Where the Weird Things Are: An Ocean Twilight Zone Adventure

Written by: Zoleka Filander and Patricia Hooning

First line: A voice wakes me up. 

Why you should read this book: The journey of a small, anthropomorphic robot from the surface of the ocean, through the pelagic zone, and down to the benthic zone showcases a number of unusual marine species. As the robot, Mesobot, encounters each creature it learns of the interesting qualities that allows it to survive in its world, while the Mesobot begins to question whether its own unique properties are special and interesting until discovering that its purpose is educational and it is indeed a very special robot. Based on the real journey of the real Mesobot, this book also includes a lovely appendix offering further information about the robot and all the animals it meets. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You prize conformity.

The Covenant of Water

Written by: Abraham Verghese

First line: She is twelve years old, and she will be married in the morning.

Why you should read this book: An engaging multigenerational tale of a twentieth century Indian family, plagued by a mysterious condition that is marked by an extreme aversion to water (but little fear of anything else) and frequently results in deafness, a love of heights, and premature death by drowning. Each generation finds love, even in the face of suffering and adversity, but mourns helplessly when those afflicted with the Condition are lost. As science and medicine progress, perhaps there is hope that one day they can save their loved ones from this strange and confusing affliction. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Kids die. 

Neurodiversity

Written by: Thomas Armstrong, PhD

First line: Imagine for a moment that our society has been transformed into a culture of flowers.

Why you should read this book: Differences of the mind are often seen as disabilities to be overcome, but Armstrong argues that these differences--neurodiversities--while often challenging, each come with their own strengths and gifts, and asks readers to consider reframing their views of those who are different and, rather than focus on what neurodiverse people can't do, begin focusing on what they can. Armstrong holds a wide view of neurodiversity, including not only ADD/ADHD and autism, but also dyslexia, mood disorders, anxiety, cognitive disabilities, and schizophrenia, and lays out clear and research-based perspectives on the positive aspects of these conditions along with speculation about their role in overall human success, without romanticizing or downplaying ways in which they may make it difficult to function under certain societal structures. Rather than forcing individuals to a standard of conformity they cannot hope to achieve, he argues for inclusivity that recognizes the how neurodiverse people best function, and how society can accommodate their differences without pushing them out of the center, and how they can create lives for themselves that make the best use of their talents while minimizing any disabling aspect of the way they think.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You've never met a square peg you couldn't shove into a round hole.

Buzz: The Nature and Necessity of Bees

Written by: Thor Hanson

First line: The crossbow fired with a dull thwack and we watched its bolt disappear upward into the leaves and branches, trailing a length of monofilament fishing line that glinted in the scattered beams of sunlight.

Why you should read this book: Bees are fascinating even if you're not a biologist, and they're even more fascinating when you have a biologist to explain them to you. Spanning the entire apian world (not just honeybees!), this book details, in particular, the evolution of bees (from wasps who figured out how to live fully vegetarian lifestyles) and how that impacted the evolution of plants and the evolution of humans. Focusing on the tiny microcosms of bees' worlds, this book opens up a vast, active universe that most of us are simply too big and too busy to notice. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are ambivalent toward bees and have no interest in learning their secrets.

The Fourteenth Goldfish

Written by: Jennifer L. Holm

First line: When I was in preschool, I had a teacher named Starlily. 

Why you should read this book: Ellie never spent a lot of time with her scientist grandfather, because he was a cranky old man who didn't get along with her mom, but now that he's discovered the formula to reverse the aging process, he's posing as her thirteen-year-old cousin, and Grandpa Melvin is everywhere. After a misunderstanding at his lab, Melvin is desperate to break in and retrieve the research that will make him famous and save humanity from its own mortality. Ellie is increasingly interested in science and research, and increasingly uneasy about her grandfather's discovery and what it means for life on earth.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are largely unconcerned with the fate of humanity.  

When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals.

Written by: Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson and Susan McCarthy

First line: Somewhere in India, a blind river dolphin seeks her companion.

