Earth, wind, fire, and rain – the four basic elements – in the life sciences, chemistry & geology.
2. 
Soil: The incredible story of what keeps the earth, and us, healthy
by:
Matthew Evans
4.27 avg rating — 663 ratings 3. 
Firmament: The Hidden Science of Weather, Climate Change and the Air That Surrounds Us
by:
Simon Clark
4.29 avg rating — 590 ratings 4. 
9. 
Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution 4.36 avg rating — 22 ratings
14. 
Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks
by:
Marcia Bjornerud
4.26 avg rating — 469 ratings 15. 
The Planet in a Pebble: A Journey into Earth's Deep History
by:
Jan Zalasiewicz
3.80 avg rating — 245 ratings 16. 
A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
by:
Andrew H. Knoll
3.94 avg rating — 4,218 ratings 17. 
Life on a Young Planet: The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
by:
Andrew H. Knoll
3.99 avg rating — 753 ratings 
19. 
The Earth Machine: The Science of a Dynamic Planet
by:
Edmond A. Mathez
4.05 avg rating — 22 ratings 20. 
The Ground Beneath Us: From the Oldest Cities to the Last Wilderness, What Dirt Tells Us About Who We Are
by:
Paul Bogard
3.88 avg rating — 204 ratings 
24. 
The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things
by:
Hannah Holmes
3.68 avg rating — 432 ratings 25. 
A World From Dust: How the Periodic Table Shaped Life
by:
Ben McFarland
4.43 avg rating — 21 ratings 
27. 
29. 
Geology and Plant Life: The Effects of Landforms and Rock Types on Plants 3.88 avg rating — 8 ratings
31. 
The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History
by:
David Beerling
4.05 avg rating — 636 ratings 
34. 
Plant, Soil and Microbes: Volume 2: Mechanisms and Molecular Interactions 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
35. 
The Science of Compost: Life, Death and Decay in the Garden
by:
Julian Doberski
3.50 avg rating — 12 ratings 36. 
The Soul of Soil: A Soil-Building Guide for Master Gardeners and Farmers, 4th Edition
by:
Joe Smillie
4.06 avg rating — 144 ratings 37. 
The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet
by:
Kristin Ohlson
4.14 avg rating — 1,412 ratings 38. 
Regenerative Soil: The Science & Solutions - the 2nd Edition
by:
Matt Powers
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating 39. 
Harvesting the Biosphere: What We Have Taken from Nature
by:
Vaclav Smil
3.72 avg rating — 139 ratings 40. 
Symphony in C: Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything
by:
Robert M. Hazen
3.98 avg rating — 591 ratings 41. 
Carboniferous Giants and Mass Extinction: The Late Paleozoic Ice Age World
by:
George McGhee
4.36 avg rating — 42 ratings 42. 
The Carbon Age: How Life's Core Element Has Become Civilization's Greatest Threat
by:
Eric Roston
3.69 avg rating — 86 ratings 43. 
The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance
by:
Dan Egan
4.22 avg rating — 2,125 ratings 
45. 
The World's Greatest Fix: A History of Nitrogen and Agriculture
by:
G.J. Leigh
4.22 avg rating — 9 ratings 46. 
Cycles of Soil: Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulfur, Micronutrients, Second Edition
by:
F.J. Stevenson
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings 
48. 
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
by:
Merlin Sheldrake
4.33 avg rating — 47,219 ratings 
51. 
Wind: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land
by:
Jan Deblieu
3.58 avg rating — 85 ratings 52. 
An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere
by:
Gabrielle Walker
4.16 avg rating — 569 ratings 
54. 
The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler
by:
Thomas Hager
4.35 avg rating — 4,448 ratings 55. 
The Dance of Air and Sea: How Oceans, Weather, and Life Link Together
by:
Arnold H. Taylor
3.50 avg rating — 26 ratings 56. 
The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather, and the Destruction of Civilizations
by:
Eugene Linden
3.72 avg rating — 117 ratings 
58. 
It's a Gas: The Sublime and Elusive Elements That Expand Our World
by:
Mark Miodownik
3.88 avg rating — 338 ratings 59. 
Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere
by:
Peter D. Ward
3.90 avg rating — 147 ratings 
62. 
A World on Fire: A Heretic, an Aristocrat, and the Race to Discover Oxygen
by:
Joe Jackson
3.86 avg rating — 96 ratings 
65. 
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
by:
Nick Lane
4.18 avg rating — 5,766 ratings 
69. 
The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth
by:
Zoë Schlanger
4.28 avg rating — 6,417 ratings 70. 
Land on Fire: The New Reality of Wildfire in the West
by:
Gary Ferguson
4.06 avg rating — 215 ratings 
72. 
The Year Yellowstone Burned: A Twenty-Five-Year Perspective
by:
Jeff Henry
4.18 avg rating — 50 ratings 73. 
Trees in Trouble: Wildfires, Infestations, and Climate Change
by:
Daniel Mathews
4.11 avg rating — 132 ratings 
75. 
77. 
79. 
Planet Ocean: A Story of Life, the Sea, and Dancing to the Fossil Record
by:
Ray Troll
4.38 avg rating — 40 ratings 80. 
The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean's Are One
by:
Sylvia A. Earle
4.27 avg rating — 1,285 ratings 
83. 
Liquid Rules: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
by:
Mark Miodownik
4.10 avg rating — 4,071 ratings 84. 
How To Read Water: A must-have for all nature lovers - perfect reading for your summer adventures
by:
Tristan Gooley
3.96 avg rating — 2,086 ratings 85. 
Waves and Beaches: The Powerful Dynamics of Sea and Coast
by:
Kim McCoy
4.07 avg rating — 115 ratings 86. 
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World
by:
Jeff Goodell
4.18 avg rating — 4,916 ratings 87. 
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 
89. 
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions
by:
Peter Brannen
4.29 avg rating — 5,874 ratings 90. 
Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry from Ancient Alchemy to Nuclear Fission
by:
Bernard Jaffe
3.79 avg rating — 99 ratings 91. 
Creations Of Fire: Chemistry's Lively History From Alchemy To The Atomic Age
by:
Cathy Cobb
3.93 avg rating — 162 ratings 92. 
Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements
by:
John Emsley
4.25 avg rating — 421 ratings 93. 
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
by:
Ed Conway
4.51 avg rating — 6,724 ratings 94. 
The 100 Most Important Chemical Compounds: A Reference Guide
by:
Richard L. Myers
4.25 avg rating — 4 ratings 
96. 
Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity
by:
John Gribbin
3.98 avg rating — 1,462 ratings 97. 
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity
by:
Marshall Berman
4.30 avg rating — 3,075 ratings 
99. 
Mountains, Rivers, and the Great Earth: Reading Gary Snyder and Dogen in an Age of Ecological Crisis
by:
Jason M. Wirth
4.23 avg rating — 13 ratings 100. 