When LWONers aren’t writing LWON posts for your edification and pleasure, some of them are writing books. Excuse our self promotion, but we think our books are pretty good, and as it is the holiday season, we wanted to make sure our dear readers are aware of the latest ones. See below for the books we’ve written this year (also other years), one or more of which might make the perfect gift for someone you know. You’re welcome.
The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our Feet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), by Richard Panek. Nobody knows what gravity is, and just about nobody knows that nobody knows what gravity is. The exception is scientists. They know that nobody knows what gravity is because they know that they don’t know what gravity is. A brief history of a big idea.
“Richard Panek takes us on a journey that is original, brave, and ultimately very beautiful: a reminder that sometimes science isn’t a solution but a search.” — James Gleick, author of Time Travel: A History
Virga & Bone: Essays from Dry Places (Torrey House Press), by Craig Childs. This is a short, pocket-sized book (think stocking stuffer!) of experiences in North American deserts, flying through a sheet of virga over Monument Valley, walking along routes of ancient shell traders in the dunes of northern Mexico.
“In the actual Southwest, blemishes count as much as beauty. Character abides in both, which is how Craig Childs sees it. And to see the desert through his eyes, as Virga & Bone allows us to do, is to glimpse its tangible, imperfect glory. This is a bright hard gem of a book.” — William DeBuys, author of A Great Aridness and The Last Unicorn
Good To Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery (W. W. Norton & Company) by Christie Aschwanden. Named to Science News’s top books of 2019 and NPR’s favorite books of the year.
“This authoritative, delightful, and much-needed book slices through the hype around athletic recovery, and will surely cement Christie Aschwanden’s status as one of the world’s top science writers. I laughed a lot, and learned even more.” — Ed Yong, best-selling author of I Contain Multitudes
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018), by Ben Goldfarb. Eager reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America’s lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of “Beaver Believers”―including scientists, ranchers, and passionate citizens―is hard at work restoring these creatures to their former haunts, from the Nevada deserts to the Scottish highlands. Eager is a powerful story about one of the world’s most influential species, how our landscapes have changed over the centuries, and how beavers can help us fight drought, flooding, wildfire, extinction, and climate change. Ultimately, it’s about how we can learn to coexist with our fellow travelers on this planet. Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, and named a best book of 2018 by the Washington Post.
Unlikely Heroes (Workman) by Jennifer S. Holland. Full disclosure, this book has been around for a while. But it makes such a great gift that we’ve decided to include it here anyway. It’s part of a series that began with the wildly popular Unlikely Friendships, the New York Times bestseller packed with true stories of unexpected bonds between different species. This third book in the series, also a best seller, features animals doing equally remarkable things for others–helping, adopting, nursing, saving lives. Perfect for children, teachers, friends, mothers-in-law, even the surly kid who mows your lawn. As one fan on Amazon commented: “OMG these stories are amazing!”
Suggestible You (National Geographic) by Erik Vance. Also not new. Also a pretty good gift for that crazy family member who swears echinacea and crystals are the secret to a healthy happy life. Interestingly, it’s also the perfect gift for that stubborn loved one who just won’t stop making fun of your echinacea and crystals. This book steps past all the Twitter fights of whether alternative medicine is effective or not and digs into exactly what happens when your belief changes your body. And it’s not what you think.
Now look what you’ve done. I VOWED I had made my last trip into the bookstore this season. Maybe I can talk someone into buying one (some) of these for me instead, I promise to share….