutaway book of the human body, Anatomy elicited gasps of delight in the office. Its flaps and delicate lasercuts allow kids to explore the organs, systems and senses that keep us alive, while the accompanying text provides a nice introduction to human biology.

Patient H69

Vanessa Potter

One day, Vanessa Potter started to lose her sight. Within three days, she was completely blind. Patient H69 documents her descent into darkness – and her subsequent recovery as, armed with scientific insight, she began to make sense of her unique condition.

The Angry Chef: Bad Science and the Truth About Healthy Eating

Anthony Warner

Paleo, GAPS, alkaline, detox… so many diets, but do any of them actually work? With scientific rigour and a generous helping of expletives, Warner takes on the food fads one by one, and asks why we’re so easily taken in by pseudoscience in the first place.

• Read our interview with Anthony Warner
• Listen to Anthony on the Science Focus Podcast

The Lost Words

Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris

Worried by the way in which natural words (acorn, dandelion, kingfisher, etc) are disappearing from children’s vocabulary, Robert Macfarlane has teamed up with illustrator Jackie Morris to produce this exquisite ‘spell book’, combining acrostic poems with hand-painted artwork.

Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave

Alice Gregory

After two decades as a prominent sleep researcher, Prof Alice Gregory is well placed to teach us how to sleep better. In Nodding Off , she explains the science of sleep and what happens if we don’t get enough of it. She also offers important tips on how to improve our shut-eye, to help us feel better in our waking hours.

• Listen to Alice on the Science Focus Podcast

Notes on a Nervous Planet

After experiencing years of anxiety and panic attacks, Matt Haig began to looks for the links between how he was feeling and what was going on around him. Notes On A Nervous Planet is Haig’s look into how to feel happy on a fast and nervous planet, and tells us how we can lead happier, healthier and saner lives.

• The science of happiness: seven books to bring a smile to your face

How to Invent Everything: Rebuild All of Civilization

Picture this: you’ve gone back in time for a casual gander at what cavemen were like, or to have a go at taming a dinosaur, but your time machine broke. And you can’t fix it. But don’t stress, you’ve got Ryan North’s informative manual on how to rebuild civilisation from scratch. Get started with inventing language, and then over 400 pages build your way up to modern computers.

• Listen to Ryan on the Science Focus Podcast

Wonders: Spectacular Moments in Nature Photography

Rhonda Rubinstein

Wonders features the award-winning images from the BigPicture Natural World Photography competition. Along with stunning photos, this science book explains the scientific phenomena and photography behind each shot.

The Happy Brain: The Science of Where Happiness Comes From, and Why

Dean Burnett

In our constant quest for happiness, we change jobs, pursue relationships, watch stand-up comedy and take up hobbies, among many, many other things. Neuroscientist Dean Burnett combines cutting-edge research and views from all kinds of experts to explain where happiness comes from, and why we need it so much.

• Listen to Dean on the Science Focus Podcast

Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics

Jeffrey Bub, Tanya Bub

In this graphic novel about entanglement, you’ll learn how quantum physics has led to wild theories about cats who are both dead and alive, and you’ll listen in on Niels Bohr’s therapy sessions with Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger. It’s more fun than you ever thought you could have learning about quantum mechanics.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions

Stephen Hawking

Published posthumously, Stephen Hawking’s last book tackles some of the Universe’s biggest questions. Is time travel possible? Is there other intelligent life in the Universe? How do we shape the future? And unlike A Brief History Of Time , this one is actually intelligible to the average armchair reader.

• Can you solve these deviously difficult Stephen Hawking-inspired questions?

Inventing Ourselves: The secret life of the teenage brain

Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Adolescence is a crazy time: there’s a need for intense friendships and extreme risk-taking, and it’s also when many mental illnesses begin to develop. In her book, which won the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2018, neuroscientist Sarah-Jayne Blakemore draws on cutting-edge research to explain what’s happening in the brains of teenagers, and what it can tell us about how we’ve all developed.

• Listen to Sarah-Jayne on the Science Focus Podcast
• Read an interview with Sarah-Jayne

Alex Hutchinson

The capacity to endure underlies most great athletic performances, but what limits endurance? Against the backdrop of some of the world’s best athletes trying to break the two-hour marathon mark, Alex Hutchinson explores new science around what defines our limits: is it our bodies, food, or pain? Or is it all in our heads?

• Listen to Alex on the Science Focus Podcast

The Science of Sin

We all sin to some extent, whether that’s eating more cake than we know is good for us, or carrying out more serious illicit acts. In The Science Of Sin , neurobiologist Jack Lewis talks us through why we do bad things, illuminates the neural battles between temptation and restraint, and helps us understand why we do the things we know we shouldn’t.

• Listen to Jack on the Science Focus Podcast

Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 28

Rosamund Kidman Cox

The Natural History Museum’s annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition always delivers beautiful wildlife images. Portfolio 28 features the best of 2018’s competition.

Hélène Druvert, Emmanuelle Grundmann

Ocean by Hélène Druvert and Emmanuelle Grundmann explains the most fascinating facets of the sea, including waves, coral reefs and the food chain. With captivating fold-out infographics and stunning laser-cut illustrations, it’s a beautiful, interactive tome that’ll help both kids and adults appreciate our oceans.

Matt Fitch, Chris Baker, Mike Collins

Apollo tells the suspense-filled story of the first Moon landing in graphic novel form. It’s well-researched and includes rich historical detail, tracking not only the mission itself, but the political tension around the programme and the nerve-racking experience shared by the crew’s families.

Dictionary of Dinosaurs

Matthew G Baron

This beautiful book, illustrated by Dieter Braun, details every dinosaur that’s ever been discovered, from Aardonyx to Zuniceratops . It includes up-to-date facts from dinosaur experts about where these creatures lived, what they ate and when they roamed the planet.

Infinite Wonder: An Astronaut’s Photographs from a Year in Space

Scott Kelly

Astronaut Scott Kelly had a year that photographers would envy. He circled the Earth 5,400 times, witnessing 10,944 sunrises and sunsets – about 16 per day. From the International Space Station, he viewed our planet in a unique way, and shares his incredible photos with us in Infinite Wonder .

The Weil Conjectures

Karen Olsson

André and Simone Weil were brother and sister. One a renowned mathematician known for contributions to algebraic geometry and number theory, the other a famous philosopher and political activist. Maths and philosophy become entangled in this fascinating memoir of the two 20th-Century figures.

Something Deeply Hidden

Sean Carroll

From physicist Sean Carroll comes a history of quantum discoveries, and a guide to a subject that has baffled and blinded with its potential. Tackling huge questions, myths and conundrums about our Universe is no easy task, but Carroll does so elegantly.

• The parallel worlds of quantum mechanics

Jennifer Paxton and Katy Wiedemann

This beautiful book explores the human body from underneath the skin as if it were a journey through a museum. Katy Wiedemann’s delicately drawn diagrams accompany Jennifer Paxton’s detailed anatomical information for a learning experience that is quite unlike any other.

• Journey underneath the skin with these amazing pictures from the new book Anatomicum

Kit Chapman

How do scientists make elements that don’t naturally exist? In this engaging book, Kit Chapman opens our eyes to the way superheavy, unstable elements at the far reaches of the periodic table have changed our lives, and predicts what’s next for nuclear science.

• The weird ways extraordinary scientists made synthetic elements

Superior: The Return of Race Science

A timely look at the history of racism and racial bias within the scientific community. Perhaps most shocking is the sign of race science returning to modern conversations around genetics and political power.

• Read the edited transcript of the interview

The Uninhabitable Earth

David Wallace-Wells

What will continued climate change do to our planet? The future is much worse than we think, says David Wallace-Wells, who is deputy editor of New York magazine and a science writer. Sparking debate and conversation across the world, The Uninhabitable Earth is one of 2019’s best books.

The NASA Archives: 60 Years in Space

Piers Bizony, Andrew Chaikin and Roger Launius

A stunning visual journey through the NASA archives, documenting six decades of space exploration. Essays discuss the past, present and future of the American space agency, and with over 400 images, illustrations and photographs, most not widely seen by the general public, this is a coffee table book that is a delight to pick up and peruse.

Invisible Women

Caroline Criado Perez

The winner of 2019's Royal Society Science Book Prize reveals the shocking way that the world was designed with only one gender in mind. From female participants missing from research studies, to health apps allowing users to track copper intake but not periods, the holes in our knowledge of women – called the ‘gender data gap’ by Criado Perez – has led to a history of discrimination.

• Listen to Caroline on the Science Focus Podcast

Life Changing: How Humans are Altering Life on Earth

Helen Pilcher

The book that has stood out for me in 2020 is Helen Pilcher's Life Changing . It is a fascinating but complicated topic that necessarily involves bring together a lot of tricky ideas and concepts. Helen's book does exactly that, and in a brilliantly engaging way.

I had the pleasure of doing a festival event online with Helen over the summer and it was a joy to explore some of the many weird, and often not so wonderful, ways we are altering species. – Recommended by Dr Adam Hart

• 10 weird ways humans have influenced animal evolution

Is Free Speech Racist?

Gavan Titley

This is a small but mighty book.

Titley shows how racists have capitalised on free speech arguments to "reanimate racist discourses", and he soberly, succinctly skewers the claim that the big threat to free speech is from those who challenge racism, or any other kind of prejudice, including transphobia. – Recommended by Angela Saini

Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics

Leonard Mlodinow

This concise memoir of Stephen Hawking swapped back and forth between light-touch biography and personal recollections of a close friendship between Hawking and the author spanning the last fifteen years of Hawking’s life. We think we know Hawking the great scientist but this book highlights the sheer ordinariness of the many daily routines that made up the unseen part of his life.

The stories, told with humour and fondness, mean that I feel I now know Stephen Hawking a little better. – Recommended by Prof Jim Al-Khalili

• Listen to Leonard on the Science F o cus Podcast

Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA

Neil Shubin

Neil Shubin’s book is one that completely changed my understanding of evolution. I understood how small changes evolved – gradually changing colour or brains getting bigger. But it wasn’t until I read this book that I could finally get my head around how the really big changes happened, like moving from the ocean to land or learning to fly.

The things I learned from this book stayed with me – I’m still dropping facts into conversation. – Recommended by Sara Rigby

• Listen to Neil on the Science Focus Podcast

What Have I Done?

Laura Dockrill

Laura has tackled an extremely difficult and often taboo subject with searing honesty and humour. As a person struggling with postnatal mental health challenges myself, reading someone else's difficulties in print made me feel less alone. A scary number of parents suffer with similar issues but it's rarely spoken about, especially in such an open way.

I'm so sorry about what Laura went through, but am very grateful to her for sharing her story as it gives me, and I'm sure others, hope, that we can get through it. – Recommended by Roma Agrawal

Barry Lopez

I’ve been dying to read Barry Lopez’s Horizon , the long-awaited full-length follow up to his 1986 Arctic Dreams , but for various reasons I saved it until the paperback release in 2020, and I’m so glad I did.

This was the perfect 2020 book. With Lopez as my guide, I escaped on six long, inspiring journeys — from the Kenyan desert to Antarctica — that made me gasp, cry, smile and think very differently about the world. My copy is full of notes and scribbles and I know I’ll be returning to Lopez’s magnificent prose and challenging ideas for years to come. – Recommended by Dr Helen Scales

Spoon-Fed: Why Almost Everything We’ve Been Told about Food is Wrong

Tim Spector

Don’t go shopping when you’re hungry. That’s really the only rule I have when it comes to food. But, as I get older, my body is telling me I might need to make a few changes. The trouble is, it seems the more we understand about how food affects our health and mood, the more complicated it is to decide what we ought to put in our bodies.

Prof Tim Spector’s book is an easy-to-digest guide to all the controversies in the world of diet and nutrition right now. Do diets ever work? Should we all be eating less salt? Are carbs the devil’s work?

Without ever shying away from the complicated science, Spector's book satisfyingly arrives at some simple advice that would probably improve most diets. In short: listen to your body and eat diversely. It’s a breezy read, and I’ll be honest, probably the first book about food I’ve read cover-to-cover that that didn’t have a recipe in it. – Recommended by Daniel Bennett

• 7 food 'facts' that are completely wrong

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

Rebecca Wragg Sykes

Kindred by Rebecca Wragg Sykes is a sensitive, beautiful and very human view of our ancient relatives, the Neanderthals. Her writing is lyrical, insightful and poignant, and her enthusiasm is infectious. Highly recommended. – Recommended by Dr Helen Pilcher

• Listen to Rebecca on the History Extra Podcast
• Did Neanderthals have a society?

The Gynae Geek: Your No-Nonsense Guide to ‘Down-There’ Healthcare

Dr Anita Mitra

I’ve followed Dr Anita Mitra, aka The Gynae Geek, on Instagram for a while and always loved her accessible approach to female health. This year, I decided to treat myself to a copy of her paperback book. I have a science-based education and work at BBC Science Focus , so like to think that I have a pretty good grasp of anatomy and biology, but like many people of my age, my school sex education was abysmal.

This book not only gave no-nonsense, non-judgmental advice about ‘down there’ but also left me absolutely gob-smacked by some facts about the female reproductive system. Did you know, for example, that the Fallopian tubes are mobile, and one tube can pick up an egg from the opposite ovary? Nope, neither did I!

It’s also a wonderful form of support for anyone who is worried about pregnancy, polycystic ovary syndrome, endometriosis or other gynaecological concerns, and can either put your mind to rest or help you decide if you need to reach out to a healthcare professional. – Recommended by Alice Lipscombe-Southwell

• Read an extract from The Gynae Geek

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear: The Utopian Plot to Liberate an American Town (And Some Bears)

Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

While it's not strictly an official 'science' book, it is nonetheless an alarming, eyebrow-raising and often hilarious true life tale of what happens when a fringe political ideology clashes with the real world, in ways which incorporate economics, conservation, zoology, parasitology, environmentalism, various types of psychology and animal behaviour studies, and more. – Recommended by Dean Burnett

• Read an extract from A Libertarian Walks Into A Bear

A Perfect Planet: Our One in a Billion World Revealed

Published to accompany Sir David Attenborough’s latest five-part series due to air on BBC One in the New Year, this is a book brimming with spectacular photography and great behind-the-scenes details. Each chapter covers a major topic; the Sun, weather, the oceans, volcanoes and humans, and tells the story of how the combination of these five ingredients somehow coalesced to form our perfect planet.

It has all the major bases covered, too. Crocodiles trying to catch birds? Check. Crazy scientist standing next to an erupting volcano? Check. Cryogenic frogs that freeze their blood and later come back to life? Check!

A short review like this (especially in the hands of an untrained picture editor) can’t really do a book justice, but if you love wildlife and appreciate great photography then this is the book you want. – James Cutmore

• In pictures: Sir David Attenborough's new series A Perfect Planet

Cosmic Clouds 3-D: Where Stars Are Born

David Eicher and Brian May

Legendary Queen guitarist Brian May brings us the first book to show cosmic clouds of gas and dust – nebulae – in 3D.

I often think the beauty of the night sky is epic enough to rival the revered art that hangs in major galleries around the world. Now this gorgeous book allows us to see them like never before. – Recommended by Colin Stuart

Drugs Without the Hot Air: Making Sense of Legal and Illegal Drugs

Anyone wanting a clear-headed primer on the science of what drugs are, how they work, and why people take them need look no further than David Nutt’s landmark work.

