Nature and Science
June 2022
Recent Releases
Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs
by Juli Berwald

What it's about: Marine biologist and science writer Juli Berwald (Spineless) takes readers around the world as she documents human efforts to save coral reefs, which are among Earth's most biodiverse ecosystems.

Destinations include: a coral genetics laboratory in Texas; Sulawesi, home to the world's largest reef restoration project; and protected areas in the Dominican Republic.
The body : a guide for occupants
by Bill Bryson

What it's about: "Bill Bryson, bestselling author of A Short History of Nearly Everything, takes us on a head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body. As compulsively readable as it is comprehensive, this is Bryson at his very best, a must-read owner's manual for everybody."

Why you might like it: "Full of extraordinary facts (your body made a million red blood cells since you started reading this) and irresistible Bryson-esque anecdotes, The Body will lead you to a deeper understanding of the miracle that is life in general and you in particular."The award-winning author of A Short History of Nearly Everything presents an engaging head-to-toe tour of the human body that shares anecdotal insights into its functions, ability to heal and vulnerability to disease. Illustrations.
Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage
by Rachel E. Gross

What it's about: Science journalist Rachel E. Gross embarks on a quest to better understand what is commonly termed the "female reproductive system" (although it's so much more) and -- through conversations with gynecologists, medical anthropologists, surgeons, and more -- discovers just how little we know about it.

What sets it apart: Although much of the book focuses on cisgender women, its discussion of anatomy and physiology intentionally includes intersex people, transgender men, and nonbinary people of all genders.

Try these next: Vagina: A Re-Education by journalist Lynn Enright or The Wonder Down Under: The Insider's Guide to the Anatomy, Biology, and Reality of the Vagina by sex educators Ellen Stokken Dahl and Nina Brochmann. 
How to change your mind : what the new science of psychedelics teaches us about consciousness, dying, addiction, depression, and transcendence
by Michael Pollan

What it's about: The best-selling author of The Omnivore's Dilemma presents a groundbreaking investigation into the medical and scientific revolution currently taking place in the field of psychedelic drugs, drawing on a range of experiences to trace the criminalization of such substances as LSD and psychedelic mushrooms and how they may offer treatment options for difficult health challenges.
The Hawk's Way: Encounters With Fierce Beauty
by Sy Montgomery

What it is: an "impassioned introduction to falconry" by Sy Montgomery (The Soul of an Octopus), who reveals fascinating facts about raptors while recounting her apprenticeship as a falconer.

For fans of: Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk, Rodney Stotts' Bird Brother.

Want a taste? "Inches from my face, I hold a living dinosaur."
Chesapeake requiem : a year with the watermen of vanishing Tangier Island
by Earl Swift

What it's about: The Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of The Big Roads presents a 200-year history of Chesapeake Bay's Tangier Island crabbing community while explaining how rapidly rising sea levels will render the island uninhabitable within 20 years.
The order of time
by Carlo Rovelli

What it's about: The best-selling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics presents an accessible exploration of the nature of time that illuminates the questions debated by physicists and philosophers, challenging assumptions that time is linear or even measurable while explaining the critical role of perception.
Under a white sky : the nature of the future
by Elizabeth Kolbert

What it's about: In Under a White Sky, Elizabeth Kolbert takes a hard look at the new world we are creating. One way to look at human civilization, says Kolbert, is as a ten-thousand-year exercise in defying nature. Now she examines how the very sorts of interventions that have imperiled our planet are increasingly seen as the only hope for its salvation. By turns inspiring, terrifying, and darkly comic, Under a White Sky is an utterly original examination of the challenges we face"

Destinations include: She meets scientists who are trying to preserve the world's rarest fish, which lives in a single, tiny pool in the middle of the Mojave. She visits a lava field in Iceland, where engineers are turning carbon emissions to stone; an aquarium in Australia, where researchers are trying to develop "super coral" that can survive on a hotter globe; and a lab at Harvard, where physicists are contemplating shooting tiny diamonds into the stratosphere in order to reflect sunlight back to space and cool the earth.
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