News Archive
Best Science Books of 2022
December 06, 2022
Joanne Manaster and John Dupuis have returned for another year of science book recommendations! This is a companion blog to the 6 December 2022 episode 2022 Science Book Haul: below is a list of the science books we talked about, and links to where you can purchase them on Amazon if that's what you'd like to do. 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 around $0.50).
While we do provide Amazon links below, this year we do hope you'll turn to your local bookstore first if you have one and can purchase the books safely. Support your local bookstore 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.
Best of the Best
- Joanne: The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge Contreras
- John: Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton
- John: What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
Pleasant Surprise
- Joanne: Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death by Nick Lane
- John: The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World by Riley Black
Mind Changers
- Joanne: Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas by Jennifer Raff
- John: How to Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World by Chris Turner
Couldn't Put Down
- Joanne: The Genome Defense: Inside the Epic Legal Battle to Determine Who Owns Your DNA by Jorge Contreras
- Joanne: The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee
- Joanne: An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
- John: Cobalt: The Making of a Mining Superpower by Charlie Angus
Read Again
- Joanne: Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder
- John: Algebra the Beautiful: An Ode to Math's Least-Loved Subject by G. Arnell Williams
Funniest
- Both: How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain by Ryan North
- Both: How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North
- John: Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld
Learn Something
- Joanne: Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps by Seirian Sumner
- Joanne: The Joy of Sweat: The Strange Science of Perspiration by Sarah Everts
- John: Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller by Alec Nevala-Lee
- John: Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction by Alec Nevala-Lee
Science Biography or History
- Joanne: Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus by David Quammen
- Joanne: Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus by Maia Weinstock
- John: Flying Blind: The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing by Peter Robison
- John: Einstein written by Jim Ottaviani, illustrated by Jerel Dye
For People Who Don't Read Science
- Joanne: Runner's High: How a Movement of Cannabis-Fueled Athletes Is Changing the Science of Sports by Josiah Hesse
- Joanne: Growing Up Human: The Evolution of Childhood by Brenna Hassett
- John: Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder
- John: A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman: A Memoir by Lindy Elkins-Tanton
- John: Two Heads: A Graphic Exploration of How Our Brains Work with Other Brains written by Uta Frith, Chris Frith and Alex Frith, illustrated by Daniel Locke
For the Avid Science Reader
- Joanne: Islands of Abandonment: Nature Rebounding in the Post-Human Landscape by Cal Flyn
- John: The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World by Jennifer Jacquet
- John: Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow
- John: The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation by Cathy O'Neil
On the Wish List
- Joanne: Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke
- Joanne: Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire
- Joanne: At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth by Madeline Ostrander
- John: Fire and Flood: A People's History of Climate Change, from 1979 to the Present by Eugene Linden
- John: Sideways: The City Google Couldn't Buy by Josh O'Kane
Next Year's Bets
- Joanne: The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan
- John: Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick by J. David Mcswane
Not mentioned in the show, but also recommended:
- The Lady and the Octopus: How Jeanne Villepreux-Power Invented Aquariums and Revolutionized Marine Biology by Danna Staaf
- How Was That Built?: The Stories Behind Awesome Structures written by Roma Agrawal, illustrated by Katie Hickey
- The Kitchen Pantry Scientist Physics for Kids: Science Experiments and Activities Inspired by Awesome Physicists, Past and Present written by Liz Lee Heinecke, illustrated by Kelly Anne Dalton
- Upgrade by Blake Crouch
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- Bone (series) by Jeff Smith
- Packing for Mars for Kids by Mary Roach
- Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
- Cold, Cold Bones by Kathy Reichs
- The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
- Brave New World: A Graphic Novel by Aldous Huxley and Fred Fordham
- Just Like Being There: A Collection of Science Fiction Short Stories by Eric Choi