Excellent Science Writing
3. 
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
by:
Dava Sobel
3.99 avg rating — 75,029 ratings 4. 
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
by:
Ben Goldfarb
4.28 avg rating — 4,973 ratings 
6. 
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883
by:
Simon Winchester
3.88 avg rating — 21,503 ratings 7. 
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
by:
Jared Diamond
4.04 avg rating — 445,070 ratings 
9. 
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History
by:
John M. Barry
3.98 avg rating — 42,022 ratings 10. 
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
by:
Mary Roach
3.95 avg rating — 59,464 ratings 11. 
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
by:
Susan Cain
4.08 avg rating — 465,746 ratings 12. 
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
by:
Steven Johnson
3.89 avg rating — 55,254 ratings 12. 
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest
by:
Suzanne Simard
4.21 avg rating — 15,850 ratings 
16. 
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
by:
Laurie Garrett
4.21 avg rating — 10,688 ratings 
20. 
22. 
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by:
Carl Sagan
4.29 avg rating — 78,419 ratings 23. 
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
by:
Richard Preston
4.16 avg rating — 119,587 ratings 24. 
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
by:
Jared Diamond
3.93 avg rating — 73,875 ratings 25. 
25. 
25. 
The Elements of Power: Gadgets, Guns, and the Struggle for a Sustainable Future in the Rare Metal Age
by:
David S. Abraham
4.07 avg rating — 249 ratings 25. 
The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction
by:
Henry Gee
3.75 avg rating — 204 ratings 
29. 
The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars: Cheating and Deception in the Living World
by:
Lixing Sun
3.72 avg rating — 183 ratings 29. 
A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds
by:
Scott Weidensaul
4.20 avg rating — 2,041 ratings 29. 
The Territorial Imperative: A Personal Inquiry into the Animal Origins of Property and Nations
by:
Robert Ardrey
3.89 avg rating — 283 ratings 29. 
The Living Medicine: How a Lifesaving Cure Was Nearly Lost―and Why It Will Rescue Us When Antibiotics Fail
by:
Lina Zeldovich
4.41 avg rating — 159 ratings 34. 
NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity
by:
Steve Silberman
4.29 avg rating — 17,217 ratings 
34. 
The Social Contract: A Personal Inquiry into the Evolutionary Sources of Order and Disorder
by:
Robert Ardrey
4.07 avg rating — 114 ratings 
39. 
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by:
Ed Yong
4.47 avg rating — 32,525 ratings 
39. 
39. 
African Genesis: A Personal Investigation Into the Animal Origins and nature of Man
by:
Robert Ardrey
4.02 avg rating — 327 ratings 39. 
A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters
by:
Henry Gee
4.05 avg rating — 2,896 ratings 
44. 
Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble
by:
Marilyn Johnson
3.64 avg rating — 2,115 ratings 44. 
Snowball Earth: The Story of the Great Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life as We Know It
by:
Gabrielle Walker
3.99 avg rating — 415 ratings 
48. 
Doctor Dogs: How Our Best Friends Are Becoming Our Best Medicine
by:
Maria Goodavage
4.24 avg rating — 392 ratings 
48. 
52. 
The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us
by:
Steve Brusatte
4.37 avg rating — 7,064 ratings 52. 
Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century
by:
Charles King
4.26 avg rating — 2,337 ratings 52. 
The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey
by:
Deborah Cramer
4.13 avg rating — 212 ratings 
56. 
Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
by:
Sonia Shah
4.07 avg rating — 4,009 ratings 56. 
Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients
by:
Ben Goldacre
4.10 avg rating — 9,121 ratings 
59. 
The Story of Evolution in 25 Discoveries: The Evidence and the People Who Found It 4.08 avg rating — 251 ratings
59. 
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by:
David Quammen
4.42 avg rating — 20,025 ratings 
63. 
Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World, 3)
by:
John McPhee
4.24 avg rating — 1,933 ratings 63. 
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming
by:
Naomi Oreskes
4.17 avg rating — 7,789 ratings 
67. 
Immune: a Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive
by:
Philipp Dettmer
4.59 avg rating — 12,176 ratings 
67. 
A Clouded Leopard in the Middle of the Road: New Thinking about Roads, People, and Wildlife
by:
Darryl Jones
3.91 avg rating — 11 ratings 70. 
Deadly Feasts: The "Prion" Controversy and the Public's Health
by:
Richard Rhodes
4.01 avg rating — 1,460 ratings 71. 
Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine
by:
Nicola Twilley
3.94 avg rating — 833 ratings 
74. 
The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World
by:
Riley Black
3.93 avg rating — 3,703 ratings 74. 
The World of the Salt Marsh: Appreciating and Protecting the Tidal Marshes of the Southeastern Atlantic Coast
by:
Charles Seabrook
4.25 avg rating — 92 ratings 
77. 
The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us
by:
Meg Lowman
4.05 avg rating — 1,054 ratings 77. 
Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats
by:
Maryn McKenna
4.20 avg rating — 883 ratings 
80. 
At the Water's Edge: Fish with Fingers, Whales with Legs, and How Life Came Ashore but Then Went Back to Sea
by:
Carl Zimmer
4.08 avg rating — 2,095 ratings 80. 
Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought AI to Google, Facebook, and the World
by:
Cade Metz
4.27 avg rating — 2,827 ratings 83. 
A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
by:
Andrew H. Knoll
3.94 avg rating — 4,219 ratings 
83. 
Brave New Arctic: The Untold Story of the Melting North
by:
Mark C. Serreze
3.52 avg rating — 116 ratings 86. 
The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them 4.21 avg rating — 315 ratings
86. 
The Field Guide to Citizen Science: How You Can Contribute to Scientific Research and Make a Difference
by:
Darlene Cavalier
4.17 avg rating — 186 ratings 89. 
The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves
by:
Arik Kershenbaum
3.96 avg rating — 2,086 ratings 89. 
Loren Eiseley: Collected Essays on Evolution, Nature, and the Cosmos: A Library of America Boxed Set
by:
Loren Eiseley
4.72 avg rating — 29 ratings 89. 
Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World's Most Mysterious Continent
by:
Gabrielle Walker
4.26 avg rating — 1,194 ratings 92. 
The Book Nobody Read: Chasing the Revolutions of Nicolaus Copernicus
by:
Owen Gingerich
3.78 avg rating — 613 ratings 92. 
The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things and How to Avoid Them
by:
David Robson
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3,208 ratings 
94. 
A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War
by:
Patricia Fara
3.62 avg rating — 205 ratings 96. 
Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory
by:
Edward J. Larson
3.93 avg rating — 647 ratings 96. 
The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars
by:
Dava Sobel
3.59 avg rating — 3,469 ratings 
98. 
The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Freshwater in the Twenty-First Century
by:
Alex Prud’homme
3.94 avg rating — 418 ratings 98. 