The second edition was published in early 2020 and includes the latest developments in the science as well as the addition of several up-to-date case studies. There’s a lifetime’s worth of knowledge and research to dig into here but thanks to Nutt’s direct, no nonsense writing style the book also serves as a masterclass in science communication. – Recommended by Jason Goodyer

• Read an extract from Drugs Without the Hot Air

Diary of an Apprentice Astronaut

Samantha Cristoforetti

Lately, I have become as fascinated by the way that humans relate to science and the natural world, as I am to the scientific breakthroughs themselves. I’ve also, for the first time, realised just how momentous it is to be sending people into space. Having never known a time when this hasn’t happened, it’s taken me a while to get it into perspective!

So, this diary of what it is like to go through astronaut training for a 200-day mission to the International Space Station crossed my desk at exactly the right time. ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti writes with honesty. Her prose is simple and down to Earth, which increased my empathy for her story. – Dr Stuart Clark

The Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

This spectacular book is more than traditional history, as many of its surprising – often strange – revelations about Viking life come not from texts, but archaeology.

Price guides us through their vast world, studding his grand narrative with extraordinary details: isotopic identification of Scandinavian skeletons in Russia, silk caps from York and Lincoln probably from the same Byzantine bale, and a candle burning until the air inside a burial chamber ran out. – Recommended by Dr Rebecca Wragg Sykes

How to Argue with a Racist

Adam Rutherford

Given the renewed examination of race relations sparked by the tragic death of George Floyd, How to Argue with a Racist is doubtlessly one of the most important reads of 2020. But it’s arguably the most interesting too: debunking racial pseudoscience, geneticist and author Adam Rutherford expertly explains how all humans (including white supremacists) share African and Chinese ancestors – and how, biologically, race is near impossible to define.

As a bonus, it also demonstrates the many flaws of your ancestry DNA test results, and why most Brits are related to Edward III. Engaging and thought-provoking throughout. – Recommended by Thomas Ling

• Listen to Adam on the Science Focus Podcast

The Little Book of Cosmology

Lyman Page is a professor of astronomy at the Princeton University in New Jersey and his principal area of research has for decades been the heat afterglow of the Big Bang . Incredibly, it is still around us today, greatly cooled by cosmic expansion in the past 13.82 billion years and accounting for a whopping 99.9 per cent of the photons, or particles of light, in the Universe.

I thought this would be just another book by an academic jumping on the popular science bandwagon and short-changing the public with something pretty ordinary. But nothing could be further from the truth.

This ranks alongside Steven Weinberg’s The First Three Minutes as the best book on cosmology I have read. A compact treasure-trove of cosmic insights to be read, mulled over, and read again. – Recommended by Marcus Chown

• Read an extract from The Little Book of Cosmology

Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret

Catherine Colman Flowers

The introduction of the sewage system was one of the revolutionary inventions that changed the world.

This book is a reminder that basic waste sanitation is vital for public health, and is a wake-up call that climate change and rising sea levels will inevitably hit the underprivileged hardest. – Recommended by Jheni Osman

Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships

Dr Camilla Pang

If you want to understand how light refracts, or how proteins in the body work, read this book. If you want to make better decisions, or understand how to form fruitful friendship groups, read this book.

It came as no shock to me when Explaining Humans was chosen as The Royal Society's science book of the year in 2020. This book changed my life in many ways. It brought to light aspects of society that I didn't even know I hadn't understood, until now. It enabled me to begin unpicking my reasons for doing things a certain way, to start questioning my own routines and 'rules' for life. – Recommended by Amy Barrett

• Listen to Camilla on the Science Focus Podcast

Science book reading lists

We reckon this is a fine selection of books to read, but there are plenty more that are well worth your time from the annals of history. If you’re looking for a little inspiration, here are a few more of our book recommendations to mull over:

• 28 of the best non-fiction and fiction books we read in 2020
• 20 of the best wildlife books and nature writing
• 16 of the best maths books
• 5 best physics books, according to Jim Al-Khalili
• AI: 5 of the best must-read artificial intelligence books
• 5 race science books you must read
• Science books for kids: 5 books for budding scientists

Are you excited to read any of the books on this list? Let us know what you think of our pick of the best science books out this month by messaging us on Twitter or Facebook , tag us in a picture of you reading any of the books on Instagram , and join the Science Focus Book Club for a community of other science book lovers.

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The Best Popular Science Books of 2022: The Royal Society Book Prize

Recommended by maria fitzgerald.

A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Chapters by Henry Gee

The renowned UCL neuroscientist Professor Maria Fitzgerald , chair of the 2022 Royal Society Book Prize, talks us through the judges' selection of the best popular science books of the year—including a whistle-stop tour of the history of the Earth, a self-help book offering evidence-based advice on how to live a longer life, and a primatologist's study of gender among apes.

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor

The Greywacke: How a Priest, a Soldier and a School Teacher Uncovered 300 Million Years of History by Nick Davidson

Different: What Apes Can Teach Us About Gender by Frans de Waal

Spike: The Virus vs. The People - the Inside Story by Jeremy Farrar & with Anjana Ahuja

Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life by Rose Anne Kenny

Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial by Peter Stott

1 The Greywacke: How a Priest, a Soldier and a School Teacher Uncovered 300 Million Years of History by Nick Davidson

2 different: what apes can teach us about gender by frans de waal, 3 spike: the virus vs. the people - the inside story by jeremy farrar & with anjana ahuja, 4 a (very) short history of life on earth: 4.6 billion years in 12 chapters by henry gee, 5 age proof: the new science of living a longer and healthier life by rose anne kenny, 6 hot air: the inside story of the battle against climate change denial by peter stott.

T hanks for joining us to discuss the shortlist for the 2022 Royal Society Science Prize, an award that highlights the best new popular science books. What are you, as judges, looking for?

How many popular science books did you consider for the 2022 prize?

More than 200 books arrived at my house. Imagine that. My husband was initially aghast but agreed that it was exciting. We needed to bring that down to a longlist of 50 books to give to the judging panel; I thought long and hard about how to do this in a fair way. I work as a professor at UCL, and I have some very informed and literate early career colleagues, so I invited some of them over for a very serious evening—scientists, mainly, but also an economist and some business people. We worked through the books systematically, ruling out those that did not seem right for the prize— biographies , for example, or books that were a bit off the wall, or books about pets…. That sort of thing. You know, the story of someone’s life is extremely interesting to me, but might not be entirely appropriate for this kind of prize. We got down to the final 50 with great consensus.

Then our panel of judges read the longlist. We had Rory Cellan-Jones, a broadcaster with a strong knowledge of science and technology; the novelist Mike Gayle ; the nature presenter Kate Humble; and an experimental particle physicist, Dr Josh Mcfadyen. We all sent in blind scores. When I went to chair the first meeting, I expected it to be quite difficult. I chair a lot of award panels, but within the sciences. My mother was the novelist Penelope Fitzgerald , and she had told me about being on committees for literary prizes when it had been a question of finding a winner that not everyone hated, as opposed to finding one that everyone liked. She was quite funny about it, but she did say it was sometimes a little acrimonious.

Let’s walk through the shortlist of six popular science books you’ve chosen for 2022. First up we have The Greywacke: How a Priest, a Soldier and a School Teacher Uncovered 300 Million Years of History by Nick Davidson .

The Greywacke is, if you like, a classic history of science book . And it’s really, really fun. Nick Davidson paints a picture of these three Victorian geologists, at a time when many scientists were gentlemen; wealthy men who didn’t need to earn a living. Many, I’m sure, were very bright and enquiring, and wanted to do something other than just… go hunting, or whatever it was rich men did. It was a sort of fashion in the 19th century to try to understand mountains and fossils.

The book paints a picture of one of the men, an academic in Cambridge, who got the job because he knew more about the Church than he did about geology—the book is full of passing observations that make you laugh. So he got the Chair in geology and carried on with his fieldwork studying a peculiarity in the formation of mountains in Wales. He was then approached by a member of the gentry,  an ex-soldier from a wealthy background who was energetic and good at raising money, and they become unlikely friends and coinvestigators. This friendship is beautifully illustrated—as a scientist, it could happen today, this balance between the rather cerebral, careful, lovely person who has a lot of teaching commitments but maybe is not so skilled at raising money and getting things done, and another who is quite dynamic and powerful, a good talker and good at raising money, but perhaps isn’t quite so bright as the other one.

This reminds me a little of how people talk about the friendship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky , the social psychologists—both brilliant, in different, complementary ways. Although I think their relationship was rather fraught.

Next on the list is Different: What Apes Can Teach Us About Gender by Frans de Waal.

This is a really impressive book, especially in the light of current gender debates, and brings a new and very well-written scientific perspective to the debate, based on the behaviour of primates.

Frans de Waal is a primatologist who has worked amongst primates all his life, and knows a huge amount about their behaviour. He takes us through all the behaviours which we humans tend to obsess over in children—are boys being forced to hold guns? Are girls being forced into pretty pink dresses?—and also the whole business about finding a mate, how young females and young males behave, sex for enjoyment, sex for reproduction. All of these things are happening in this ape community.

It’s incredibly interesting. The argument running through it is that it’s almost arrogant of human beings to think that they have their own special social construct. It is well understood that gender is not entirely about sex and he acknowledges the negative effects of the huge gender-related pressures and expectations that shape our lives. I was brought up in an environment where women were dismissed and everything they said was considered trivial, so I am very aware of these pressures. But de Waal explains that the behaviour associated with gender is essentially a primate phenomenon, not a human one.

He describes many wonderful scenarios. Out of nowhere, a female chimp will emerge that acts in every way like a male. They are biologically female, but they join the males and the males will see them as one of their own. They’re not interested in her as a sexual partner, she will, in every way, live like a male. And, similarly, the other way round. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen, and it is entirely accepted by the chimp community.

Another very interesting thing is that female chimps, right from the moment they can walk, will pick up little sticks and pretend they are babies. This is scientific observation of animal behaviour at its best, because it relates so closely to us.

Next on our shortlist of 2022 popular science books is Spike: The Virus vs. The People—the Inside Story by Jeremy Farrar with Anjana Ahuja.

You may know Jeremy Farrar as the Director of the Wellcome Trust, the biomedical charity. He was also on the Sage committee .

For those outside the UK, that was the British government’s Covid-19 scientific advisory group.

Internationally, he is one of the top experts in epidemics. Most of his training has been working overseas in malaria and other tropical diseases, so he has lots of contacts all over the world, and was right at the heart of the epidemic.

The book is written so well, like an adventure story. It begins with Farrar sitting in an airport on Christmas Eve in 2019, waiting to come home to see his family, when he receives a phone call—a covert phone call from a colleague in China, who is aware of what’s happening and wants to tell him. That’s how it begins. And it explains how, in the beginning, there was so much resistance—not just from China , but from the US, because very powerful people did not want to believe this epidemic was real. I think at various points, he genuinely feared for his life, because only a very few people in the world knew that something truly dreadful was happening.

It develops from there: the frustration of being on the Sage committee, the hornets’ nest of not trusting our own government. Anybody who might feel that they have had enough of reading about Covid  should still read this book because it is the inside story, and it reads like a thriller . Farrar really knows what he’s talking about, and it’s no holds barred. I think he feels, having lived through this, he’s going to tell the world what the decision-making was like. And the sad thing is that he concludes that it honestly didn’t need to happen. That’s really sad. He also feels that we’re not preparing for it to happen again.

Let’s move on to A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters by Henry Gee . What a great title!

A fantastic title. Do you know, I see this book almost as one long poem. The style might not be to everyone’s taste, but I think everybody would agree that it’s amazing. The use of language is breathtaking. You feel like you’re part of this extraordinary evolutionary process, both physical and biological. He stops it from just being drearily descriptive, and takes you on this wave of fantastic imagery—describing what was happening so that you can see it.  Even if it’s some sort of ancient organism producing carbon dioxide or other biochemical process, it’s all done with such dynamism! You almost feel tired at the end. It’s very, very good.

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What a strange and exciting book. Does that bring us to Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life by Rose Anne Kenny?

I think this book will appeal to lots of people. Well, we’re an ageing society. And it’s not only that we are all ageing, but also the workforce is aging . There are not enough people to contribute to the economy, so people are soon going to have to work into their seventies and even eighties if we’re not going to become economically distressed.

Rose Anne Kenny is a professor of gerontology at Trinity College, Dublin. She does take a scientific approach to this subject, but she peppers the subject a bit with her own experiences and with conversations with her own patients, which is, I think, a nice way to do it.

To humanise the science, yes.

It ends up a bit more of a self-help book than the others, without a doubt.

Kenny gives us the statistics, the evidence for longevity and happiness . Friendships, exercise, what you eat… everything that you might predict but she actually gives the evidence for it, and it’s such an easy read. It’s not necessarily challenging, but at the same time you think, ‘Goodness, that really is the truth.’ It’s important for older and younger people too to think about longevity. The chances are that someone like yourself will have to work full-time until you are 70 or 75.

Yes, when I got my mortgage, we agreed that I’d likely be working until I’m 70 at least. It’s just the way things are going.

So you want to stay healthy. There’s a test at the end, which you can do at any age, to see how you are doing. Kenny has been involved in putting together a massive database with people from across Europe. So she has the statistical norms for all sorts of things for all sorts of ages, so you can do this test and see how your levels of anxiety compare, for instance—which is obviously very bad for you, as you might imagine—but also, how long you can stand on one leg. That sort of thing. Then you can pick up your score. I personally couldn’t bear to do it!

Quite. Well, just one more book in our list of the best 2022 popular science books. This is  Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial by Professor Peter Stott.

This is a hugely chilling, but massively well-informed book. Obviously, a lot has been written already about climate change , but this should not put people off. The thing about Peter Stott is that it was he and his colleagues who were trying to persuade the world and particularly the powers that be that not only was global warming happening, but it was human activity that was making it happen. At the beginning, the consensus was that, well, the sea temperatures are going up, the snow is melting, but this is just something happening to the universe, this is not anything to do with us.

And there was an enormously frightening and powerful lobby that wanted to discredit everything that Stott and his colleagues had shown. There was such malevolence, such nastiness from the oil lobby, that the threat to Stott and his colleagues was serious. Stott and his colleagues were bullied in meetings and in court and their emails were stolen.

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And all that time, the media was obsessed with this idea of false balance, giving equal airtime to self-styled experts. But what did they know? What had they studied? What had they done? What had they written? Stott explains this very well—he’d be asked on to the BBC to present his case, followed by a person who was given exactly the same amount of time to argue against him, who was actually a self-appointed crackpot with no evidence. It is so important that if there is scientific debate, the level of expertise of the debaters is honestly stated and the argument is equally informed on both sides.

It is satisfying that, now, every sensible person in the world knows that Stott and his colleagues were right. So this is a story of persistence, resilience and bravery. I like to think of it as the power of science: that, in the end, the scientific evidence will win out. It might take a long time, but it does. And that, of course, is what the Royal Society is all about.

Part of our  best books of 2022  series.

October 21, 2022

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Maria Fitzgerald

Professor Maria Fitzgerald is a neuroscientist and an expert in the biology of pain processing in the spinal cord and brain. Her laboratory in the UCL Department of Neuroscience, Physiology & Pharmacology focuses upon the formation of neuronal circuits that underlie acute and chronic pain and how these circuits are shaped in early life. She uses neurophysiological techniques in animal models and human participants to understand the mechanisms underlying the short and long-term effects of early life pain. Her lab is internationally recognised for its impact on pain management in infants, children and young people.   She has published over 250 research papers and reviews in pain neurobiology and has received numerous honours and prizes including fellowship of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences and, most recently, the Feldberg Foundation Prize. Her work crosses boundaries between cellular and integrative neurobiology, physiology and behaviour and she collaborates extensively with clinical colleagues.

