*Thank you for your responses, everyone. I will definitely be checking out some of these.
Into the Heart of Borneo and In Trouble Again by Redmond O’Hanlon.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/123474/into-the-heart-of-borneo-by-redmond-ohanlon/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/123475/in-trouble-again-by-redmond-ohanlon/
To be clear, O’Hanlon was a natural history book REVIEWER, before all this. His editor decided, in a fit of whimsy, to pack him up and send him to Borneo for two months.
"As a former academic and a natural history book reviewer I was astonished to discover, on being threatened with a two-month exile to the primary jungles of Borneo, just how fast a man can read.
Powerful as your scholarly instincts may be, there is no matching the strength of that irrational desire to find a means of keeping your head upon your shoulders; of retaining your frontal appendage in its accustomed place; of barring 1,700 different species of parasitic worm from your bloodstream and Wagler’s pit viper from just about anywhere; of removing small, black, wild-boar ticks from your crutch with minimum discomfort (you do it with Sellotape); of declining to wear a globulating necklace of leeches all day long; of sidestepping amoebic and basillary dysentery, yellow and blackwater and dengue fevers, malaria, cholera, typhoid, rabies, hepatitis, tuberculosis and the crocodile (thumbs in its eyes, if you have time, they say)."
The book is an absolute delight and when he survived, returned, and submitted it, his reward was to be sent to the Amazon for FOUR months.
He did a third book in the Congo which is not a light and friendly read. I’m glad I read it, but it’s absolutely horrifying on multiple levels.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/123476/no-mercy-by-redmond-ohanlon/
His 4th book, Trawler, isn’t as morose as No Mercy, but it’s not light and friendly either. Basically “Deadliest Catch: The Book”.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/123477/trawler-by-redmond-ohanlon/
A split third person narrative; One describes the architects that built the 1894 world fair in Chicago, and another that follows the escapades of one of history’s most notorious serial killers, HH Holmes, that prayed on the women that went to the fair.
One of my favorite books I’ve ever read.
Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker.
Fascinating book all about what sleep is and the reasons every living thing on earth does/needs it in some way or another.
Gut by Guilia Enders.
Intriguing journey from mouth to anus, showcasing the functions performed to sustain life by some of the body’s most underrated organs. Also discusses some of the most common ailments and their effects (but also causes, and in some cases their treatments/cures).
Immune by Philipp Dettmer.
A wonderful introduction to how the body’s immune system performs its job…or doesn’t, in some unfortunate circumstances.
All three books are written for the lay person who wants/needs an accessible introduction to these complex systems affecting health and well-being.
How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger M.D.
Never at Rest by Richard Westfall is a comprehensive biography of Isaac Newton. Near the end when he works at the mint it gets pretty boring but otherwise great.
The Making of the Atom Bomb by Richard Rhodes is a fairly definitive treatment of how the US atomic bomb came about. It covers an incredible amount of background info of both the science and history that lead to it.
The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner by Daniel Ellsburg is a terrifying look into the wild west of nuclear weapons in the couple decades after their advent. Ellsburg is famously the person who leaked the Pentagon Papers and he had a front row seat to the insanity that was the early* Cold War. It’s a miracle we survived.
Don’t know that I have a particular favorite, but one that comes to mind to recommend is Don Norman’s Design of Everyday Things.
Debt: the First 5000 Years by David Graeber. He debunks the standard narrative of “barter, then hard currency, then systems of credit” that is commonly taught when discussing the history of economics, and goes into the conflation of financial debt and spiritual debt, leading to society placing moral weight on someone being in financial debt.
deleted by creator
Anything by Mary Roach or Carlo Rovelli
Many, but Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber is the one I’ve read most recently.
Humble Pi by Matt Parker. It’s about common mistakes people make in math and the real world consequences of these mistakes
Art and Physics by Leonard F Schlain.
It was his thesis on the advancement of artistic expression and that of hard science and scientific discovery and their seemingly parallel discoveries, as an expression of how intelligence grows across two separate disciplines.
Some of the write-ups and reviews paint it as fairly plebian, but the entire read is really good.
It’s online.
Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer - it explains in detail the biology and evolutionary history of parasites, and some of the incredible science that goes into studying and understanding them.
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan - plain English explanation of what the scientific method is and why it’s our best way of understanding the world. It also explains how to think more critically about the world and how to identify pseudoscience.
Parasite Rex changed how I think about a lot of systems. Really mind expanding
In order of recall,
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents
Why Nations Fail
A Short History of Nearly Everything
God Is Not Great
Gödel, Escher, Bach
The Smartest Kids in the World
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon.
A journalist spends a year (1988) embedded in the Baltimore PD homicide division. Forensically analyses every aspect of the murder investigation from crime scene all the way through to trial.
The book, and the work behind it, became the primary inspiration for Simon’s subsequent television work Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire.
Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi.
Leroi uses classical “mutant” forms of the Human Body to examine the processes and mechanisms of how the body builds and maintains itself. Expertly explains quite complex biological concepts in an understandable and engaging way and breaks down the myths and stories around real life" monsters".
Hunter S. Thompson - Hell’s Angels
Jake Adelstein - Tokyo Vice & Tokyo Noir
