Sciencefriday's Best Science Books
1. 
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
by:
Ed Yong
4.18 avg rating — 30,340 ratings 2. 
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World
by:
Steve Brusatte
4.21 avg rating — 38,332 ratings 3. 
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by:
John Carreyrou
4.41 avg rating — 276,387 ratings 
5. 
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World
by:
Peter Wohlleben
4.07 avg rating — 84,785 ratings 
7. 
Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food
by:
Lenore Newman
3.88 avg rating — 622 ratings 
9. 
The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms
by:
Naoko Abe
3.90 avg rating — 1,339 ratings 
12. 
The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the Renegade Scientists and Spies Who Sabotaged the Nazi Atomic Bomb
by:
Sam Kean
4.34 avg rating — 3,999 ratings 13. 
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
by:
Nick Pyenson
3.79 avg rating — 3,806 ratings 14. 
Nine Pints: A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
by:
Rose George
3.83 avg rating — 3,839 ratings 15. 
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet
by:
Claire L. Evans
3.93 avg rating — 2,439 ratings 16. 
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think 4.23 avg rating — 3,955 ratings
17. 
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World
by:
Andrea Wulf
4.32 avg rating — 28,489 ratings 18. 
How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics
by:
Michael Pollan
4.27 avg rating — 82,447 ratings 19. 
Chesapeake Requiem: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island
by:
Earl Swift
4.11 avg rating — 3,010 ratings 19. 
21. 
Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions 3.95 avg rating — 804 ratings
22. 
Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II
by:
Liza Mundy
3.96 avg rating — 29,161 ratings 23. 
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
by:
Atul Gawande
4.49 avg rating — 210,926 ratings 24. 
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
by:
Maria Konnikova
3.66 avg rating — 5,851 ratings 
28. 
28. 
Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
by:
Ruha Benjamin
4.26 avg rating — 2,346 ratings 30. 
30. 
How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
by:
Jordan Ellenberg
3.95 avg rating — 20,875 ratings 
33. 
Fables and Futures: Biotechnology, Disability, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
by:
George Estreich
4.36 avg rating — 33 ratings 33. 
Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words
by:
Randall Munroe
4.14 avg rating — 12,052 ratings 35. 
Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past
by:
Sarah Parcak
3.73 avg rating — 992 ratings 
37. 
The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future
by:
Jon Gertner
4.17 avg rating — 1,250 ratings 38. 
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster 4.37 avg rating — 61,021 ratings
39. 
What If?: Randall Munroe | Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions | Summary & Takeaways
by:
Brief Books
4.25 avg rating — 160 ratings 40. 
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
by:
Katherine Eban
4.42 avg rating — 7,196 ratings 
43. 
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by:
Merlin Sheldrake
4.33 avg rating — 47,239 ratings 
44. 
The Apocalypse Factory: Plutonium and the Making of the Atomic Age
by:
Steve Olson
4.13 avg rating — 757 ratings 46. 
Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again
by:
Eric J. Topol
4.02 avg rating — 2,718 ratings 
49. 
The Future Earth: A Radical Vision for What's Possible in the Age of Warming
by:
Eric Holthaus
3.45 avg rating — 1,020 ratings 
52. 
The Alchemy of Us: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another
by:
Ainissa Ramirez
3.91 avg rating — 1,319 ratings 53. 
53. 
The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness
by:
Emily Anthes
3.64 avg rating — 929 ratings 
56. 
The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy
by:
Paige Williams
3.58 avg rating — 2,661 ratings 56. 
Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing
by:
Sarah Brayne
3.67 avg rating — 133 ratings 
59. 
In Search of the Canary Tree: The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
by:
Lauren E. Oakes
3.97 avg rating — 575 ratings 59. 
Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live 4.01 avg rating — 2,789 ratings
61. 
The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and Other Curiosities from the History of Medicine
by:
Thomas Morris
3.79 avg rating — 4,483 ratings 62. 
Dispatches from Planet 3: Thirty-Two (Brief) Tales on the Solar System, the Milky Way, and Beyond
by:
Marcia Bartusiak
4.11 avg rating — 160 ratings 
64. 
Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor
by:
Brian Keating
3.90 avg rating — 554 ratings 65. 
She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity
by:
Carl Zimmer
4.16 avg rating — 7,101 ratings 65. 
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
by:
Lisa Randall
3.68 avg rating — 3,477 ratings 67. 
Summary of Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
by:
Dennis Braun
4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings 68. 
The Physicist and the Philosopher: Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate that Changed Our Understanding of Time
by:
Jimena Canales
3.60 avg rating — 288 ratings 69. 
What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City 4.33 avg rating — 8,788 ratings
69. 
Nature Anatomy: The Curious Parts & Pieces of the Natural World
by:
Julia Rothman
4.39 avg rating — 2,273 ratings 71. 
The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect
by:
Judea Pearl
3.94 avg rating — 6,383 ratings 71. 
73. 
75. 
75. 
The Hunt for Vulcan: ...And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe
by:
Thomas Levenson
4.05 avg rating — 2,109 ratings 77. 
77. 
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
by:
Sy Montgomery
3.94 avg rating — 57,056 ratings 79. 
The Great Unknown: Seven Journeys to the Frontiers of Science
by:
Marcus du Sautoy
4.01 avg rating — 2,101 ratings 
81. 
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution 4.13 avg rating — 6,304 ratings
81. 
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
by:
Rachel Swaby
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,982 ratings 83. 
The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives
by:
Theresa Brown
3.88 avg rating — 7,742 ratings 
85. 
The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl: How Two Brave Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis
by:
Arthur Allen
3.78 avg rating — 609 ratings 
87. 
Dodging Extinction: Power, Food, Money, and the Future of Life on Earth 3.89 avg rating — 96 ratings
89. 
Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything
by:
Lydia Kang
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,426 ratings 
91. 
Teeth: Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America
by:
Mary Otto
3.91 avg rating — 1,117 ratings 
93. 
95. 
96. 
96. 
The Invisible History of the Human Race: How DNA and History Shape Our Identities and Our Futures 3.81 avg rating — 1,640 ratings
98. 
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World
by:
Mark Miodownik
4.11 avg rating — 20,498 ratings 