Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

This week we are reading books related to science! That could be a book about science, a science fiction book, or a book with a scientist character.

Some lists to peruse:
Best Science Books - Non-fiction https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6...
Medicine and Literature https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2...
Best Books about Math https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/8...
Best Books on AI https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4...
Romance Novels with STEM Heroines https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Best Nonfiction Dinosaur Books https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...
Best Scific of the 21st Century https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4... (this one also contains links to related lists)

And of course the 2022 'women in STEM' list will have lots options that will work for this prompt: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this week? What science-related books do you recommend?

I have two possibilities for this on so far:

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally E. Shaywitz

I have two possibilities as well:

Upgrade
Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities

I plan to read both books, and both fit other prompts, so we'll see which way I go. Or I could read something else entirely.

Jackie, could you add some links on environment, nature, climate change, animals?
This one seems to cover many categories:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

This week a landmark study reported that the world lost 69% of all animal species since 1970. It's devastating. https://livingplanet.panda.org/en-US/

I have many books remaining on the lists I created for the Earth Day, Flora, Fauna, and women in stem prompts this year. I'm sad that there is only on science related prompt in 2023, because I also want to read about topics such as genetics, neuroscience, medical science, biology, and science fiction.

Maybe you can find those science books via the Literature Map, W Awards, NPR books, titles with W question words, etc.

Tracy wrote: "Maybe you can find those science books via the Literature Map, W Awards, NPR books, titles with W question words, etc."
That’s what I did this year for all my favorite categories.

This is such a wide subject. I am going with a book on my TBR list, Volt Rush: The Winners and Losers in the Race to Go Green.

I meant to get Fathoms: The World in the Whale read this year, but I don't think that's happening. Maybe I'll just move it over to 2023.

I saw it in the library this year - it looked an interesting book, and I almost read it for the 'flora and fauna' prompt. I'm planning to it this year for the 'award beginning with W' prompt - it won the 'Western Australian Premier's Book Award', which I did not know was a thing until I googled 'W book awards.

I found it for the Powell's Award prompt this year, I think. It won several awards, so I think it will be a really good read.

I'm leaning towards Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus because it seems like people either really love it or really hate it.

I've got Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir lined up for this one. I really enjoyed and would recommend The Martian, he manages to include a lot of science while still keeping it interesting and I'm hoping for the same approach in the new book.

I'm struggling for other recommendations, so I'll suggest Vicious as the two main characters do a scientific experiment which is really important to the story.

Some posibilities:
American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic - Victoria Johnson
Remarkable Creatures - Tracy Chevalier
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments - Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Lessons in Chemistry- Bonnie Garmus Audible
The Light Pirate - Lily Brooks-Dalton
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

EDIT: I actually read A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths about Ruth Galloway, a forensic archeologist.

Recommendations:
Lab Girl - Hope Jahren
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here - Hope Jahren
Miss Benson's Beetle - Rachel Joyce
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver

I only have a few options for this:
You Can Stop Humming Now: A Doctor's Stories of Life, Death, and in Between
The Lobotomist's Wife
Inside Job: Treating Murderers and Sex Offenders. The Life of a Prison Psychologist.
Doctor Sleep

For short nonfiction reads, the Oxford Very Short Introduction series is always a good place to jump into a topic. We do have a series page, but it's bogging down at the moment. Here's a Listopia that has most of them:

The Oxford Very Short Introductions Series

Some possibilities: The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (not sure if I can use this), or Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce, or Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi or Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, or Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang, or Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, or World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, or Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker, or Christian Liberty Nature Reader Julia McNair Wright

I've been planning to read A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking for 2 years already.

But I also would like reading the following:
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski

I am thinking this book might work, even though it does not have SCIENCE as a tag: The Devil's Bones.

It is about a forensic scientist and how he solves various mysteries.

Very excited for this prompt, as several types of book I really enjoy will work perfectly. I love science fiction and it would be fun to use this prompt for one that specifically features scientists, maybe something by Michael Crichton like Jurassic Park or The Andromeda Strain. I also love nonfiction books about biology, genetics, and natural history, so I can see using this prompt to read something like The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World or I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life. And I love historical fiction about scientists, so I might read something like Remarkable Creatures or The People in the Trees.

Recommendations in those categories:

For science fiction about scientists, I'd recommend Children of Time, which features a few notable biologists. The Sparrow would also work (though the actual science in this story is significantly more questionable.)

For nonfiction about science, I'd recommend Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom, which is about the overlap of the studies of evolution and genetics.

For historical fiction about scientists, I'd recommend Ship Fever: Stories, which is a gorgeous collection of stories about natural history.

LeahS wrote: "I read a Christmas present, Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life by Helen Czerski.

Despite producing two daughters who work in physics, I hated the subj..."

Glad to hear it. I bought it last week.

I got on a health kick for the New Year and I’m reading books that I kept putting off for years.

✔️Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―and How to Fight It - game changer!
✔️Fast, Feast, Repeat: The Comprehensive Guide to Delay, Don't Deny® Intermittent Fasting - I already lost 5 pounds
The brain fog fix - motivating so far
✔️Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders. - surprisingly entertaining so far.