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December 8, 2023

18 min read

55 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2023

The best fiction, nonfiction, history and sci-fi books  Scientific American  staff read in 2023

By Brianne Kane

Tara Moore/Getty Images

The Scientific American editorial team learned a lot this year. We debated why we’ll never live in space , explored the deep ocean (sort of), and asked how dinosaurs got so big . We also read a ton of books. While of course there were quite a few science fiction books (we can't help ourselves), we also learned how to cook, fell in and out of love with intriguing fictional characters, and got the scoop on how many bears really exist, what our universe actually looks like and why we’re even here. 

Below is a collection of what SciAm staff read this year, including recent fiction and nonfiction, selections from our Reviews section , titles from some familiar faces and a bountiful backlist to keep your TBR list on its toes. 

Happy reading!

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1. A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Space, Graphic Novel)

“Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements , but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea,” Penguin Random House says. “In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you’ve ever wondered about, and many you’ve never considered.”

“Hilarious, unputdownable book; though you may feel worse about possible space settlements, you’ll value living here on Earth all the more.” — Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics

2. Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: History, Nature)

“In Eight Bears, ” notes W.W. Norton, “journalist Gloria Dickie embarks on a globe-trotting journey to explore each bear’s story, whisking readers from the cloud forests of the Andes to the ice floes of the Arctic; from the jungles of India to the backwoods of the Rocky Mountain West.” 

“There are only eight true bears in the world?!” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

3. Perfectly Good Food by Irene and Margaret Li W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Cooking, Reference) 

“Written by the chef-sisters behind Boston’s acclaimed Mei Mei Dumplings, this cookbook/field guide is a crucial resource for the thrifty chef, the environmentally mindful cook, and anyone looking to make the most of their ingredients,” the publisher says.

“I don’t have a lot of cookbooks, but this book is right next to The Joy of Cooking for me, it's so helpful.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

4. The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya W.W. Norton, 2022 (Tags: Biography, History, Mathematics)

“An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made. The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann,” states W.W. Norton. 

“Incredible look at the mind and times of maybe the smartest person who ever lived.” — Gary Stix, Senior Editor, mind and brain

5. Period by Kate Clancy Princeton University Press, 2023 (Tags: Biology, Medicine, History)

“ Period counters the false theories that have long defined the study of the uterus, exposing the eugenic history of gynecology while providing an intersectional feminist perspective on menstruation science,” according to Princeton University Press.

“Worth reading if only for the demolition of the idea of a ‘normal’ 28-day cycle! She's also great at considering the social implications of science.” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

6. Our Fragile Moment by Michael Mann Hachette, 2023 (Tags: Climate Change, Nature) 

“For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years,” says the publisher, “Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings . Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change.”

“Really smart, clever and eye-opening look at the five most extreme shifts in Earth's climate over 4.5 billion years, and the lessons those episodes have for our dramatic climate shift today.” — Mark Fischetti, Senior Editor, sustainability

7. The Patriarchs by Angela Saini Penguin Random House (Tags: History, Sociology) 

“In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini explores the roots of what we call patriarchy, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present,” the publisher says.

“A powerful show of how the patriarchy is made and remade, over and over again.” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

8. The Warped Side of Our Universe by Kip Thorne, Lia Halloran Liveright, 2023 (Tags: Space/Physics, Art) 

“Epic verse and pulsating paintings merge to shed light on time travel, black holes, gravitational waves and the birth of the universe. Nearly two decades in the making, The Warped Side of Our Universe marks the historic collaboration of Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne and award-winning artist Lia Halloran. It brings to vivid life the wonders and wildness of our universe ’s ‘Warped Side,’” according to Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton.

“I thought I was getting another book on black holes; instead I discovered a delightful explosion of illustrations, science and verse.” — Dan Vergano, Senior Opinion Editor

9. The Possibility of Life by Jaime Green HarperCollins, 2023 (Tags: Astronomy, Philosophy)

From the publisher: “In The Possibility of Life, acclaimed science journalist Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus to our contemporary quest for exoplanets. Along the way, she interweaves insights from science fiction writers who construct worlds that in turn inspire scientists.… The Possibility of Life explores our evolving conception of the cosmos to ask an even deeper question: What does it mean to be human?”

“I know Jaime, so I've been waiting for this book for a long time, and it was worth the wait!” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

10. Grace in All Simplicity by Chris Quigg and Robert Cahn Pegasus Books, 2023 (Tags: Physics, History)

“ Grace in All Simplicity narrates the saga of how we have prospected for some of Nature’s most tightly held secrets, the basic constituents of matter and the fundamental forces that rule them. In these pages we will meet scientists of both past and present. These men and women are professional scientists and amateurs, the eccentric and the conventional, performers and introverts. Scientists themselves, Cahn and Quigg convey their infectious joy as they search for new laws of nature,” states Pegasus Books.

“A fascinating and accessible description of the incredible revolution physicists have made in understanding the world's smallest pieces.” — Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics

1. Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Space, Romance) 

“ Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love,” the publisher says.

“I loved this book, and hated how I related to both main characters Amber and Adam.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

2. Harold by Steven Wright Simon & Schuster, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Historical Fiction) 

“Harold documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, and always thought-provoking stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class,” notes the publisher. “This novel will change the way you perceive your daily existence.”

“It's definitely a fun read but fans of his comedy might enjoy it more. Takes place in the mind of a young boy in just one day in school, oddly enough, bird lovers might enjoy it. You'll have to find out why!” —Silvia De Santis, Prepress and Quality Manager  

3. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore Knopf, 2023 (Tags: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism)

 “Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore,” according to publisher Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

“A road-trip novel about the inevitability of entropy—in our shared physical world and in our private emotional ones” —Angelique Rondeau, Senior Copy Editor  

4. Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel Penguin Random House, 2022 (Tags: Mystery, LGBTQ+, Historical Fiction) 

“Hoping to escape the pain of the recent murder of her best friend, art student Zoe Beech finds herself studying abroad in the bohemian capital of Europe—Berlin. Rudderless, Zoe relies on the arrangements of fellow exchange student Hailey Mader, who idolizes Warhol and Britney Spears and wants nothing more than to be an art star,” the publisher says. “ Other People’s Clothes brilliantly illuminates the sometimes dangerous intensity of female friendships, as well as offering an unforgettable window into millennial life and the lengths people will go to in order to eradicate emotional pain.”

“This book could totally be turned into a series/movie!” —Isabella Bruni, Digital Producer  

5. Prophet   by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald Grove, 2023 (Tags: Mystery, LGBTQ+, Romance) 

From the publisher: “Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the U.K. after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives.”

“I could not put this book down and nearly threw it across the room when I finished it!” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

6. The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Romance, Fantasy) 

“ The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind,” the publisher notes. “Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?”

“Do you want to drive aimlessly around New Mexico under the dictatorship of a well-meaning alien and the friends he picks up along the way?” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

7. Archangel by Andrea Barrett W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Short Stories, Historical Fiction) 

 “A young boy comes of age amid an explosion of homespun investigations. A widowed science writer tries to reconcile the influence of emotion on scientific theory. A famous biologist finds himself outpaced by his students, even as he seeks to teach them. Throughout these deftly plotted stories, Andrea Barrett weaves subtle connections among the tales within this collection and characters in her earlier works,” the publisher says.

“The stories in this collection explore how people react when new scientific theories sweep onto the scene: Some embrace the fresh ideas, others defend the more established orthodoxies at all costs. And in between such debates, life—work, children, war—keeps on happening.” — Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, technology  

8. The Terraformers by Annie Newitz Macmillan (Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction) 

“Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano,” writes the publisher. “ The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.”

“A delightful, world-building science-fiction book about—world-building, as in terraforming new worlds for future human habitation. I fell for the main characters right away, human and nonhuman.” — Laura Helmuth, Editor in Chief  

9. The Nature Book by Tom Comitta Coffee House Press, 2023 (Tags: Nature, Speculative Fiction)

“Part sweeping evocation of Earth’s rhythms, part literary archive, part post-human novel, The Nature Book collages descriptions of the natural world into a singular symphonic paean to the planet,”says Coffee House Press. “What does our nature writing say about us, and more urgently, what would it say without us?”

“Easily one of the most creative literary works I’ve ever read, this will be on my bedside table maybe forever.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

10. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub Penguin Random House, 2022 (Tags: Time Travel, History)

“On the eve of her fortieth birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible,” writes the publisher. “But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her sixteenth birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush—it’s her dad, the vital, charming, forty-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?”

“I’ll read almost anything that involves a woman going back to the recent past, and everyone I know kept telling me not to miss this one” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

Selections from Review Section

1. For Blood and Money by Nathan Vardi W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Business, Medicine, Technology) 

“ For Blood and Money tells the little-known story of how an upstart biotechnology company created a one-in-a-million cancer drug, and how members of the core team—denied their share of the profits—went and did it again. In this epic saga of money and science, veteran financial journalist Nathan Vardi explains how the invention of two of the biggest cancer drugs in history became (for their backers) two of the greatest Wall Street bets of all time,” the publisher says. 

"One can already imagine the movie version" —Madana Chaffa, January issue

2. The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and translated by Elizabeth DeNoma Scribner, 2023 (Tags: Philosophy, Nature)

“How much light is too much light? Satellite pictures show our planet as a brightly glowing orb, and in our era of constant illumination, light pollution has become a major issue. The world’s flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But in the last 150 years, we have extended our day—and in doing so have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things, including ourselves,” the publisher says. 

"Eklöf highlights the startling sprawl of these lesser-known consequences without evoking a hopeless or cynical tone. Instead the book is a reflective reminder that our control of the world is as delicate as the smallest of species affected by it." —Sam Miller, February issue

3. Your Brain on Art  by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Art, Neuroscience)

“Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. They expand our understanding of how playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning; the vibrations of a tuning fork create sound waves to counteract stress; virtual reality can provide cutting-edge therapeutic benefit; and interactive exhibits dissolve the boundaries between art and viewers, engaging all of our senses and strengthening memory,” states the publisher. 

"Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross walk a fine line between expounding the health benefits of participating in art and arguing that such therapeutic effects need not be perfectly understood by science to be useful." —Maddie Bender, March issue  

4. Elixir by Theresa Levitt Harvard University Press, 2023 (Tags: History, Chemistry, Philosophy) 

“For centuries, scientists believed that living matter possessed a special quality—a spirit or essence—that differentiated it from nonliving matter,” writes Harvard University press. “ Elixir tells the story of two young chemists who were not convinced, and how their work rewrote the boundary between life and nonlife.… Rich in sparks and smells, brimming with eccentric characters, experimental daring, and the romance of the Bohemian salon, Elixir is a fascinating cultural and scientific history.”

"Levitt traces how researchers’ pursuit of the true composition of these oils laid the foundation for modern organic chemistry." —Fionna M.D. Samuels, April issue

5. In The Herbarium by Maura C. Flannery Yale University Press, 2023 (Tags: Botany, History) 

“Maura C. Flannery tells the history of herbaria, from the earliest collections belonging to such advocates of the technique as sixteenth-century botanist Luca Ghini,” writes Yale University Press. “She charts the growth of herbaria during the Age of Exploration, the development of classification systems to organize the collections, and herbaria’s indispensable role in the tracking of climate change and molecular evolution.”

 “Maura C. Flannery makes a compelling case for reinvigorating the relevance of these ‘hidden gardens’ by exploring their significance as bellwethers of climate change, libraries for biodiversity research, sources of plant DNA, and opportunities to acknowledge and amend the erasure of Indigenous and enslaved people’s contributions to botany.” —Dana Dunham, May issue

6. On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Fantasy)

“Since long before the spaceships’ fleeting presence, Blaine has been content to go along with the whims of his supermom wife and half-feral, television-addicted children. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they’re aliens, and his wife drags them all on a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack. Embracing the strangeness that is life in the twenty-first century, On Earth as It Is on Television is a rollicking, heartfelt tale of first contact that practically leaps off the planet,” the publisher says.

“Unusually fun and absurd take on what might otherwise be just another imitation of Independence Day or The Day the Earth Stood Still. ” —Meg Elison , June Issue  

7. A Second Chance for Yesterday RA Sinn (pseudonym for siblings Rachel Hope Cleves and Aram Sinnreich) Simon & Schuster, 2023 (Tags: Romance, Time Travel) 

“Nev Bourne is a hotshot programmer for the latest and greatest tech invention out there: SavePoint, the brain implant that rewinds the seconds of all our most embarrassing moments,” writes Simon & Schuster. “But when she hits go on the test-run, she wakes up the next day only to discover it's yesterday…. Created by historian and futurist sibling authors, A Second Chance for Yesterday is a time-twisting story of family, redemption and queer love.”

“A perceptive, mesmerizing time-travel tale of self-revelation and redemption.” —Lorraine Savage, July/August double issue

8. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Speculative Fiction, LGBTQ+)

“Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world,” says the publisher. “It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.”

"A thought-provoking fusion of the sensory and the speculative." —Dana Dunham, September issue  

9. Alfie & Me by Carl Safina W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Biography, Nature, Memoir) 

“ Alfie & Me is the story of the remarkable impact this little owl would have on their lives. The continuing bond of trust following her freedom—and her raising of her own wild brood—coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a year in which Carl and Patricia were forced to spend time at home without the normal obligations of work and travel. Witnessing all the fine details of their feathered friend’s life offered Carl and Patricia a view of existence from Alfie’s perspective,” according to W.W. Norton. 

"Don’t expect a dramatic, sensational plot; here the quiet message is that nature doesn’t need to serve us humans beyond existing for itself." —Sam Miller, October issue  

10. Eat, Poop, Die by Joe Roman Hachette, 2023 (Tags: Nature, History) 

“From the volcanoes of Iceland to the tropical waters of Hawaii, the great plains of the American heartland, and beyond, Eat, Poop, Die takes readers on an exhilarating and enlightening global adventure, revealing the remarkable ways in which the most basic biological activities of animals make and remake the world—and how a deeper understanding of these cycles provides us with opportunities to undo the environmental damage humanity has wrought on the planet we call home,” the publisher says. 

"One of those rare books that truly changes the way you look at the world." —Lucy Cooke, November issue

Some Familiar Faces

Here’s a look at some of the books published this past year by Scientific American staff and contributors.

1. The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka Princeton University Press, 2022 (Tags: Nature, Neuroscience)

“Most of us are aware of the hive mind—the power of bees as an amazing collective,” notes Princeton University Press. “But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In  The Mind of a Bee , Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities…. They may even possess consciousness.”

Check out Chittka’s July/August feature asking “ Do Insects Feel Joy and Pain? ” 

2. Ice by Amy Brady Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: History, Business)

“Ice is everywhere: in gas stations, in restaurants, in hospitals, in our homes. Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice cubes into tall glasses of tea to ward off the heat of a hot summer day…. Ice on-demand has so revolutionized modern life that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way—and to overlook what aspects of society might just melt away as the planet warms,” the publisher says. 

Not only is Brady a contributing editor, but she also contributed a feature article on climate-friendly cocktail recipes in our July/August issue.

3. Under Alien Skies by Philip Plait  W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Space, Physics) 

“This lively, immersive adventure through the cosmos, Plait draws ingeniously on both the latest scientific research and his prodigious imagination to transport you to ten of the most spectacular sights outer space has to offer,” states W.W. Norton. “In vivid, inventive scenes informed by rigorous science—injected with a dose of Plait’s trademark humor— Under Alien Skies places you on the surface of alien worlds, from our own familiar Moon to the far reaches of our solar system and beyond.”

In a blurb about the book, Editor in Chief Laura Helmuth calls it “a funny, warm, and welcoming guide to the most marvelous places in the universe… You’ll experience what it would be like to actually be there, while learning some of the most mind-expanding science humans have ever figured out.” 