Why you should read this book: Biology has long held the idea of animal emotions in contempt, labeling "anthropomorphism" a sin against science and the idea that animals have only instinct and evolution to guide them, but the authors of this book remind readers that it's difficult for anyone who has ever had a relationship with any animal to discount what their eyes and ears perceive. Since such subjects cannot be truly observed in laboratory conditions, any evidence to the contrary is labeled "anecdotal," and yet, if it's possible to compile an entire book of such anecdotes, shouldn't we consider that a literature review? Citing dozens of field scientists, the authors explore hope, love, grief, and the entire range of emotional experience as witnessed in the behavior of animals in the wild, in captivity, and in domestication, creating strong evidence that other creatures share a similar range of emotional experiences with humans. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: I thought the section on shame and blushing was underwhelming compared to the rest of the book.

Yoshi and the Ocean: A Sea Turtle's Incredible Journey Home

Written by: Lindsay Moore

Why you should read this book: There's something quietly stunning about this nonfiction picture book, which recounts the story of an injured sea turtle who is rescued by Japanese fishermen and taken to an aquarium in South Africa for rehabilitation. Her injury healed, Yoshi spends twenty years on exhibit at the aquarium before marine biologists recognize that she should be released back into the ocean. By gluing a tracking tag to her shell, scientists are able to track her journey from Capetown back to the Australian beach where she was born, and the author recreates this underwater journey in beautiful detail.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are wholly unconcerned with the plight of sea turtles, you monster. 

I'm a Neutrino: Tiny Particles in a Big Universe

Written by: Dr. Eve M Vavagiakis & Ilze Lemesis

Why you should read this book: In heroic couplets, this book discusses the general qualities and behaviors of tiny particles known as neutrinos, while also explaining that we don't know very much about them and encouraging children to pursue careers in physics to solve some of the mysteries presented. The text itself is extremely basic, suitable for very young readers, and the illustrations are likewise dynamic and appealing. Three pages of notes at the end actually explain all the concepts and illustrations much better than the book itself manages.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's cute but insubstantial; I'm not sure kids in the intended age group could possibly get anything out of it, and once you're old enough to grasp subatomic particle physics, this book might be a bit young for you.

Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiku

Written by: Sally M. Walker and Matthew Trueman

Why you should read this book: Exactly what it says it is: a short collection of short poems and splashy paintings that describe our knowledge of the celestial world. Stars, planets, the Big Bang, the robots on Mars, and other cosmic concepts get the 5-7-5 treatment. Includes 6 additional pages of historical, factual, and scientific details about the subject matter, along with a glossary, reading list, and links to relevant websites.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I think, to enjoy this book, you have to be really into space and really into haiku.

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Written by: Bessel Van der Kolk, M.D.

First line: One does not have to be a combat soldier, or visit a refugee camp in Syria or the Congo to encounter trauma.

Why you should read this book: Written for a lay audience, this is the summation of thirty years of research, experimentation, theory, and work on the subject of trauma: what it is, what it does, and what we, as vulnerable humans can do to counteract its pernicious effects. Van der Kolk describes his introduction to working with traumatized Viet Nam veterans and how his experience led him to dig more deeply into the neurology of trauma and its potential treatments, as well as the important discussion of childhood trauma, and how it impacts untreated adults. Almost half of the book, however, details the various types of treatment that the author and his colleagues have found most effective, with impressive data demonstrating how appropriate treatment can turn around the life of an individual who has always suffered from the pain of the past, returning to them the possibility of a fulfilling life. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You yourself have never experienced anything unpleasant in life, and neither has anyone you've ever met.

Gris Grimly's Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus

Written by: Mary Shelley and Gris Grimly

First line: You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.

Why you should read this book: Unquestionably one of the finest (if not the best) graphic novel adaptations of a classic work of literature I've ever had the pleasure of devouring, and not only because Grimly does an excellent job of preserving the original text while judiciously cutting bits that don't serve his work and won't be missed. With Victor and Elizabeth drawn as OG gothic punks (although this does highlight the fact that Victor is also, at heart, the OG emo kid), the monster looming more physically monstrous than in any other iteration (making his depiction somehow even more sympathetically pathetic), and the whole thing being set in a world that appears simultaneously pastoral and post-apocalyptic, naturalistic and steampunk-infused, this book seems to cut to the heart meat of the tale while also reviving its antique heartbeat for a modern audience. As always, this is a story about the price of being an irresponsible white guy with more money than common sense who isn't accountable to anyone and kind of gets away with murder until he horrifyingly doesn't.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I have to admit that I grabbed it off the shelf without really looking at what I was getting, because I just saw the G G of the author's name and my brain assumed it was a book from a completely different author whose title also contains the initials G G and which also has a powerful steampunk aesthetic (God bless the Foglios, my absolutely favorite webcomic creators of all time, but they simply haven't got the control/love of darkness needed for this undertaking).

