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A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson, 2003
The universe, the earth and life, explained with curiosity and jokes.
Won the Aventis Prize for science books in 2004 and the EU Descartes Prize for science communication in 2005. Source: Wikipedia
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Cosmos
Carl Sagan, 1980
Our place in the universe, and why science is a way of seeing.
Medium length, about 365 pages
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The Gene
Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2016
The history of the gene, braided with the author's own family story.
Long read, about 592 pages
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The Emperor of All Maladies
Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2010
A "biography" of cancer: four thousand years of fighting it.
Long read, about 592 pagesPulitzer Prize, 2011.
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The Invention of Nature
Andrea Wulf, 2015
Alexander von Humboldt, the forgotten scientist who saw nature as one web.
Long read, about 496 pages
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Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake, 2020
Fungi, and how they quietly shape the world. You'll look at the ground differently.
Medium length, about 368 pages
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Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!
Richard P. Feynman, 1985
A Nobel physicist's stories. A lesson in curiosity disguised as fun.
Medium length, about 350 pages
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The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn, 1962
How science really changes its mind. Short and influential.
Medium length, about 264 pages
How we pick. A person picks every book here, not an algorithm, and each one says why. No ads, affiliate links or paid placement.