4. Building Science Graphics by Jen Christiansen CRC Press, 2022 (Tags: Art, Data Visualization) 

 “ Building Science Graphics: An illustrated guide to communicating science through diagrams and visualizations is a practical guide for anyone—regardless of previous design experience and preferred drawing tools—interested in creating science-centric illustrated explanatory diagrams…. The heart of the book is composed of two step-by-step graphical worksheets, designed to help jump-start any new project,” the publisher says.

“An amazing resource for all levels of experience, and the best book launch party I’ve been to all year!” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

5. I Feel Love by Rachel Nuwer Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023 (Tags: Psychology, Medicine) 

“The unlikely story of how the psychedelic drug MDMA emerged from the shadows to the forefront of a medical revolution—and the potential it may hold to help us thrive. Few drugs in history have generated as much controversy as MDMA—or held as much promise. Once vilified as a Schedule I substance that would supposedly eat holes in users’ brains, MDMA (also known as Molly or Ecstasy) is now being hailed as a therapeutic agent that could transform the field of mental health and outpace psilocybin and ketamine as the first psychedelic approved for widespread clinical use” the publisher says.

Nuwer discusses her work with us in this Science, Quickly podcast episode . 

Bountiful Backlist

1. The Same Dog by Robert Aickman (Tags: Short Story, Weird Fiction, Horror) 

“Nothing is like Aickman, which is both a blessing and a curse if you like his work. I still think about it once a week, even years after reading it.” —Ryan Reid, Art Director  

2. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (Tags: Magical Realism, Science Fiction) 

“If you’re into fantasy-sci-fi storylines, you’ll likely get a kick out the character cast: a narrator, who is himself a human data-storage-encryption device, a DIY brain-hacker, an all-pink-clad teen whose sound is initially muted, the unicorn skulls where dreams are held, the creepy inklings and information pirates called semiotics.” —Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor

3. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (Tags: Biography, Nature) 

“Older memoir but not to be missed; riveting at its climax and devastating in its impact.” —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor  

4. Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett (Tags: Short Stories, Historical Fiction) 

“Caught between science and human desire, characters try to make sense of their lives, going from the tops of the Himalayas to the suburbs of American cities.” —Josh Fischman, Senior Editor, medicine and science policy 

5. The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet by Vandana Singh (Tags: Short Stories, Science Fiction) 

“Delightful collection of short stories.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society 

6. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (Tags: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction) 

“This was recommended all over TikTok so I finally gave it a chance. Beautifully written but extremely depressing.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

7. H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald  (Tags: Memoir, Nature, Birds) 

“How has it taken me so long to read this book?” —Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, technology 

8. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (Tags: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Religion) 

“One of the most memorable/haunting novels I've read in the past few years.” —Amanda Montañez, Associate Graphics Editor 

9. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond  (Tags: Sociology, History, Social Justice) 

“Epic, eye-opening; the reporting is absolutely incredible, and you get so close to some of the characters that it sometimes feels like a novel.” — Amanda Montañez, Associate Graphics Editor 

10. Behave by Robert Sapolsky (Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy)

“Fascinating and witty account of what drives our good and bad behaviors.” — Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

11. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (Tags: LGBTQ+, Historical Fiction) 

“Tremendous telling of the Chicago AIDS epidemic during the 1980s. Makkai's extensive research and reporting makes for a story that still resonates today.” — Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

12. WordSlut by Amanda Montell (Tags: Linguistics, History, Social Justice) 

“Such an interesting look at the ways that patriarchy is ensconced in language.” —Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

13. Earthlings  by Sayaka Murata; translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Tags: Magical Realism, Horror, Literary Fiction) 

“A rollercoaster of emotions and very bizarre.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

14. The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker (Tags: Nature, History) 

“A fascinating account of how acoustic technology is allowing us to eavesdrop on creatures' conversations.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

15. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction) 

“Just pure escapism and fun. If you need to get absorbed in a good story, this one's it.” — Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor 

16. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Tags: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction) 

“Beautiful characters, heart wrenching story. Mind-opening perspective on an area of the country that often gets looked down upon.” —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor 

17. The Myth of Normal by Daniel Maté and Gabor Maté (Tags: Psychology, Sociology)

“This absorbing book argues that trauma is built into Western society and is responsible for many ills, including the autoimmune disease ALS.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

18. A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys (Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, LGBTQ+) 

“A wholly original, thoughtful take on extraterrestrial first contact has Earth's citizens wondering if they should go all-in on saving Earth or escape to another planet for a fresh start.” —Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics 

19. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami; translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Tags: Literary Fiction, Young Adult) 

“The book explores trauma bonds and the long-term pain—both mental and physical—that bullying causes.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

20. Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubenstein (Tags: Space, Religion) 

“A version of spaceflight's story that isn't told often enough.” —Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

Science Friday

The best summer books of 2023, according to two science writers.

34:25 minutes

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Summer is one of the best times to crack open a book and read the hours away, according to Jaime Green and Annalee Newitz . The two science writers are voracious readers, and they’ve compiled a list of their summer reading recommendations for Science Friday listeners. Green and Newitz join Ira from New Britain, Connecticut and San Francisco, California respectively, to discuss their favorite nonfiction and fiction books for the summer, and take questions from listeners. 

Disclaimer: When you purchase products through the Bookshop.org links on this page, Science Friday may earn a small commission which helps support our journalism.

Annalee Newitz’ s Picks:

Author of  The Terraformers

The Possibility of Life: Science Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos by Jaime Green 

Get The Book

“In   The Possibility of Life , Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus to our contemporary quest for exoplanets … [it] explores our evolving conception of the cosmos to ask an even deeper question: What does it mean to be human?”

The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality by Angela Saini

“In this bold and radical book, Angela Saini explores the roots of what we call patriarchy, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present. She travels to the world’s earliest known human settlements, analyzes the latest research findings in science and archaeology, and traces cultural and political histories from the Americas to Asia.”

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

“ A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments … Exploring themes of adaptation, survival, sexuality, and care, and weaving the wonders of marine biology with stories of their own family, relationships, and coming of age,  How Far the Light Reaches  is a shimmering, otherworldly debut that attunes us to new visions of our world and its miracles.”

Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World by Malcom Harris

“Malcolm Harris examines how and why Northern California evolved in the particular, consequential way it did, tracing the ideologies, technologies, and policies that have been engineered there over the course of 150 years of Anglo settler colonialism, from IQ tests to the ‘tragedy of the commons,’ racial genetics, and ‘broken windows’ theory … [It] is an urgent and visionary history of the way we live now, one that ends with a clear-eyed, radical proposition for how we might begin to change course.”

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

“In this intricate debut fantasy introducing a queernormative Persian-inspired world, a nonbinary refugee practitioner of blood magic discovers a strange disease that causes political rifts in their new homeland. Persian-American author Naseem Jamnia has crafted a gripping narrative with a moving, nuanced exploration of immigration, gender, healing, and family.”

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Jaime Green’s Picks:

Author of The Possibility of Life: Science Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos

The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa   by Jonathan Losos

“Jonathan Losos, writing as both a scientist and a cat lover, explores how researchers today are unraveling the secrets of the cat, past and present, using all the tools of modern technology, from GPS tracking and genomics to forensic archaeology. In addition to solving the mysteries of your cat’s past, it gives us a cat’s-eye view of today’s habitats, including meeting wild cousins around the world whose habits your sweet house cat sometimes eerily parallels.”

Time’s Mouth by Edan Lepucki

“Ursa possesses a very special gift. She can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950’s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit … From the forests of Santa Cruz, to the 1980s glam of Melrose Avenue to a solitary mansion among the oil derricks off La Cienega Boulevard,  Time’s Mouth  is a poignant and evocative excavation of the bonds that bind families together.”

Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith

“ In this illuminating narrative, journalist Virginia Sole-Smith exposes the daily onslaught of fatphobia and body shaming that kids face from school, sports, doctors, diet culture, and parents themselves–and offers strategies for how families can change the conversation around weight, health, and self-worth.”

You or Someone You Love: Reflections from an Abortion Doula by Hannah Matthews

“Hannah Matthews breathes depth and nuance into the oversimplified narratives surrounding abortion, presenting an accessible guide to the emotional and physical realities of providing and supporting abortion care for our own communities. Featuring stories of real abortion experiences, including Matthews’s own, You or Someone You Love   offers a glimpse into the stunningly diverse landscape of abortion care across gender, race, and class lines, while illustrating how we can better support and protect the people who seek abortion in a country that increasingly promotes secrecy and shame.”

Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke

“Whether we love them or hate them, think they’re sexy, think they’re strange, consider them too big, too small, or anywhere in between, humans have a complicated relationship with butts … A woman’s butt, in particular, is forever being assessed, criticized, and objectified, from anxious self-examinations trying on jeans in department store dressing rooms to enduring crass remarks while walking down a street or high school hallways. But why? In  Butts: A Backstory,  Heather Radke is determined to find out.”

Segment Guests

Annalee Newitz is a science journalist and author based in San Francisco, California. They are author of Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind , Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age and The Future of Another Timeline , and co-host of the podcast Our Opinions Are Correct .

Jaime Green is a science writer and author of The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos . She’s based in Connecticut.

Segment Transcript

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow, and now it’s time for our annual summer science book list because we can all use a good book to read over this summer, can’t we, whether that’s in a hammock or on the beach or just lounging back on the couch. And our panel of book nerds is assembled with their recommendations. Let me introduce them.

Jaime Green, science writer, author of The Possibility of Life. Jaime is based in New Britain, Connecticut. Annalee Newitz, science writer and author of The Terraformers, based in San Francisco, California. Welcome back both of you to Science Friday.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Thanks for having me.

JAIME GREEN: Thank you. Hello.

IRA FLATOW: Nice to see you guys. We’re taking calls, too. Let us know what kind of books you’re craving this summer. Our guests and help you out with suggestions, but you make the call– only if you make the call. Our number 844-724-8255, 844-SCI-TALK, and, of course, you can tweet us SciFri. Let’s get right into this.

It’s always interesting to have recommendations, and, Annalee, I’m going to put you on the spot first right off the bat. I want to get to one of your picks which should be very familiar to Jaime because it’s Jaime’s book, The Possibility of Life. Tell us about this book.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah. No pressure since Jaime’s right here listening. So this is a book that I just really enjoyed because it answers a question about why it is that both scientists and fiction writers are obsessed with imagining life beyond Earth. And part of the book deals with the history of how we’ve imagined life beyond Earth, but the part where it gets really good is where Jaime thinks about how it is that humans are constantly looking for an outside perspective on ourselves. It’s really hard to be the only species on Earth that talks about ourselves all the time and writes a lot of books about ourselves, and part of the yearning to imagine creatures beyond Earth is to just get ourselves into a perspective of seeing humanity from the outside.

IRA FLATOW: Yeah. Because we’re always looking that way. Science fiction writers have been writing about this for ages.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, that’s right. And one of the other things that I thought was incredible about this book is that Jaime does a great job of weaving together contributions from the humanities and the sciences and showing that these two disciplines when they tackle the question of life beyond Earth are not rivals with each other. They’re actually working together to help humans imagine who we are and who we could be. It’s really great if you are looking for an escapist read. Also if you’re looking for great recommendations for more science fiction in this book, you’re going to come away with a lot of great ideas because Jaime has fantastic taste in science fiction. So this is a book that will lead you to other books.

IRA FLATOW: Jaime, it would be impolite of me not to ask you to comment on. When we talk about somebody, they should have the right to rebuttal.

JAIME GREEN: What is there to say other than thank you? I just really appreciate that.

IRA FLATOW: That’s it. And, Annalee, there’s another book on your list that we talked about on this show a little while back, and that was How Far the Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler. Tell me about this one, why this caught your attention.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, this is a book like you said that’s been getting a lot of attention. It just won the LA Times Book Prize in science, and this is a great beach read because it’s literally about getting to know creatures in the ocean. And as the title suggests, it’s about 10 different sea creatures, and Imbler picks ones that you might not expect. I think we all know about charismatic megafauna in the ocean– the beautiful whales, the mysterious and amazing octopuses– but Imbler focuses on giant blobs of slime, little limpets, which are just tiny shells that are attached to rocks– creatures in shells attached to rocks, crabs that have goofy fur all over them, Yeti crabs. And it’s a book that really takes science journalism in a new direction, which is Imbler brings in aspects of their own life, stories about their relationship with their mother, relationship with their own sexual identity and racial identity, and uses that as a way to think about how humans can start to empathize with these creatures who are so different from us and live in places that are radically different from where we live on land.

And so reading this book, you’re not just going to learn cool facts about slime in the ocean, but you’re also going to learn a way of relating to those creatures. And I think that’s just so important right now as we think about our relationship with the environment, not just learning about it as something out there but something that connected.

IRA FLATOW: It’s a different perspective we don’t usually get as you say when talking about slimy creatures in the ocean.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah. And I love slimy creatures, so I just can’t get enough of this story.

IRA FLATOW: What’s not to love?

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah so definitely check that one out.

IRA FLATOW: Jaime, your next pick takes us to the animal kingdom to one creature that many of us are very familiar with, and that is the house cat. And, boy, we have cat lovers on our staff, Science Friday.

JAIME GREEN: Wow.

IRA FLATOW: They take up all the Zoom meetings when we’re there. Tell us about this book, Jaime.

JAIME GREEN: Yeah. So this book is The Cat’s Meow by Jonathan Losos, and Losos is an evolutionary biologist. His previous book is actually one that was really helpful to me in my research for my book. It was called Improbable Destinies about convergent evolution, but The Cat’s Meow focuses on the evolutionary history of the house cat, the domestic cat. I think dogs and their ancestry with wolves get so much of our cultural attention partly because we’re really familiar with wolves as just an animal that we know about whereas the wild ancestors of domestic cats aren’t as familiar to us. Cats didn’t evolve from lions and tigers. There are these other small wild cats.

And Losos is just a fantastic writer and such a expert on evolutionary biology. I just love his writing so much, and there’s just– it’s so interesting. Cats are so mysterious as creatures and in their role in culture, so it’s just so great to see what’s going on behind the curtain.

IRA FLATOW: 844-724-8255 is our number. That’s what’s going on behind the curtain here, and let’s go to the phones because while we’re in the animal mood to talk about animals, let’s go to Marin County. Welcome to Science Friday. Hi, there.

Oh, well. The topic was what the owl knows. I can’t make out the name here, so I can’t say who it is but somebody’s Marin– what the owl– OK, sorry. Because we talked about this, owls and how interesting they are and how they’re those kind of cute furry little– furry looking things with the feathers and stuff. But they’re incredible killers. That’s what they do for a living, right?

JAIME GREEN: Yeah.

IRA FLATOW: So– so, Annalee, you’ve got a recommendation here that seems really interesting. It’s a history of Silicon Valley and why it developed into such a massive tech hub. Tell me about this because I actually– I’m old enough to remember when all this happened.

JAIME GREEN: Well, not quite all of this because this book does go back a couple of hundred years, so this is called– [LAUGHING]– so this is called Palo Alto– A History of California, Capitalism, and the World. And it’s by a journalist named Malcolm Harris, and he set out to answer a really simple question, which is why is it that this slogan that came from Silicon Valley companies– which is the slogan move fast and break things, usually attributed to Facebook– how did that come to be? How did it come to be that we think that that’s a normal way to conduct business?

And what resulted is this epic journey. It’s 700 pages of history. It’s the perfect beach read for people who are experiencing burnout in their jobs and want to understand how we got to this place where we associate both technological innovation and the proper functioning of capitalism with just completely grinding workers into a pulp and asking them to do far more labor than is actually feasible.