Get Gris Grimly's Frankenstein now

Being a Human: Adventure in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness

Written by: Charles Foster

First line: I first ate a live mammal on a Scottish hill. 

Why you should read this book: A legal scholar and veterinary surgeon who teaches at Oxford and has a home and a family and all sorts of modern-day comforts intentionally shucks them all off in pursuit of an upper paleolithic consciousness, which he attempts to achieve by living in such a way as to summon the mindset of the earliest "behaviorally modern" humans. While many readers will find his methods insane, and his conclusions questionable (Foster uses the modern nonfiction literary technique of imagining in great detail things that he can't possibly know at all and then presenting his daydreams as fact, and sometimes of telling you later on that he made up part of the story because it would have been interesting if it had happened that way), this book does have the power to draw you in to its provocative thesis about our species' place in the order of the universe and our orientation to the natural world and all the things that are wrong with the civilization we've created in the last fifteen thousand years. It's not at all the book I thought it was going to be, but it's a pretty gripping book about a guy who feels out of sync with the world trying to synchronize himself with the planet and waking up certain parts of his mind while inadvertently removing himself even further from the world he started from.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You would consider a man voluntarily starving himself into hallucinations for eight days while lying outside in the snow and watching his young adolescent son eat road kill even though his friend's house is just a short walk away some form of child abuse.

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Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin

Written by: Megan Rosenbloom

First line: The brass, wood, and glass cases gave the main exhibition hall of the Mütter Museum a warm and cozy feeling—which was odd, considering it was a room full of corpses.

Why you should read this book: This seems to be the definitive work on the controversial subject of anthropodermic bibliopegy: the art, science, and history of binding books in human leather. Rosenbloom, a medical librarian, finds herself in the strange position of collecting small samples of such books for her colleague to test for authenticity, as it is only very recently in human history that chemical tests could distinguish the origin of a tanned sample of mammalian skin. In her journeys, she delves deeply into the past, particularly into the evolution of medicine and medical ethics, and connects her findings to the present and future of medicine. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: A lot of people automatically assume that this is going to be about Nazi atrocities, but Rosenbloom's research never uncovers a single example of a human-bound book from the Third Reich.

Nano: The Spectacular Science of the Very (Very) Small

Written by: Dr. Jess Wade and Melissa Castrillón

First line: Look around your home. 

Why you should read this book: In kid-friendly language and illustrations, this book offers an introduction to the concept of nanotechnology, beginning with a very basic explanation of atoms, molecules, and materials science. From there, it demonstrates how modern scientists can artificially manipulate naturally occurring molecules, such as graphite, to create materials with completely different properties, such as graphene. It goes on to suggest potential uses for future nanotechnology, and concludes that the child reading this book could unlock the secrets of nanotechnology in the future.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's for very young readers. Kids over the age of eight with any interest in science will likely want more information than this book can provide.

Chromatopia: An Illustrated History of Color

Written by: David Coles and Adrian Lander

First line: Since the beginning of human existence, colour has played an integral role in the way we describe the world around us. 

Why you should read this book: A remarkable interdisciplinary endeavor, Coles blends history, archaeology, chemistry, botany, mineralogy, etymology, entomology, materials science, folklore, psychology, and art to create a dazzling and comprehensive guide to the human journey to reproduce the hues perceived in nature as pigments for use in artistic processes. The bulk of the text, arranged more or less chronologically, spans from prehistoric human's early processing of ochres, bone, chalk, and smoke to the ultra-modern techniques for creating glow-in-the-dark pigments and the blackest black.  Lushly illustrated with gorgeous, color-rich photographs, and including several complete recipes for those interested in replicating some of the most ancient manufacturing processes, this book draws the reader back through time and directs them to consider how precious and rare reproducible color has been for most of human history and how much knowledge goes into its production today.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You can't see straight because your printer currently refuses to print black text due to being low on cyan toner, and this fills you with rage. Might also be a bad choice if you're color blind.

