2010 · Siddhartha Mukherjee · 571 pages · Nonfiction
A Pulitzer-winning 'biography of cancer' that transforms centuries of medical history into a gripping narrative, The Emperor of All Maladies is both a masterwork of science writing and a deeply human story about the disease that defines modern medicine.
2003 · Bill Bryson · 544 pages · Popular Science
Bill Bryson set out to understand how we got from nothing to everything, and the result is a 544-page tour through physics, chemistry, geology, biology, and every other field that explains our existence. It's funny, accessible, occasionally awe-inspiring, and has turned more people into casual science enthusiasts than most textbooks could ever hope to. Some sections show their age, and specialists will find oversimplifications. But as a gateway to caring about how the universe works, it remains one of the best books ever written for a general audience.
2016 · Siddhartha Mukherjee · 592 pages · Nonfiction
An ambitious biography of the gene from Mendel to CRISPR, woven with personal family history and moral urgency, The Gene demonstrates Mukherjee's gift for making the most complex science feel like a story about all of us.
2003 · Mary Roach · 303 pages · Nonfiction
A darkly hilarious and surprisingly tender exploration of what happens to our bodies after we die, Stiff transforms a morbid subject into one of the most entertaining and informative reads in popular science.