And so Harris goes all the way back to the settlement of California, with the arrival of white settlers who are displacing and destroying and murdering Indigenous groups. And he goes all the way up to the present day and takes us into all these different byways of history– like the origins of Stanford University in Palo Alto, which is one of the incubators of Silicon Valley technology companies, and how the framers of Stanford were fascinated by eugenics and by the idea that certain kinds of people were better than others based on race. There’s even a mysterious murder that takes place and the founding of Stanford.

And he brings in stories of immigration to California and ties it all together. It’s just all these incredible details about California history, technology development history, economic history, and we finally get to the present where we’re living in a world where technology workers are finally going on strike because their labor conditions are so bad. And this is really a story about how that came to be, all the complicated nuanced weirdness that led us here. So, again, if you’re feeling burnout or if you just love great histories of technology, this has to be on your list.

IRA FLATOW: The name of the book again is.

JAIME GREEN: Palo Alto– A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.

IRA FLATOW: I can see the movie being shaped. Let’s–

Let’s go to– let’s go to Eon in Iowa City, Iowa. Welcome to Science Friday.

AUDIENCE: Hi. This is Matt Berkey in Iowa City, Iowa.

IRA FLATOW: Hi, there. Go for it.

AUDIENCE: Hi. The book I’m reading this summer, it just came out. It’s called The Swine Republic by Chris Jones, recently retired from the hydrow department at the University of Iowa. It discusses the– though Iowa’s number one in farming, especially for pork, it’s been affecting our waterways, and does the science we’re seeing in the water match up with what we’re hearing from the state government and big agriculture because everyone needs to eat. We need to increase farmland productivity, but the way we’re treating our water affects not only Iowans drinking the water but also those downstream and the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico

IRA FLATOW: Yeah, especially the swine industry, which–

AUDIENCE: Yes. We’re number one in pork, which is great for us and others nearby, but it’s having an effect. There’s a lot of Iowans that get their water source from rivers that are polluted by nitrates and swine runoff.

IRA FLATOW: Yeah. Tremendous problem in lots of parts of the country. You like the book. What was the name of the book again?

AUDIENCE: The book is The Swine Republic by Chris Jones. It’s great because it’s a very fair look at what the state government and what big agriculture is telling us and what we’re seeing from the numbers of the hydrology and water science.

IRA FLATOW: Well, thanks for calling in. Jaime, Annalee, very timely book.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, that sounds great. I’m really interested in that. Wastewater runoff is one of our biggest problems in our estuaries and coastal areas, so this sounds perfect.

IRA FLATOW: Let’s see if we can get to a quick– another call. Let’s– well, let me ask you, Jaime, you’ve got a parenting book on your list, which we don’t always think about when we think about science books. I’m going to ask you to tell me about it after I tell everybody this is Science Friday from WNYC Studios.

JAIME GREEN: So now? OK.

IRA FLATOW: Go. Go!

JAIME GREEN: The book is Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith. And I think it’s a parenting book, but I really think it’s a book that everyone can benefit from reading. The subtitle is Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture, and building off of what you were talking about on the show before this segment with moving away from the BMI, this book looks at how fatphobia harms children and really harms everyone and how the science and the medical understanding we think we have of what being fat means for our bodies and the way that that translates into the way that fat people are treated and the way that parents treat their children, there’s a lot that we need to reconsider. And it’s just so fantastic in terms of the science, the medicine, the ethics, the psychology, and just thinking about what do we want for our children and for other people in the world.

IRA FLATOW: And what made you pick this book?

JAIME GREEN: The fact that I think it’s important, the fact that I think– I have a four-year-old child, and when I think about raising him, I want him to think that his body is fine and to not grow up thinking that there’s something wrong with him depending on what size he is. And I think that it’s very important that we keep working to separate our understanding of weight and body size from our understanding of health and– kids who are such young children are thinking that being fat is bad. Kids are starting to diet and develop eating disorders. Being put on a diet is the number one predictor of developing an eating disorder for a kid, and I think children and everyone just deserves a lot better.

IRA FLATOW: Parent– the name of the book again because people may not remember.

JAIME GREEN: The name of the book is Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith.

IRA FLATOW: Fat Talk. Let’s go– let’s go to the phones. Let’s go to Duncan in Miami. Hi, Duncan. Welcome to Science Friday.

AUDIENCE: Yeah, hi. My recommendation is a six-book series, and it’s a– actually they’re formally they are mystery thrillers, but they have a deep scientific background in both. It’s Ben Candidi, Rebecca Levis series. The names of the books are Pharmacology Is Murder, Biotechnology Is Murder, Medical School Is Murder, Amazon Gold, Bahamas West End Is Murder, and Yucatan Is Murder. And the protagonist, Ben Candidi, he starts out as a graduate student and ends up as a freelance scientist at the end of the series, and Rebecca Levis starts out as a medical student that Ben met while they were at the same institution. And she ends up as a world health expert.

IRA FLATOW: So this is a fictional series, or is it real people?

AUDIENCE: Fiction.

IRA FLATOW: Fiction. And you liked it because you learned or you found most interesting about it.

AUDIENCE: Well in terms of full disclosure, I wrote it. But– but I guess that’s not unprecedented on this show. Dirk– my name is Duncan Haynes. I’m a biomedical scientist of about 50 years.

IRA FLATOW: Wow.

AUDIENCE: In the– it was taken from my own experiences most of this, but I cast it in a mystery thriller framework.

IRA FLATOW: And is it– is it available everywhere for people to get it?

AUDIENCE: Yes it is. It’s had a really good run. It’s been over 20 years, and it’s still selling.

IRA FLATOW: Wow. Wow.

AUDIENCE: And the– Amazon is the best place to get it.

IRA FLATOW: All right. I can’t let you sell– I can’t let you sell your book here, but, yeah, I think you’ve given everybody a good lesson about what it is. Maybe we should, Annalee, should have authors coming on pitching their books.

JAIME GREEN: That’s what I’ve ended up doing here, right. Thank you, Annalee.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: It was– yeah, I was selling it for you, and you were just agreeing.

IRA FLATOW: What a novel idea. Have a radio show where you have authors who write books and come on and pitch their books. Wow. Think it’ll– I don’t think it’s going to work. Well, we’re going to have to take a break and reset a little bit about bringing more authors back.

Well, we’re talking about our annual book show, our summer reading list. Our number 844-724-8255, 844-SCI-TALK. You can also tweet us SciFri. We’d like to take your tweets. We don’t have very many of them so get on there and send us some tweets.

We’re speaking with Annalee Newitz and Jaime Green. Jaime is a science writer and author of The Possibility of Life. Annalee Newitz is a science writer and author of The Terraformers. There you go, two book authors pitching their books. We’ll be right back– we love it– after the break. Stay with us.

This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. This hour, we’re talking about some of the best science books for summer and just a note that the SciFri Book Club is preparing to sink into the soil with our first official pick for the summer. So please join us as we read Entangled Life– How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake.

You can find out more including how to win a free book– don’t we all want to do that, yes– on our website sciencefriday.com/BookClub. That’s sciencefriday.com/BookClub. We’re reading our summer book club reading.

And now we’re continuing our conversation about the best science books to read this summer with my guests Jaime Green, science writer, author of The Possibility of Life, Annalee Newitz, science writer author of The Terraformers. And we’re taking your calls. Well, let us know what kind of books you’re craving this summer and our guests and help you out with suggestions. Our number 844-724-8255. You can also tweet us at SciFri. So many calls.

Here’s a tweet from Orla in Naperville. Not a new book but going to read Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Read as a teen 30 years ago, specifically remember a character having a smartphone type device, wondering how it relates to the world today. That’s really interest– wow, it’s been that long. And now there’s now the TV or the video version of it, right?

JAIME GREEN: Yep, there’s now a TV series based on Foundation which takes some of the ideas from the book and makes them a little bit better for the modern era.

IRA FLATOW: And Asimov was so far ahead in some of his predictions about what the world would look like about robotics, created to those laws of robotics, right. So let’s go to San Antonio. Looking– hi. Welcome to Science Friday.

AUDIENCE: Hi, my name is Katherine. How are you?

IRA FLATOW: Hi. How are you? Go ahead.

AUDIENCE: I’m great. I have a precocious and very intelligent 10-year-old who is into physics, and we are looking for book recommendations for him. He’s read all this Randall Monroe’s What If and How To books, and he really think physics is hilarious. And we’re here looking for more books that he might be interested in, which is a tall ask.

IRA FLATOW: Good question. Annalee, Jaime, any physics recommendations for kids?

JAIME GREEN: Gosh, stumped. I am stumped for–

IRA FLATOW: I’ll give you one of mine that I read when I was 12.

AUDIENCE: Great.

IRA FLATOW: And still– and it’s George Gamow. George Gamow was a big time physicist, and he wrote a whole series of Mr. Tompkins in Relativity Land. And the book is– books are still out there. It’s been a while. It’s 50, 60 years old, but it says in readable form how the world will look to you if you lived in a world that was close to the speed of light. Everything was moving, so that’s one–

AUDIENCE: Ooh, interesting. He would find that very interesting.

IRA FLATOW: Yeah–

AUDIENCE: He just thinks physics is hilarious. I think Randall Munroe has had a very large impact on him.

JAIME GREEN: I would say also if you like science books that are funny–

AUDIENCE: Yeah.

JAIME GREEN: This is not physics but Janelle Shane recently wrote a book called you Look Like a Thing and I Love You, and it’s all about AI. In fact, the title was written by AI, and it explains all of the new developments in AI but from a really funny perspective. So if you want to jump from physics into AI, highly recommend You Look Like a Thing and I Love You.

AUDIENCE: You Look Like a Thing and You Love Me, got it. All righty.

IRA FLATOW: Well, thanks for– good luck to you.

AUDIENCE: Well, I appreciate it.

IRA FLATOW: You’re welcome.

AUDIENCE: Thanks. Have a good one. Bye bye.

IRA FLATOW: Annalee, let’s go to one of your picks for the social science fans out there. The Patriarchs, tell me about that.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah. This is a new book by the journal– the science journalist Angela Saini. It’s called The Patriarchs– The Origins of Inequality, and it’s a really interesting look at I would say anthropology and history around how it came to be that men were in power and women were not all over the world. And Saini is really terrific at writing about the social impact of science. Her previous book Superior was about scientific racism.

And so here she’s tackling the myth that the reason why men are in charge is basically that they’re stronger. And she’s exploring how actually there’s nothing natural or biologically determined about patriarchy. And I’ll give you an example of one of the anecdotes in the book that really blew my mind, which is that she said again and again as she’s doing her research she’s encountering people saying, well, obviously it’s natural for men to be in charge because they’re stronger, which, of course, again, biologically is not realistic. There’s so much variation in strength and size within each sex as well as across sex, so that can’t be the reason.

And so what she finds is that actually the practice of exogeny is at the root of a lot of social ills around patriarchy, and exogeny is an anthropological term for the practice of taking women out of their families and sending them to live with their husbands’ families. It’s very typical in cultures all across the world, and she points out that what this does is it removes women from their social support networks. It takes them away from their families, their friends, everyone they’re familiar with, and sends them to live with strangers sometimes quite far away from their family of origin.

And she says that this practice more than anything has disempowered women because when they get into conflicts in their new home, they have no one to back them up. If they get into trouble, if they have problems, they have no emotional support. And so they’re put into these subordinate positions with no structure to help them get out. And so that’s just one of many examples of how she kind of overturns our myths and expectations about why patriarchy came to be, why patriarchy is actually something imposed from the outside on women by politics or by social practices rather than by biology. It’s a great book. It’s just called The Patriarchs.

IRA FLATOW: It’s very interesting. I just got a tweet from someone who recommended– James in Des Moines– a book I read in the mid 70s called The Descent of Woman. Elaine Morgan wrote this book about looking at evolution from a female point of view. This is very much I recall during the feminist movement of the late ’60s and early ’70s. And she said that if you look at– it started out– it started the aquatic ape theme where the idea–

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah.

IRA FLATOW: You know that one?

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Sorry. I am familiar with the aquatic ape, yes.

IRA FLATOW: And she– and she– she wrote in the book if you look at mammals that live in the ocean, you see that they’re very similar to people and they do things that apes don’t do. So if–

IRA FLATOW: It’s– and I remember because I love the idea– I know it’s unproven and every time I talk to an anthropologist or an archaeologist and I bring it up, they say it’s an interesting idea but we have no evidence. If an ape goes to live in the water and develops the stuff you have in the water, there are no bones around. There’s no evidence, no fossil record of itself. While it might be an interesting idea, it’s not scientifically valid yet. But it is–

ANNALEE NEWITZ: It’s more of a myth about our origins that we evolved on land then went into the ocean and evolved a little while in the ocean then came back to the land with everything we’d learned from the ocean. So it’s a cool story but not sure if it’s true. Let’s say we don’t– we– not true until proven otherwise.

IRA FLATOW: There you go.

IRA FLATOW: Well, that’s just like aliens. Now let’s go to Peggy in Sebastopol, California. Hi, Peggy.

AUDIENCE: Hi, there.

IRA FLATOW: Hi, there.

AUDIENCE: OK. Yeah, so the book I’d like to recommend is a little old. It was from 2016 . It’s called Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are, and it’s by the primatologist Frans de Waal, who I think became famous for his book Mama’s Last Hug about Bonobos. But he’s a wonderful writer. I love his writing, and in this book, he is talking about– he’s not just talking about primates. He’s– of course, a lot about that but also other animal species and critiquing the way that scientists have studied animal intelligence as very biased and that there’s been a shift to really study them on their own terms. And in the process of this book, he– one remarkable story after another about the abilities of animals– the cognitive abilities of animals, a marvelous read.

IRA FLATOW: OK. Thanks for that recommendation. Frans de Waal has been a constant guest every time a new book comes out. He’s a very interesting guy, and it sounds like an interesting read. Jaime, what do you think?

JAIME GREEN: Yeah, no, I think that sounds fantastic.

IRA FLATOW: Yeah. One of your recommendations is about a SciFri favorite topic, the rear end.

JAIME GREEN: Yes! It is– and it’s so concisely titled. It’s called Butts– A Backstory. And it’s– I love this book. I actually just finished it. It just came out in paperback. And it is a scientific and cultural history of butts, homing in on women’s butts, especially in European and American culture but going all the way back to the evolution of the butt, why we have butts, looking at why butts are attractive, what may or may not be evolutionary reasons for that, and then just dropping all into these important moments in cultural history for how butts hold a lot of meaning in our culture.

It’s fascinating. It’s so smart. There’s so much research brought together, and it’s also just an absolutely delightful book.

IRA FLATOW: That really is– sounds interesting.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: I feel like we’ve really gotten to the bottom of this question now.

IRA FLATOW: Ooh, oh, thank you. Where’s my– where’s my rim shot when I need it?

Annalee, there’s a TV show I’ve been watching recently based on the science fiction series. The show is called Silo. It’s on Apple TV Plus, and I love the book series. Hugh Howey literally gave it away years ago on Amazon. Do you like– have you seen it? Do you– have you read the book? Do you like the video series as much as I do.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, I just– I’m so glad to hear that you’re enjoying it. It’s apparently one of the most popular shows that they’ve had on Apple, and so they’ve already renewed it for another season. So you’re in luck. I just started watching it. Yeah, and I– it’s got a very dark, dystopian vibe, and it has a little bit of a– a bit of a Twilight Zone feeling. There’s a twist that’s coming and so be on the lookout for that if you’re interested in twisty stories.