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel

Written by: Lisa Cron

First line: What's the biggest mistake writers make?

Why you should read this book: If you feel like you have book inside you and have no idea how to get it out, this might be the solution you've been looking for. Cron's method focuses on a reader's connection to a character's emotional journal and provides a host of exercises for helping authors create compelling reasons for their readers to fall into a story and never want to come out. Each chapter builds on the last, leading to the creation of a "blueprint" (rather than an outline—you really need to read the book to understand the distinction) that, the book promises, will make the actual writing of the novel as simple as paint-by-numbers.

Why you shouldn't read this book: I personally felt this method sucked all the joy and pleasure out of the creative process without offering seasoned writers anything new except charts to fill out with information that they previously just kept in their head; also I didn't really see how "brain science" figured into the method, other than by identifying character driven stories as being the most interesting and helping new writers understand things like back stories and motivation.

Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge, A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution

Written by: Terence McKenna

First line: A specter is haunting planetary culture—the specter of drugs. 

Why you should read this book: I suppose this will be the last of my COVID reads, but this is another book I've owned for close to two decades without cracking it open. McKenna's now-classic treatise on  psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and related plants delineates his theories on how they guided the development of human consciousness, archaeological evidence for their importance to ancient civilizations, how and why psychedelic experiences fell out of favor as civilization "progressed," what was lost in the transition, what was found when westerners rediscovered them, and what this all means for the future of our species. The book is, at times, heartbreakingly prescient in its discussion of the forces that continue to suppress the knowledge and practices that could heal humans, individually and as an animal species connected to a vegetable world, and yet containing kernels of hope that seem to pop every time another city, state, or country relaxes restrictions on marijuana and psychedelics. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are a cryptofascist, or you work for the CIA, or you have a financial interest in the alcohol industry, or you really fell for that lazy D.A.R.E. information someone spewed into your head in the '80s or '90s. 

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Written by: Jacqueline Kelly 

First line: By 1899, we had learned to tame the darkness but not the Texas heat. 

Why you should read this book: Callie Vee, intelligent, thoughtful, and curious, realizes that she wants to be a naturalist when she grows up, just around the time that Callie's mother announces that she wants Callie to be a debutante. Guided by her eccentric grandfather, Callie becomes comfortable with the scientific process, the pursuit of knowledge, and the reading of difficult and forbidden books, chief among them Darwin's Origin of the Species, while desperately trying to escape a future that includes being tied down to a house, a husband, or children. Just an all-around delightful novel. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You'd rather be a debutante than discover a new species.

A Broken Tree: How DNA Exposed a Family's Secrets

Written by: Stephen F. Anderson

First line: When I was a young boy, I loved watching Leave It to Beaver.

Why you should read this book: It's hard to discuss this memoir without massive spoilers, but, couched in the vaguest terms, the author and his siblings discover that neither of their parents were the people they thought they were. Since we already know the story hinges on DNA evidence, the reader will not find the revelations as terribly shocking as the author and his siblings did, but it's an interesting read nonetheless, full of complex emotional relationships and secrets and lies. A fast read, basically split into two parts, the first part being the actual story and the second part answering questions that many people had about how the author discovered and reacted to his story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: One thing the author declines to do is deeply examine the psychology of how his parents got to the point they got to—there's some discussion of it, but many readers will probably finish the book wishing they had a better understanding of why.

Grandmother Fish: A Child's First Book of Evolution

Written by: Jonathan Tweet and Karen Lewish

First line: This is our Grandmother Fish. She lived a long long, long, long, long time ago.

Why you should read this book: A joyful and accessible explanation of evolution directed to the youngest readers, this book begins with a fish (not because life begin with a fish, but because children can comprehend the concept of "fish" better than they can "single celled organisms"), points out her evolutionary advantages (she can wiggle, swim fast, and chomp things), and then discusses some of the evolutionary branches that descended from this proto fish. The book goes on to draw a line from fish to reptiles, reptiles to mammals, mammals to apes, and apes to humans, using the type of poetic repetition and variations that draws children into stories. The supplementary material includes a partial family tree of all life on earth, and many notes for adult humans seeking to further illuminate these concepts for young humans. All around a wonderful reference for little kids just beginning to explore their world, science, and what it means to be alive.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You know who you are and you can get the hell off my book blog. We believe in science around here.