| Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence by Paco Calvo with Natalie LawrenceWhat it's about: the overlooked and often unsuspected intelligence of plants, including scientific insights into how these organisms communicate, remember, make decisions, and plan ahead.
Did you know... that the smell of freshly cut grass is a warning to nearby plants to defend themselves?
About the author: philosophy professor Paco Calvo runs the multidisciplinary MINT laboratory, which focuses on the study of plant behavior and neurobiology. |
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| Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden by Camille T. DungyWhat it's about: poet Camille T. Dungy recounts her arduous seven-year quest to transform her suburban lawn into a thriving garden while reflecting on her relationship with the natural world.
Book Buzz: Soil has been featured on NPR's Book of the Day podcast.
Food for thought: "Whether a pot in a yard or pots in a window, every politically engaged person should have a garden." |
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| The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by Peter FrankopanWhat it's about: historian Peter Frankopan makes a persuasive case for climate as an "underlying, crucial, and much overlooked theme in global history" as he details the complex interactions between human activity and the natural environment.
Topics include: the Roman Optimum (c.100 BCE-200 CE), the volcanic winter of 536 CE, the Medieval Climate Anomaly (c.900-1250), the Little Ice Age (c.1550-1800); and our current Anthropocene epoch. |
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| Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began by Leah HazardWhat it is: a "bravura cultural history of the uterus" (Publishers Weekly), celebrated here by author, practicing midwife, and podcaster Leah Hazard (What the Midwife Said) as "most miraculous and misunderstood organ in the human body."
For fans of: Rachel E. Gross' Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage, or Kate Clancy's Period: The Real Story of Menstruation. |
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| Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the... by Rebecca HeismanWhat it is: science writer Rebecca Heisman's investigation of how scientists study bird migration, employing high-tech methods to trace flight paths, identify breeding ranges, and more.
You might also like: Scott Weidensaul's A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds or Kenn Kaufman's A Season on the Wind: Inside the World of Spring Migration. |
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| Pathogenesis: A History of the World in Eight Plagues by Jonathan KennedyWhat it is: a public health sociologist's "virtuoso analysis" (Publishers Weekly) of the 60,000-year, species-defining war between humans and the many infectious diseases capable of killing us.
Did you know... that bacteria represent an estimated 13 percent of Earth's biomass, while humans make up only 0.01 percent?
Further reading: Charles Kenny's The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease or Kyle Harper's Plagues Upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History. |
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| Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Philip PlaitWelcome to: astronomer Phil Plait's guided tour of the universe, which including stops on the Moon and Mars, numerous nebulae, and even the inside of a black hole.
Who it's for: armchair space travelers who want to experience the wonders of the cosmos without dying in the vacuum of space.
More incredible journeys: Neil deGrasse Tyson's Welcome to the Universe, Janna Levin's Black Hole Survival Guide, or Mark Thompson's A Space Traveler's Guide to the Solar System. |
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| Urban Jungle: The History and Future of Nature in the City by Ben WilsonContains: a "stimulating and wide-ranging" (Publishers Weekly) exploration of urban ecology by historian Ben Wilson.
Did you know... London's pigeons take the underground to travel between their nests and food sources?
Try these next: Hanna Hagen Bjørgass' Secret Life of the City: How Nature Thrives in the Urban Wild; Kelly Brenner's Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World; or Menno Schilthuizen's Darwin Comes to Town: How the Urban Jungle Drives Evolution. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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