I’m going to offer you another recommendation of a TV series based on a book that I think is really interesting, which is Shadow and Bone. There’s two seasons now on Netflix, and this is based on a series by Leigh Bardugo, and it’s fantasy but it’s about climate change and in a very sneaky way. And so if you’re interested in stories about how a massive magical event can cause climate refugees and geopolitical instability, check it out.

It’s a beautifully done show. The acting is incredible. The costumes are great. It’s set in a late 19th century world where everyone is struggling with this horrible magic climate destruction. So definitely check that one out.

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday from WNYC Studios.

I will check that out. I want to also bring in an older book that I loved. It was– and one of my favorite authors, David Grann who wrote the– he was on this show for The Lost City of Z, which was fantastic. But I bring it up because I cannot ignore his masterpiece about the systemic killing of members of the Osage Indian Nation in Killers of the Flower Moon. And that is– there are books that you read you have to talk about, and that’s one of those.

And not to mention his new book, which I’m thoroughly enjoying called The Wager– A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. And he is such a great– has such a great talent to spin a mystery out of incredible research that he does, digging through stuff. So I just want to if you were familiar with, Jaime or Annalee, with his work.

JAIME GREEN: No, I haven’t gotten to read any of his work yet, but I’ve heard nothing but great things.

IRA FLATOW: Yeah.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, same. I’m really excited to check it out.

IRA FLATOW: All right. We have about time maybe enough time for one more recommendation from each of you. Jaime, what–

JAIME GREEN: I have to recommend You or Someone You Love by Hannah Matthews. Hannah is an abortion clinic worker and abortion doula. And so this book is about abortion, but it is also about so much more about networks of care and community and what we can do to help other people. It changes a lot about how I see abortion, and it’s also beautifully written and really funny. And I’m just– I’m obsessed with this book, and I want everyone to read it.

IRA FLATOW: What was the name of the book again?

JAIME GREEN: It’s called You or Someone You Love.

IRA FLATOW: And Jaime. I mean Annalee, do you have a– God, I just asked you that– have you got a recommendation?

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ANNALEE NEWITZ: But go ahead.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: So I’m going to recommend one more work of fiction because we delved into fiction a little bit here, and this is a book called The Bruising of Qilwa by Nassim Jamnia. Jamnia has a background in biology and medicine and has written a fantasy story where the medical procedures feel more realistic than a lot of nonfiction that I’ve read.

JAIME GREEN: And it’s about a immigrant to the city of Qilwa named Ferus, and Ferus is a doctor who’s working at a free clinic in this fantasy city and is dealing with an epidemic that’s breaking out. And so this is a book that is an incredible adventure. It’s about Ferus trying to protect their family of refugees but also to solve a medical mystery. How is this epidemic getting out? What’s causing it? How is it connected to the magical system of the city?

But most of all this is a book about public health. It’s about how the city of Qilwa is shutting down free clinics for the poor in the city. And so Jamnia just brings this really great sense of what matters when it comes to medicine, which is not just a magical cure but also having access to health care. And it’s just a fun, delightful read. It’s called The Bruising of Qilwa.

IRA FLATOW: Well, we’ll have to end it there. I want to thank both of you for taking time to be with us today. Jaime Green, author of The Possibility of Life and Annalee Newitz, author of The Terraformers. Thanks again for being with us today.

ANNALEE NEWITZ: Yeah, thank so much.

JAIME GREEN: Thank you.

IRA FLATOW: And before we end this hour that’s been all about great books, how about recognizing the life of one of America’s greatest authors who left us this week, Cormac McCarthy. Now you’d be forgiven for not associating the author of All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men with science, but back in 2011, he talked with me on this show about how science has impacted his writing.

CORMAC MCCARTHY: I think it kind of helps you to stay honest. You’re talking about things which are factual and things about which there is agreement. It’s kind of hard to get agreement about the arts, but if you’re talking about a theory in physics, guess what, it’s either true or it’s not. And I like that.

IRA FLATOW: Cormac McCarthy speaking on Science Friday in 2011. He died at his home in New Mexico this week. He was 89.

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These are our favorite science books of 2022.

These are the books that Science News staff picked as must-reads of the year.

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By Science News Staff

December 6, 2022 at 9:00 am

Books about the pandemic. Books about the ancient past. Books about outer space. These were a few of Science News staff’s favorite reads. If your favorite didn’t make this year’s cut, let us know what we missed at [email protected].

Vagina Obscura Rachel E. Gross W.W. Norton & Co. $30

For centuries, scientists (mostly males) have ignored female biology, and women’s health has suffered. But researchers are finally paying attention, as Gross explains in this fascinating tour of what little is known about female anatomy ( SN: 4/9/22, p. 29 ).

The Song of the Cell Siddhartha Mukherjee Scribner $32.50

Patient stories and conversations with scientific luminaries enliven this tale of cell biology’s past, present and future , and how advances in the field have reshaped medicine ( SN: 11/5/22, p. 28 ).

Breathless David Quammen Simon & Schuster $29.99

In this portrait of the coronavirus and the scientists who study it, Quammen investigates some of the most pressing questions about the pandemic , including whether or not the coronavirus could have accidentally escaped from a lab ( SN: 9/24/22, p. 28 ).

Virology Joseph Osmundson W.W. Norton & Co. $16.95

This wide-ranging collection of essays is a meditation on society’s complicated relationship with viruses . In pondering SARS-CoV-2, HIV and more, Osmundson calls for more equitable access to medical care ( SN: 7/16/22 & 7/30/22, p. 36 ).

The Milky Way Moiya McTier Grand Central Publishing $27

This absorbing “autobiography,” written from the perspective of the Milky Way (a very sassy Milky Way), draws on mythology and astronomy to persuade readers that our home galaxy deserves respect and admiration ( SN: 9/10/22, p. 28 ). 

A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman Lindy Elkins-Tanton William Morrow $29.99

In this moving memoir, Elkins-Tanton recounts her journey to becoming a planetary scientist and leader of a NASA asteroid mission . Her struggles with childhood trauma and sexism in her career lay bare the barriers that many women in science still face ( SN: 8/13/22, p. 26 ).

An Immense World Ed Yong Random House $30

So much of the world is beyond the grasp of human perception, but this safari through animal senses helps readers imagine what we’re missing ( SN: 7/16/22 & 7/30/22, p. 36 ).

How Far the Light Reaches Sabrina Imbler Little, Brown, & Co. $27

By drawing parallels between their own life and the stories of bobbit worms, octopuses, sperm whales and other deep-sea dwellers, Imbler muses on such weighty themes as adaptation, survival and sexuality ( SN: 1/14/23, p.  30).   

The Last Days of the Dinosaurs Riley Black St. Martin’s Press $28.99

The basic story of the downfall of nonbird dinosaurs is familiar: They were killed off by an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago. Using the most up-to-date science, Black fleshes out this tale, painting a vivid portrait of life before and after this apocalypse ( SN: 4/23/22, p. 28 ).   

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals Steve Brusatte Mariner Books $29.99

The perfect follow-up to Black’s book on how the Age of Dinosaurs ended is this sweeping history of how the Age of Mammals began . Brusatte traces the origins of the evolutionary innovations that have made mammals so successful ( SN: 6/18/22, p. 28 ). 

Origin Jennifer Raff Twelve $30

Exactly how and when humans first came to the Americas is still unsettled science. But Raff gathers archaeological and genetic evidence to piece together a convincing scenario. She also points out past mistreatment of Indigenous communities by geneticists and calls on researchers to do better and foster more collaborations ( SN: 2/12/22, p. 29 ).  

Pests Bethany Brookshire Ecco $28.99

So-called pests are a human invention, argues Brookshire, a former staff writer for Science News for Students (now Science News Explores). In coming face to face with rats, feral cats, pythons and even elephants, Brookshire teases out the various social factors that cause people to deem certain animals a nuisance ( SN: 12/3/22, p. 26 ). 

Buy these books from Bookshop.org . Science News is a Bookshop.org affiliate and will earn a commission on purchases made from links in this article.

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The 25 science fiction and fantasy books we’re excited for in 2024

Exciting debuts, beloved authors returning, and much more

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The time has come to send 2023 and all of its highs and lows packing and to ring in the new year. While it’s impossible to say now what 2024 holds in store for all of us, there is one thing that I know for certain: It is going to be a truly banner year for sci-fi and fantasy readers. Not only does Leigh Bardugo have a new novel coming out (I’m counting down the days for this one myself), but there are also titles translated by Anton Hur and Ken Liu coming out, the writing duo that makes up James S.A. Corey is joining forces once again, and the long wait for several sequels is finally coming to an end.

The publishing schedule for the back half of 2024 is still a mystery (even to the most book-savvy people), but below you’ll find 25 titles hitting shelves between the months of January and September. That’s a full nine months of reading planned out for you to enjoy! So take a look and let us know what you’re most looking forward to.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan

A sumptuous and haunting multi-generational saga set in a crumbling estate along the coast of South Africa, The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years promises to be a fresh take on a classic and beloved genre. When Sana and her father move into Akbar Manzil, the last thing they expect to find is a house full of secrets, a garden full of bones, and a lonely and heartbroken djinn haunting its decaying halls. Stranger still is the east wing of the house, its contents frozen in time, and the story of love and tragic, untimely death that awaits Sana’s discovery.

The Parliament by Aimee Pokwatka

Billed by Tordotcom as “ The Birds meets The Princess Bride ” (an intriguing combination to say the least), Aimee Pokwatka’s upcoming fantasy horror novel The Parliament asks readers “What would happen if tens of thousands of bloodthirsty owls descended upon a small town library, trapping people inside?” The answer, as Madeline Purdue discovers, is utter chaos. Madeline is determined to keep her students safe and alive, but with food and water in short supply, she finds herself struggling to find a way out that will keep them far away from the owls.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood, bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis and Love, Theoretically , has taken a paranormal approach to her steamy new romance novel, Bride . Misery Lark (which is, in my opinion, an excellent name for a vampire who happens to be the leading lady in a romance novel) has been living secretly among humans, away from her cold and uncaring father and the threat of werewolves, for years. But Misery’s days of anonymity and peace are swiftly coming to a close. When a deal is struck between the werewolves and the vampires, Misery finds herself being married to Lowe Moreland, their surly — and frustratingly handsome — Alpha.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

I’ve been a huge fan of Robert Jackson Bennett and his books for some time now. He’s truly masterful when it comes to magic systems and world-building, and his upcoming novel, The Tainted Cup , promises to be no exception. Set in a brand-new world with a brand-new set of characters, The Tainted Cup is a clever spin on classic murder mysteries. Ana Dolabra is a brilliant investigator who insists on wearing a blindfold at all times and never sets foot outside her home. Her assistant, Dinios Kol, has been magically altered to have a perfect memory, so it falls to him to be her eyes, ears, and everything in between at the scene of a crime. When a tree bursts out of the chest of a high-ranking imperial officer, it falls to Ana and Dinios to figure out who killed him before the mastermind strikes again.

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

Clocking in at a whopping 640 pages, Kelly Link’s upcoming novel The Book of Love is by far the longest title on this list and one of the most eagerly anticipated for fans of all things H.P. Lovecraft. Set in the picturesque seaside town of Lovesend, Massachusetts, The Book of Love tells the story of three friends — Laura, Daniel, and Mo — who mysteriously reappear in a high school classroom after vanishing without a trace the year before. Stranger still is the fact that they are not alone. With them is their music teacher, who proposes that they take on a series of magical tasks in order to ensure that their return to this world is permanent.

The catch? They aren’t allowed to tell anyone where they’ve been, or else everything will fall apart.

What Feasts at Night (Sworn Soldier #2) by T. Kingfisher

Alex Easton, Angus, and resident mycology expert Miss Potter return once again in this breathtaking (pun very much intended) addition to the Sworn Soldier series from the delightfully spooky mind of T. Kingfisher. Not long after the harrowing events that took place at Usher Manor, Alex and their companions arrive at the lodge they spent time at after the Gallacian war. When the party arrives, they discover the lodge has long been abandoned, the caretaker is dead, and that the surrounding grounds are wreathed in a deeply unsettling and seemingly impenetrable — and definitely supernatural — silence.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden

In her upcoming, heart-wrenching paranormal historical fiction novel The Warm Hands of Ghosts , Katherine Arden trades the frozen Russian wilderness of her Winternight trilogy for the desolate trenches of World War I. In the wake of tragedy, Laura Iven — a former field nurse — receives news that her younger brother has died in combat. But something about the letter doesn’t ring true and Laura, determined to discover the truth, returns to the frontline as a volunteer at a hospital in order to find her brother and bring him home.

The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed

When the children of a bloodthirsty foreign tyrant make the mistake of wandering into the Elmever, a dangerous stretch of forest bordering the kingdom, it falls to a jaded and weary woman by the name of Veris Thorn to retrieve them. Locals know that once you set foot in the Elmever, you never come back. But Veris has done exactly that, and has no choice but to set foot in the forest once again in order to keep what’s left of her own family safe. I recently had the pleasure of reading The Butcher of the Forest and am pleased to say that the Grimm brothers can’t hold a candle to Premee Mohamed and her fever dream of a fantasy novella.

Thirst by Marina Yuszczuk (translated by Heather Cleary)

Written by Marina Yuszczuk and translated by Heather Cleary, Thirst marks the arrival of an exciting new voice in Gothic literature that readers are sure to enjoy sinking their teeth into. Set in Buenos Aires during the 1900s and modern day, Thirst follows the story of two very different women with a magnetic attraction to one another, for better or for worse. One is a young woman struggling to come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness. The other is a vampire who has watched the rise and fall of great cities for hundreds of years.

Jumpnauts by Hao Jingfang (translated by Ken Liu)

For years, scientists have tried to prove (or disprove) whether or not there is intelligent life beyond our own galaxy, but what if the aliens have been here, hidden on planet Earth, the entire time? In Jumpnauts , the Pacific League of Nations and the Atlantic League of Nations have been in heavy competition with one another to achieve first contact with a mysterious alien race. Neither is expecting a third party that has existed beneath their feet in an ancient castle for thousands of years to make contact with them first.

Cascade Failure by L.M. Sagas

Found family is, frankly, one of the best and most important tropes that any sci-fi or fantasy novel can have. L.M. Sagas’ gritty space adventure Cascade Failure features a wide array of lovable misfits who come to depend on one another in the way all found families eventually do. Fast-paced, fun, and told through multiple points of view, Cascade Failure tells the story of the crew of the Ambit — a ragtag group that includes a deserter, an AI pilot, and a trigger-happy XO, just to name a few — as they respond to a distress call from an abandoned planet and uncover the mystery waiting for them there.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell

There’s a chance you’re already familiar with Nebula and Locus award-winning author, John Wiswell, his insightful and funny tweets about writing, and his myriad short stories. John’s long-awaited debut novel, Someone You Can Build a Nest In , arrives in April and is a delightful mashup of horror, fantasy, and romance.

Shesheshen is a shape-shifter who spends her days as nothing more than an amorphous blob, peaceful and alone in the depths of a manor house. All of that changes, however, when she’s forced to make a body for herself out of scrap material (mostly old bones) and meets Homily, a charming and kind human being who mistakes Shesheshen for a fellow human.

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

If you’re anything like me and you can’t get enough of horror stories set in outer space — think Aliens , Event Horizon , and Mission to Mars — then Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes should be at the very top of your TBR pile.

After dedicating her life to the study of ERS (a fictional, space-induced condition that results in violent outbursts), psychologist Dr. Ophelia Bray has been assigned to keep an eye on a ragtag crew as they explore a distant planet that was hastily abandoned by its previous inhabitants. While their investigation goes according to plan at first, things take a shocking and violent turn when one of their own is brutally murdered. With nowhere to run and no one to trust, it soon becomes clear that Ophelia might be the only one who can save her crew before it’s too late.

