News Archive

Joanne Manaster and John Dupuis are back for another round of science book recommendations. This is a companion blog to the 8 December 2020 episode Science Books for Science Nerds: below is a list of the science books discussed, and links to them on Amazon. As usual, we've added our affilate tag to these links so if you buy something from Amazon because we sent you, we get a little kickback (usually $0.50).

Even though we get little kickbacks of support when you use our links on Amazon, this year we do hope you'll turn to your local bookstore first if you have one and can purchase the books safely. Amazon will definitely make it through the pandemic, but your local bookstore may not: support them if you can!

Note: this page uses javascript to give you Amazon links appropriate for the country your IP resolves to. We don't store or track your IP: the javascript just checks it to build an Amazon link for the store most relevant to you. If some of the below links aren't working, make sure you don't have javascript blocked.

John Dupuis

• Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight by Amy Shira Teitel
• Sapiens: A Graphic History: The Birth of Humankind (Vol. 1) by Yuval Noah Harari (author), David Vandermeulen (adapter), and Daniel Casanave (illustrator)
• Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Incompetence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth by Stuart Ritchie
• Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (author), translated by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore
• A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science by Rita Colwell and Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
• Uncanny Valley: A Memoir by Anna Wiener
• Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future by Mary Robinson
• The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming by Eric Holthaus
• The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac
• The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
• The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack
• Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker
• Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow
• Architects of Death: The Family Who Engineered the Holocaust by Karen Bartlett
• American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson
• A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs
• Take Back the Tray: Revolutionizing Food in Hospitals, Schools, and Other Institutions by Joshna Maharaj
• The Mars Challenge: The Past, Present, and Future of Human Spaceflight by Alison Wilgus (author) and Wyeth Yates (illustrations)
• Attack Surface by Cory Doctorow
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Damian Duffy (adaptation), Octavia E. Butler (author), and John Jennings (illustrator)
• Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money by Zephyr Teachout
• The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E. Mann
• Lurking: How a Person Became a User by Joanne McNeil
• The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O'Mara

Joanne Manaster

• Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes
• The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman
• Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
• Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science by Kim TallBear
• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
• The Scientist and the Spy: A True Story of China, the FBI, and Industrial Espionage by Mara Hvistendahl
• The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir by Sara Seager
• The Sirens of Mars: Searching for Life on Another World by Sarah Stewart Johnson
• Editing Humanity: The CRISPR Revolution and the New Era of Genome Editing by Kevin Davies
• Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther by Craig Pittman
• Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space by Kevin Hand
• The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack
• The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another by Ainissa Ramirez
• Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life by Lulu Miller
• Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker
• The Lost Family: How DNA Testing Is Upending Who We Are by Libby Copeland
• Phallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis by Emily Willingham
• Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals by Jill A. Fisher
• The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers by Emily Levesque
• Last: The Story of a White Rhino by Nicola Davies
• The End of October: A Novel by Lawrence Wright
• This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
• The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson
• Writing Wild: Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World by Kathryn Aalto
• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson
• The Fragile Earth: Writing from The New Yorker on Climate Change by David Remnick and Henry Finder
• The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson
• The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E. Mann
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates

Rachelle Saunders

• The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power by Deirdre Mask
• Tasting Qualities: The Past and Future of Tea by Sarah Besky
• 18 Tiny Deaths: The Untold Story of Frances Glessner Lee and the Invention of Modern Forensics by Bruce Goldfarb
• When Death Becomes Life: Notes from a Transplant Surgeon by Joshua D. Mezrich