Continuing my environmental theme from last year. Both of these books also have women in STEM.
✔️Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe by Keith O’Brien.

✔️Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert

For my grandson Bryan’s challenge, we read “Fly Guy Presents Sharks”. I’m reading the sci-fi classic Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke. I’ll probably slot it here since I’m learning scientific terms and concepts.

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is a fun way to fill this prompt!

For this prompt, I read:
Double Blind by Edward St. Aubyn - 5* - My Review

I read The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. 5 stars.

I’m currently reading The Song of the Cell so might count that but I read a lot of science non-fiction so will find other places for a few more too.

Erica wrote: "I’m currently reading The Song of the Cell so might count that but I read a lot of science non-fiction so will find other places for a few more too."

I just saw this at my local small book store. The title is so interesting. Please let me know if it is worth picking up.

The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
I believe that someone else read this for the glass prompt last year. It is the first science book that I read this year. I am glad I did.

Another book that is turning into an easy read science non-fiction is An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. The author has made it very accessible. It is a fun read about the animal world.

NancyJ wrote: "I got on a health kick for the New Year and I’m reading books that I kept putting off for years.

✔️Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―and How to Fight ..."</i>

You may want to try [book:The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis for your environmental theme. I like the positivity of the authors.

I read The After Wife which is a novel based on research / atrificial intelligence and roBotics

I read Wayward by Chuck Wendig, which focuses on a sentient AI

I went with Lessons in Chemistry. It was worth the hype - I was only able to get it on Audio and thought the narrator did a great job.

Anastasia wrote: "NancyJ wrote: "I got on a health kick for the New Year and I’m reading books that I kept putting off for years.

✔️[book:Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―an..."

Great recommendation. I read part of it last year along with a book by Hope Jahren (it included the word "More"). I should get back to it. I'll have to start over though, but it's worth it.

What are you reading for this week?
I read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

I read Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simard. it is both a good science read (the ecology of trees - amazing!) and a memoir/biography. I first heard the theories in this book on NPR a couple of years ago and was intrigued. I gave the book to my brother-in-law (before I had read it) and he loved it. It was finally my turn! It's a dense read, but VERY interesting.

I ended up with The Dark by Emma Haughton, set on a small research station in Antarctica. The actual set up of the station was interesting (I hadn't expected altitude sickness to be a problem there) and it was a perfectly acceptable closed circle thriller. However....

unsurprisingly, in order to work there, people need to have had an intensive medical and psychological examination . I don't know who did the MC's - possibly the Chuckle Brothers.

Moving this to Book with a murder .

LeahS wrote: "I ended up with The Dark by Emma Haughton, set on a small research station in Antarctica. The actual set up of the station was interesting (I hadn't expected altitud..."

lol! The Chuckle Brothers :)

Charles Darwin: Victorian Mythmaker. 4 stars

For this I read The Overstory by Richard Powers

Love on the Brain 2 stars

The Arm of the Starfish which raised questions about ethics in science

From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón is set in seventeenth century Iceland. The MC, a preacher, and his wife, look for explanations in the science of the time, while surrounded (and sometimes believing in ) superstition and folklore.

I read (and highly recommend)

The Code Breaker – Walter Isaacson – 5*****
This is an engaging, interesting, informative and thought-provoking biography cum history. While the focus is on Jennifer Doudna, Isaacson gives almost equal time to the many other researchers who contributed to the scientific discoveries and applications. He takes time to address ethical questions on the applications of new technology, and ends with the international cooperation required to address COVID19.
LINK to my full review

I wanted to read something out of the lab, and with Into Green: Everyday Ways to Find and Lose Yourself in Nature by Caro Langton and Rose Ray, the science prompt became a soothing, yet informative, zen read. These ladies run a "green interior" company, and their latest book offers sage (no pun intended) advice on meditation and appreciating nature inside and out. For urbanites like me who live in small spaces, growing plants, including herbs, flowers and microgreens indoors is always a risky endeavor. This book offers hope on all of that and even provides a recipe for dandelion tea.

Highly recommended for something earthy and delightful. This charming book makes a great gift, too.

Braiding Sweetgrass

Most books in this category I normally read are related to space

I read the Good Life: Lessons From the World's Largest Scientific Study of Happiness by Robert Waldinger and Marc Schultz. Read it for a book club. It was kind of meh.

I did this one. Overall I enjoyed it, I found the world-building very original. Got a little bogged down in physics/astrophysics towards the end though! I'll be interested to catch the show when it comes out, but am undecided whether I'm going to continue with the trilogy.

Michelle wrote: "

I did this one. Overall I enjoyed it, I found the world-building very original. Got a little bogged down in physics/astrophysics towards the end though!..."

I felt the same way when I read it last year. It stayed with me all this time, and I’m getting curious about what happened next. It’s good to know there is a show coming out.

I will be reading a book about 'food science' - On Rue Tatin by Susan Loomis. I can recommend The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.