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

As someone who absolutely adores Leigh Bardugo’s Alex Stern series and has been on the hunt for something to tide me over until the next book comes out, I damn near lost my mind when I heard the news about her upcoming novel The Familiar . Set during the Spanish Golden Age, The Familiar tells the story of Luzia Cotado, a serving girl with latent magical abilities that she uses to help her get through the day. When Luzia’s mistress discovers her power, she’s suddenly thrust into a dangerous world of holy men, thieves, charlatans, and magic beyond her wildest dreams.

Heavenly Tyrant (Iron Widow #2) by Xiran Jay Zhao

If you’re a fan of Xiran Jay Zhao’s blood-soaked, Neon Genesis Evangelion -inspired first novel, Iron Widow , then chances are you’ve been counting down the days until Heavenly Tyrant hits shelves. After almost a yearlong publication delay, Heavenly Tyrant ’s release date is swiftly approaching, proving that good things really do come to those who wait. This time around Zetian finds herself forced to ally with a dangerous man in order to protect those that she loves, all while navigating violent political upheaval and her newfound power in Huaxia.

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon (translated by Anton Hur)

Everyone loves the idea of being a magical girl, but being a magical girl isn’t all sparkly outfit changes, special powers, and talking animal companions. They still have to deal with everyday issues such as world-ending levels of climate change, job hunting, and credit card debt, just like everyone else. This is all much to the chagrin of the down-and-out millennial protagonist of A Magical Girl Retires . Park Seolyeon (with award-winning translator Anton Hur) has crafted a clever take on magical girl genre that fans and newcomers alike will both enjoy.

The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton

A mashup of apocalyptic science fiction and suspenseful murder mystery, The Last Murder at the End of the World is set on an island occupied by 122 villagers and 3 brilliant scientists. The island itself is surrounded by a bank of deadly fog that has swept across the planet, killing everyone it touches. When one of the scientists is brutally murdered, the island’s remaining occupants discover that they only have 92 hours before the security system keeping them safe fails.

I’ve been a huge fan of Stuart Turton and his madcap mystery novels since The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle first hit shelves. (I still regularly think about the plot twist in that one.) His upcoming thriller might be his best and most intriguing yet.

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Perfect for fans of discussing the morality and ethics of I, Robot and the much-beloved and thoroughly chaotic Murderbot Diaries, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s upcoming novel Service Model is a tale of murder, mayhem, and artificial labor gone rogue. When a robot that knows nothing of the world outside of the house where it works murders its owner, it’s forced to go on the run, something that it didn’t know was at all possible. What it discovers is a world that is slowly falling apart, and robots not unlike itself who are unsure what to do once humans disappear for good.

The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim

At least once a year a book hits shelves that can best be described as “absolutely unhinged,” and The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim promises to be just that. This horror debut is about a woman named Ji-won who tries to keep what’s left of her family from falling apart after her father leaves them. Ji-won’s mother tells her that consuming fish eyes will bring her luck, and soon after she begins experiencing strange dreams in which she eats human eyes. Things take a turn for the even stranger when her mother begins dating a white man with striking blue eyes and Ji-won develops an unhealthy obsession with them.

Foul Days (The Witch’s Compendium of Monsters #1) by Genoveva Dimova

Taking inspiration from Bulgarian folklore, the strange and terrifying monsters found in The Witcher series, and fellow fantasy authors such as Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden, Foul Days by Genoveva Dimova is one of my most anticipated novels of 2024.

Set during the 12 days after Christmas, when monsters are free to roam, Foul Days tells the story of Kosara, a young witch who finds herself at odds with Zmey, the Tsar of Monsters — a dragon who can disguise himself as a handsome man. Determined to leave Zmey and the walled city where they live far behind, Kosara trades her shadow for illegal passage over the wall. Life on the outside isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, though, and Kosara soon finds herself contending with a magical wasting sickness, an honorable detective who may or may not be on her side, and a plethora of monsters, human and otherwise.

The Daughters’ War by Christopher Buehlman

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about or recommending Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief since I first read it in 2021 (if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, then you’re missing out on one of the best fantasy novels to hit shelves in the last five years). Needless to say, Buehlman’s The Daughters’ War is one of my most anticipated novels of 2023. Set in the harrowing, war-torn years preceding the events of The Blacktongue Thief , The Daughters’ War focuses on Galva as she goes against her family’s wishes and joins the Raven Knights (a group of ruthless warriors who ride into battle on the backs of horse-sized corvids). Together, Galva and her fellow soldiers will have to survive the goblin-infested cities that await them in the hopes to save what is left of humanity.

Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

Best known as the internet-famous author of extremely niche erotica (with the occasional foray into horror) who keeps his identity hidden behind sunglasses and a pink mask, Chuck Tingle is back with a new novel, Bury Your Gays , a terrifying, tongue-in-cheek play on a tragic literary trope. When a screenwriter by the name of Misha — which is almost certainly a wink and nod to a certain fandom in particular — is asked to kill off a gay character in the upcoming finale of a show he’s working on, he refuses. It’s the right thing to do, obviously, but now Misha has a target on his back and, worse still, creatures from the horror movies that he worked on years ago are hunting him and his friends down across Los Angeles.

The Deading by Nicholas Belardes

What’s not to love about (and be terrified by) a dystopian horror novel that is described as Under the Dome meets The Last of Us ? In The Deading by Nicholas Belardes, a picturesque fishing village is turned on its head when a mysterious contagion that appears to have come from the depths of the ocean begins to alter their daily lives. While the disease first only seems to infect local wildlife, it quickly spreads to residents of the village, causing them to collapse and die before they come back to life.

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

The iconic duo that writes together under the pseudonym James S.A. Corey (best known for creating the phenomenal series The Expanse) are joining forces once again for an epic new sci-fi venture. The upcoming first novel, The Mercy of Gods , focuses on a planet with a long-forgotten history and a group of humans who have been taken captive by an aggressive alien species. The Mercy of Gods promises to be action-packed and a gripping tale of survival, humanity, and rebellion.

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune

I don’t want to go and wish 2024 away before it’s even started, but knowing that a sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea is coming out in September is a good enough reason to do just that. Arthur Parnassus, Linus Baker, and the six adorable (and occasionally terrifying) magical children who live on the islands they call home all return in this heartwarming sequel to TJ Klune’s bestseller.

• Best of 2023
• The fall’s biggest SFF releases
• Horror to read this fall
• Stephen King’s scariest books

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30 Best New Science Fiction Books (2024)

Best new science fiction books, something refreshing.

Do you feel like you’ve read every old mainstream science fiction book out there? Sure, there are tons of science fiction books that were amazing coming from the old days when science fiction was first born, but the world of science fiction has evolved so much and there are some pretty unbelievable stories nowadays that have what it takes to blow your mind away.

This best new science fiction books review will show you some of the best sci-fi books that have been published recently and you will find out just what the new science fiction stories have to offer.

Recursion by Blake Crouch

False memory syndrome.

The first book that will be launching our review happens in our own world and there are two characters who will be taking you on this exciting journey. The main plot revolves around something known as False Memory Syndrome and people have been experiencing this a lot lately.

Berry and Helena

What this does to people is it creates painful memories of a life they have never lived and quickly starts driving them crazy. The first of the two main characters is a New York City cop named Berry Sutton and he is investigating this whole situation. The next one is Helena Smith and she is a neuroscientist who is researching what exactly is causing this. These two are about to reveal a lot of secrets that are enough to scare anyone.

Dark Age by Pierce Brown

Complex storyline.

This book is a long one, about 750 pages, and it talks about a lot of things inside that are related to war, space travel, a whole lot of politics, complex characters, and much more. The plot in this story revolves around a few main characters who are involved deeply in politics and the story can get a bit complicated so you’d better keep focused.

One of the main characters here is a guy called Darrow, he is the one who has been the leader of a revolution against the corrupt color-coded Society for almost a decade now. There are a lot of political talks inside but there is also action from all of the wars that you are about to see. The book has plenty of exciting sci-fi material to offer, that’s why it’s on our best new science fiction books list.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Necromancer.

Gideon is a necromancer, she has been brought up by scary and definitely not innocent nuns, ancient retainers, and a bunch of skeletons, and her life is the result of all of their teachings.

Escaping the Old Life

You will find out that she is sick of serving and living as an undead reanimated corpse so she decides to pack her bags and escape her old life to start a new one, completely abandoning everyone she knows. You will also find out that this won’t be as easy as it seems as the story finally starts showing you some action and even more thrill.

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

Vast universe.

We have another book that comes to us from the year 2019 and this one packs another great sci-fi story. It definitely fits into any top new science fiction book lists and you are about to find out why.

The majority of exciting events in this story come from outer space as this story talks about many different characters from many different worlds.

Mahit Dzmare

It is also a murder mystery, one that will reveal a ton of secrets that are definitely going to make this plot a lot more exciting. The main character who will be showing you around is Ambassador Mahit Dzmare as he starts his investigation on who performed this murder and finds herself in even more danger than ever before.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Terraforming people.

This bestselling author has created a story that talks about humans trying to colonize other planets but instead of trying to terraform the entire planet to suit their needs, they transform themselves to be able to live anywhere.

Ariadne is the main character in this story who will be showing you how this process exactly happens. The book is not very long, unfortunately, but it is still enough to show you the plot in this story in detail and introduce you to a whole new idea in science fiction writing.

Network Effect by Martha Wells

This next book on our list about some of the best new science fiction books will be introducing you to Murderbot, a very interesting character who is full of surprises. But first, you have to meet him. Murderbot will do anything besides be social but even he is conscious enough to know when a person is in need of help.

The Murderbot Diaries

This is the fifth book of the Murderbot series and this time, one of his coworkers is in trouble and Murderbot must choose whether to go home and binge-watch his favorite series or take action and cause some trouble while saving his coworker, of course.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar

Here is a new science fiction book that might be best for the more experienced sci-fi readers as the story here is a bit complex and it actually resembles a sort of love story. The main characters in this book are two women who will later fall in love through reading letters from each other.

Red and Blue

These women are referred to as Red and Blue and there is a devastating war going on in their world, one that doesn’t look like it could end very soon. Red represents a future in which technology is the main focus of every aspect of life, and Blue represents a world where nature is still enough for the perfect life. The book is definitely one interesting read, you can be sure of that.

Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang

Second collection.

Exhalation is a science fiction book alright, but it’s one that holds a bunch of thrilling sci-fi stories that will leave you wanting more. It’s actually Ted Chiang’s second collection of this type and if you have read the first one, then you know what to expect, some really exciting reading material.

Amazing Stories

Some of the stories inside include Exhalation, of course, where you read about a discovery that an alien scientist makes, one that will reveal a shocking secret that might just affect all of reality. Another story inside is The Lifecycle of Software Objects where a woman cares for and nurtures an artificial intelligence for 20 years and witnesses this digital being becoming a living and conscious one.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

Charlie Jane Anders has managed to create one of the best new science fiction books out there with the story presented inside.

It talks about humanity again, but this time they have colonized a planet called January, a planet that is divided into two sides, one is always filled with endless darkness and cold nights and the other is always sunny with blazing hot days.

The main character who will be showing you around is called Sophie, a young student who has a rough life thanks to the fact that she was a part of a failed revolution. She is now exiled to the dark wastelands of this world and from there, she meets a few other exiles.

Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Feminist novel.

If you have ever heard about a story called Guardians of the Galaxy, well this book is similar to it and it is sort of the feminist version of that same story. This space adventure will introduce you to a bunch of unique characters who will make sure that everything ahead is always worth your time.

Vivian Liao

Vivian Liao is one of the main characters in this story, she has a unique set of skills that will serve her well in what is about to come. The antagonist of this story is a powerful and cruel Empress who lives deep in space and has the power to either bless or blast an entire planet with a single thought.

Eden by Tim Lebbon

Global warming.

Eden addresses a very real problem we ourselves have at this moment, global warming. The story in this amazing sci-fi book tells us about how global warming has managed to bring so much of this world to ruins and something has to be done.

Virgin Zones

The author introduces you to something called the Virgin Zones, huge territories spread out into a couple of locations that serve as Earth’s lungs. These places hold nature in its purest form and those who wish to travel there are rare. The ones who seek danger and extreme adrenaline levels will be taking you on their journey into these deadly places where nature kills very easily.

Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Here is a perfect example of what one of the best new science fiction books should look like. This book holds a story that tells you of a very unique and well thought out adventure. The main character in the story is a girl named Shana and her little sister.

Specific Location

The story follows these two as Shana wakes up one night to discover her little sister sleepwalking. This was no ordinary sleepwalking as her sister was determined to travel to a location that only she knows.

Destination Unknown

Then you find out that there are many other sleepwalkers who are traveling in the same way and most of them have friends and family who are joining them on the journey to protect them. The story that follows when these characters reach the destination is one you wouldn’t want to miss.

Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear

Haimey Dz is a character who you will be reading about in this new sci-fi novel and her story is one that is not short of excitement, it might be a bit too much even. During her routine salvage mission, she discovers information that has the capabilities of changing the entire universe.

After this fact becomes known and Haimey realizes that authorities are badly corrupt and cannot be trusted, she makes it her own duty to save everyone from what she has discovered. So begins her journey into mysterious depths of space to find a supermassive black hole and on the way, many more secrets will be discovered, secrets about herself and of ancient intelligence that haven’t been seen for countless centuries.

Tiamat’s Wrath by James S. A. Corey

Interstellar travel.

Humanity rises to interstellar travel once more in this book by James Corey and you can imagine all of the opportunities that come with this new discovery. Thirteen hundred gates have been opened to solar systems all around and humanity is now building their space empire on top of alien ruins.

Many things will present exciting in this book, one of those is the search that a character named Elvi Okoye will begin that focuses on discovering what caused a massive genocide that happened before humans ever existed.

Deadly Foes

You also see humanity facing deadly foes that they couldn’t have even imagined, things are definitely not looking good for us but there is much more to the story and that’s for you to find out. Corey’s name can be also found on our list of the top hard science fiction books .

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

Luce cannon.

This fun and the addicting story will be introducing you to a former music star who is living in a world that has ruined her dreams. Before the devastating events, Luce Cannon was rising to the top as her music career was kicking off.

Attacks and Viruses

Then, her whole world changes as deadly terror attacks and even deadlier viruses have made this world completely rid of freedom, and many people are simply locked at home all day, kind of similar to the whole coronavirus thing, don’t you think? Anyway, you get to read the story of what is really going on in this world and how Luce will deal with her new situation. Small spoiler, it has something to do with virtual reality.

The Test by Sylvain Neuvel

Here is one of the best science fiction books out there that you will gladly read in one sitting, in fact, it’s best to do so because this addicting masterpiece will be holding on to you until you finish the whole thing.

This story by Sylvian Neuvel is a very thrilling one that follows the life of a character named Idir, an Iranian man, husband, and father who is about to take the British citizenship test.

25 Questions

These 25 questions are about to determine so much of his future and the strangest thing happens mid-way through and for the sake of not spoiling too much of this story, you will get to find out what exactly happens that turns this man’s whole life into a great science fiction story.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

This fascinating story starts in the year 1992 and you quickly get to meet a 17-year-old girl named Beth who is currently sitting in a car with the abusive boyfriend of her best friend and she and her friends immediately find a way to get rid of his body. This even motivates these girls to a life of violence and vengeance as there are more girls that need protection.

Then the story jumps to the year 2022 when you meet Tess, a girl who uses time travel to make sure she corrects some mistakes in history. She has the intention of making a safer future but when she meets Beth and her group of avengers, they tell Tess to stop what she is doing at all costs as she has no idea what is about to happen.

The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

The interdependency series.

The third book of John Scalzi’s The Interdependency book series is finally here in 2020. If you haven’t read any of the books in the series, we suggest you do because the stories are directly connected and you would simply be lost starting here.

Anyway, the story in this book happens in a world where humanity is on good terms with many empires from all around the galaxy and it’s also a story in which you get to read about struggles for power, profit, survival, and things like that.

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell by Neal Stephenson

Virtual reality.

All of the books we have on our list so far are some pretty good new science fiction books and this one is no less. Neal Stephenson ’s Fall; or, Dodge in Hell is a story that talks about the concept of virtual reality as it is becoming more and more popular these days.

Richard “Dodge” Forthrast

The main character in the story is a multi-billionaire called Richard “Dodge” Forthrast. The story follows him as one day, just like that, he is pronounced braindead and his decision a while back was to be put in cryosleep until he can be revived.

Plenty More

So begins the story as a few years later, a virtual reality world is perfected. Make sure to check out our Snow Crash book review, which is another amazing book written by Stephenson.

One Word Kill by Mark Lawrence

The next brilliant piece of content in our best new science fiction books list is a story about a teenage genius boy named Nick Hayes. Nick is only 15 years old and he has just discovered truly terrible news, he is dying.

Different Game

This is not even the strangest thing that happens to him in this short period of time. Nick has a few friends with whom he enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons and when Mia joins their group, they get to experience the game in a whole different way. Then the story shows you some events that involve Mia as her life becomes threatened and Nick will have to save her as time is running out for him too.

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen

Kin stewart.

Here you get to meet a character who might prove like an everyday boring man, but he will surprise you as more and more is revealed about him.

His name is Kin Stewart and when the book starts, you meet him as an average working family man who is trying to spend more time and connect more with his daughter, Miranda.

Time Traveler

But he has a strange past, one that no one would believe about this normal man who works in IT. Kin was a time traveler back in the day and you get to see this man now as his life becomes weirder as ever as he is torn between two different lives thanks to his time traveler past.

Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

Prepare to have another thrilling reading experience with this one as this is an interesting and unique kind of science fiction story that you don’t get to find very often.

One of the main characters here is Charlie, a lazy day-trader who will do anything to avoid working a full-time job. He likes a girl, an attractive young student named Miranda, and is figuring out a way to bond with her.

Love Triangle

When Charlie comes into a bit of money, he buys one of the first-ever human-like androids and calls him Adam. He asks Miranda to help him work on him together to form his personality and so begins a love triangle that will surely have your mind blown. If you are interested in Ian’s work, take a look at our The Daydreamer book review.

You Look Like a Thing and I Love You by Janelle Shane

Understanding ai.

This is the ultimate book on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and you will find that author Janelle Shane has definitely put in a lot of thought into this book and her many others as this author is just fascinated with understanding AI and spreading her learnings in her books.

Don’t Miss Out

If you too are fascinated by AI and want to understand a lot more about it, it’s practical uses, how it all works, what else it can be used for, and stuff like that, then be sure not to miss out on this one of the best new science fiction books out there.

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Space travel.

This story will give you chills once you get to know what actually goes on inside. It all starts as humans develop a sophisticated form of space travel and finally take to the stars to begin their terraform program and try to expand human civilization on other planets.

A suitable planet they find called Nod seems perfect but it has alien life on it. Humans try to overwrite the alien life with human memory but once this fails, humans are left to crawl back to Earth. Then, countless years later, humans detect a signal coming from this same place, the old Earth, and what they discover is something that you wouldn’t want to wish on your worst enemy.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

Complicated war.

The Light Brigade

There are those known as The Light Brigade, they are the ones who come back different from the war against Mars, and what different means is that they have experienced the princess that involves them being turned into light in order to travel quickly between battlefronts. The main character who will be showing you around in this one is Dietz, a fresh recruit who is about to learn just what kind of war this actually is.

The Redemption of Time by Baoshu

Yun tianming.

Decades of Torture

After being captured by the enemy, his torture begins but he also gets a new, healthy clone body and his decades of torture begin and he finally becomes a traitor for his people on Earth. When a new problem arrives, Yun decides to not be a pawn in their game anymore and he creates his own path to save his fellow species back on Earth.

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe

Sanda and biran.

This one is another science fiction war story that will be talking about the lives of two main characters, Sanda and Biran Greeve, two sisters who have unique and powerful skills. Sanda is a high-flying sergeant with amazing fighting skills and her sister Biran is a politician who plans to use her new position for good.

But then, their lives start going downhill and Sanda’s ship is blasted and she wakes up 230 later on a deserted enemy warship that is controlled only by an AI named Bero. So begins another adventure of Sanda and Biran as they both fight to make things right as their people and the enemy have managed to rid each other of the Universe.

FKA USA by Reed King

Environmental disaster.

Speaking of the best new science fiction books out there, this one fits this description as you get to read an amusing story about an environmentally destroyed USA and the events that are currently going on in that world.

Truckee Wallace

The year when all of this takes place is 2085 and the main character of this story is a guy called Truckee Wallace. He is an average factory worker without any major ambitions and one day, his life will become a lot more serious when the president chooses him for an important mission. So begins another interesting story with this character and a cool android with a lot of surprises.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories by Ken Liu

Mind-blowing.

Here is a book that is perfect for the readers who have trouble focusing on one long story for a long time as this book is a collection of short science fiction stories that will blow your mind away.

You get to see some of Ken Liu’s best work over the years and few new ones that will definitely surprise you. A total of seventeen stories are stored here and all of them have their own unique sci-fi events inside with interesting and fun characters.

Do You Dream of Terra-Two? by Temi Oh

10 astronauts.

And the last book in our review is not least as this exciting story will be taking on you one of the best adventures through space ever. This new science fiction story talks about a group of 10 astronauts who are about to leave a dying Earth to explore and search for a planet that is said to be able to sustain human life.

Dalton Academy

Four of the group are decorated veterans of the 20th-century space race and the rest are teenagers who just graduated from an elite astronaut academy called Dalton Academy. That’s it from our review so be sure to pick your favorite and start reading some epic adventures that will leave you wanting more sci-fi reading material.

Robert Hazley

Robert is a science fiction and fantasy geek. (He is also the best looking Ereads writer!) Besides reading and writing, he enjoys sports, cosplay, and good food (don't we all?). Currently works as an accountant (would you believe that?)

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These are the best new science fiction books to read this June 2024

New books from Adrian Tchaikovsky and the late Michael Crichton (with James Patterson) are among the great new sci-fi novels out this month

By Alison Flood

6 June 2024

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s new novel Service Model is out in June

Joby Sessions/SFX Magazine/Future via Getty Images

There is a wealth of great new science fiction out this June, with all tastes catered for. Want a wild ride to stop a volcano erupting and ending the world? The late Michael Crichton (and his collaborator James Patterson) have it nailed. Want a robot finding his way in the world? Head for Adrian Tchaikovsky and his robot servant Charles. Climate dystopia, poetically rendered? Turn to Roz Dineen.

I am also delighted to see a smattering of space-opera romances, from authors including Emily Hamilton and Rebecca Fraimow – hurrah for some light-heartedness in our sci-fi. That light-heartedness is  exactly what we are currently enjoying at the New Scientist Book Club – sign up , and join us in reading Martha Wells’s wonderful All Systems Red , the first in her Murderbot series.

But back to June, where I have also cunningly managed to shoehorn in a mention of one of my top dystopian reads of all time, the criminally overlooked A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher.

Eruption by Michael Crichton and James Patterson

Crichton, who gave us novels including Jurassic Park (great fun) and State of Fear (less so), died in 2008. Eruption has thus been finished by the prolific James Patterson, taking a break from his usual collaborations with the likes of former US presidents and Dolly Parton.

The premise: the Big Island of Hawaii is about to be hit by a mega volcanic eruption. Unfortunately for the world, the US military chose to hide some very dangerous substances right by the volcano, and if their containers are broken, we are all going to die.

I have found the book silly but fast-moving and fun so far. Emily H. Wilson, our esteemed sci-fi columnist, was less enamoured (“The only mystery is: will these cardboard-thin characters be successful in their logistical efforts?” she wrote , in her May sci-fi column). Perhaps I am just a sucker for rugged volcanologists battling with lava flows, but I am enjoying this absurd quest to save the world for now.

The late Michael Crichton in 2005

dpa picture alliance archive/Alamy

Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This is the second book of the year from the prolific Tchaikovsky, after Alien Clay . This time we are following the story of robot servant Charles, who is loyal to a fault until a malfunction causes him to murder his owner, and he sets out into the wider world. Tchaikovsky is an author our sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson describes as “a huge talent, writing at the peak of his powers”; she loved this latest.

New Scientist book club

Love reading? Come and join our friendly group of fellow book lovers. Every six weeks, we delve into an exciting new title, with members given free access to extracts from our books, articles from our authors and video interviews.

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

Four twenty-somethings are investigating an old spaceship when the “stupid dark matter engine” starts on its own, and they find themselves on a one-way trip to Proxima Centauri. This is described as a mix of space odyssey and Sapphic romcom, and it sounds like just the sort of light-hearted read I need to read by the pool. The comparisons being made to the brilliant Becky Chambers are particularly appealing.

In Emily Hamilton’s The Stars Too Fondly, the “stupid dark matter engine” starts on its own

Irina Dmitrienko/Alamy

Lady Eve’s Last Con by Rebecca Fraimow

More romance among the stars, as Ruth, a hustler on an interstellar cruise line, is out to get revenge on Esteban, the man who broke her sister’s heart. Ruth’s plan is to make Esteban fall in love with her, then break his heart right back. But then Ruth meets Esteban’s older sister Sol…

Any Human Power by Manda Scott

I have enjoyed Manda Scott’s novels ever since I discovered her historical Boudica books; her historical spy thriller A Treachery of Spies won the McIlvanney Prize for the Best Scottish Crime Novel of the Year when I judged it in 2019 (it is excellent). So, I am intrigued by this latest offering from a  multi-talented writer – a “visionary thriller” that weaves together “myth, technology and radical compassion” according to its publisher, set in a world at breaking point, but where change is coming.

Gate to Kagoshima by Poppy Kuroki

As a die-hard fan of Diana Gabaldon’s time-travelling Outlander books, this is going to fill the gap nicely as I wait for book 10 (come on Diana…). It is 2005 and Isla is researching her Japanese ancestors when she travels from Scotland to Kagoshima. There, she is thrown through a strange white gate by a typhoon, and finds herself in 1877. There is romance with a samurai and decisions about whether or not to remain in the past. Honestly, this is right up my Jamie Fraser -loving alley. And the time-travel means we can definitely claim it as sci-fi – after all, time may only be an illusion created by quantum entanglement …

Our writers pick their favourite science fiction books of all time

We asked New Scientist staff to pick their favourite science fiction books. Here are the results, ranging from 19th-century classics to modern day offerings, and from Octavia E. Butler to Iain M. Banks

Lord of the Empty Isles by Jules Arbeaux

Five years after Idrian, an interstellar pirate, ordered a death curse (known as a withering) on Remy’s brother, Remy is out for revenge. He orders a withering on Idrian – only for the curse to rebound onto him. The only way Remy can slow the curse down is to be closer to Idrian, so Remy infiltrates Idrian’s crew, only to discover this pirate is in fact bringing supplies to thousands of innocents. Perhaps he is not as bad as he seems.

Briefly Very Beautiful by Roz Dineen

This is the latest in a stream of recent stories set in a world facing apocalypse that home in on how one individual faces catastrophe – think the Jodie Comer film The End We Start From , based on Megan Hunter’s 2017 novel, or (one of my all-time favourites) A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher. It is a trope I love and, as a mother of three, I am keen to follow the story of how Cass, raising three children alone in a world on fire as her medic husband serves in a war overseas, sets off from the city for a place of greater safety.

Jodie Comer in The End We Start From

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The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to The Wastelands by Sarah Brooks

At the end of the 19 th century, in a version of our world that is filled with marvels, the only thing that can cross the terrible Wastelands which lie between Beijing and Moscow is the Great Trans-Siberian Express. As a disparate crew step aboard for the journey, something uncontrollable is trying to break in. This is pitched as historical fantasy, but it is also being compared to a “steampunk Solaris ” and a “steampunk Piranesi ” by early readers, so I think there will be plenty here for sci-fi fans to enjoy.

We Speak Through the Mountain by Premee Mohamed

In this follow-up to Mohamed’s The Annual Migration of Clouds , 19-year-old Reid is travelling through Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, which are ravaged by the climate crisis, as she heads for safety at the fictional Howse University. But when she reaches one of the “domes” – the only places where pre-collapse society survives – she discovers that the inhabitants are holding back resources from the rest of humanity.

The Bound Worlds by Megan E.O’Keefe

This is the conclusion to O’Keefe’s Devoured Worlds space-opera trilogy, and her characters Naira and Tarquin have found a new home on Seventh Cradle. Unfortunately for them, Naira is seeing visions of a terrible future, while Tarquin discovers a plot to end the universe.

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The Best Books of the Year (So Far)

The nonfiction and novels we can’t stop thinking about.

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By The New York Times Books Staff

• Published May 24, 2024 Updated June 7, 2024

Fiction | Nonfiction

We’re almost halfway through 2024 and we at The Book Review have already written about hundreds of books. Some of those titles are good. Some are very good. And then there are the following.

We suspect that some (though certainly not all) will be top of mind when we publish our end-of-year, best-of lists. For more thoughts on what to read next, head to our book recommendation page .

James , by Percival Everett

In this reworking of the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Jim, the enslaved man who accompanies Huck down the Mississippi River, is the narrator, and he recounts the classic tale in a language that is his own, with surprising details that reveal a far more resourceful, cunning and powerful character than we knew.

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New book ‘Free To Be’ dives into medical science of gender identity for young people

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According to the Human Rights Campaign, half of the U.S. states have passed measures restricting treatment for young people with gender dysphoria. But the legislative debate has often been short on science and medicine. Dr. Jack Turban joins John Yang to discuss his new book, “Free To Be,” which takes a researched-based approach to explaining gender identity and treatments for transgender youth.

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Drag queen Kyne Santos explores how math is 'beautiful' in new book 'Math in Drag'

Emily Kwong

Rachel Carlson

Rebecca Ramirez

Kyne wearing her hyperbolic plane dress. Author photo by Fabian Di Corcia. Fabian Di Corcia/Fabian Di Corcia hide caption

Kyne wearing her hyperbolic plane dress. Author photo by Fabian Di Corcia.

Kyne Santos was a student at the University of Waterloo when she began her math career – and her drag career.

"I was like Hannah Montana at the time, living a double life, you know, doing my math equations by day and doing the splits in some gay bar by night," she says.

You may know Kyne from the first season of Canada's Drag Race or from TikTok. She makes educational videos about math, science, history and drag under the username @onlinekyne .

The (Drag) Queen Of Mathematics

A Mathematician's Manifesto For Rethinking Gender

Kyne has always had a knack for math. She competed in math contests throughout high school. But it wasn't until she began making her TikTok videos that she saw a connection between math and drag.

"That's when I started really saying, you know, math can be fun and math can be creative," she says. "And why can't math be taught by a drag queen? Why do we have to take it so seriously?"

In her new book Math in Drag , Kyne dives into these connections and explores how, much like drag, math can be mystical, creative, beautiful — and most of all, fun.

Want to hear us cover more math? Email us at [email protected] .

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson and edited by Rebecca Ramirez. Rebecca and Rachel also checked the facts. Gilly Moon was the audio engineer.