Best Nonfiction Biology books on Goodreads
101. 
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
by:
Ben Rawlence
4.24 avg rating — 1,718 ratings 
104. 
The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.12 avg rating — 9,499 ratings 104. 
Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior (A Harvest Book)
by:
Temple Grandin
4.15 avg rating — 9,826 ratings 106. 
Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
by:
Christopher Ryan
3.98 avg rating — 31,321 ratings 106. 
Crisis in the Red Zone: The Story of the Deadliest Ebola Outbreak in History, and of the Outbreaks to Come
by:
Richard Preston
4.42 avg rating — 7,444 ratings 
108. 
The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge
by:
Jeremy Narby
4.18 avg rating — 7,318 ratings 
111. 
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic
by:
David Quammen
4.42 avg rating — 20,024 ratings 111. 
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human 4.15 avg rating — 10,815 ratings
114. 
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery
by:
Sam Kean
4.26 avg rating — 13,463 ratings 115. 
The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time
by:
Jonathan Weiner
4.17 avg rating — 9,808 ratings 116. 
The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
by:
Sam Kean
4.01 avg rating — 10,631 ratings 117. 
119. 
The 10000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
by:
Gregory Cochran
3.94 avg rating — 1,834 ratings 
119. 
The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Astonishing Dialogue Taking Place in Our Bodies Impacts Health, Weight, and Mood
by:
Emeran Mayer
3.76 avg rating — 8,694 ratings 
125. 
Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins
by:
Susan Casey
4.04 avg rating — 3,303 ratings 
127. 
The Triumph of Seeds: How Grains, Nuts, Kernels, Pulses, and Pips Conquered the Plant Kingdom and Shaped Human History
by:
Thor Hanson
4.10 avg rating — 3,014 ratings 130. 
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex
by:
Olivia Judson
4.06 avg rating — 3,622 ratings 131. 
Life: A Natural History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth
by:
Richard Fortey
4.08 avg rating — 3,321 ratings 
132. 
Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World
by:
C.J. Peters
3.98 avg rating — 2,696 ratings 134. 
Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland
by:
Bryan Sykes
3.86 avg rating — 2,138 ratings 
136. 
Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
by:
Johnjoe McFadden
4.11 avg rating — 3,658 ratings 
138. 
140. 
The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
by:
Norman Doidge
4.20 avg rating — 39,548 ratings 141. 
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 
145. 
The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
by:
Laurie Garrett
4.21 avg rating — 10,688 ratings 146. 
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History 4.11 avg rating — 2,235 ratings
147. 
Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love
by:
Helen Fisher
3.75 avg rating — 3,357 ratings 147. 
Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
by:
Nick Pyenson
3.79 avg rating — 3,807 ratings 147. 
Ten Drugs: How Plants, Powders, and Pills Have Shaped the History of Medicine
by:
Thomas Hager
4.18 avg rating — 5,017 ratings 150. 
Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story
by:
Angela Saini
4.05 avg rating — 9,413 ratings 151. 
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by:
Michael Pollan
4.19 avg rating — 208,898 ratings 
154. 
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
by:
Sy Montgomery
3.94 avg rating — 57,043 ratings 
155. 
155. 
Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants
by:
Robert Sullivan
3.72 avg rating — 4,485 ratings 159. 
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death
by:
Caitlin Doughty
4.13 avg rating — 46,333 ratings 160. 
Animals Make Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals
by:
Temple Grandin
4.04 avg rating — 6,120 ratings 
161. 
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
by:
Steven Pinker
4.01 avg rating — 22,310 ratings 
164. 
Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design
by:
Michael Shermer
3.99 avg rating — 5,430 ratings 165. 
The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are - The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
by:
Robert Wright
4.08 avg rating — 11,843 ratings 165. 
The Biology Of Belief: Unleashing The Power Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles
by:
Bruce H. Lipton
4.15 avg rating — 17,063 ratings 167. 
The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear
by:
Seth Mnookin
4.07 avg rating — 5,763 ratings 
170. 
A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
by:
Richard Dawkins
3.98 avg rating — 7,922 ratings 170. 
Pandemic: Tracking Contagions, from Cholera to Ebola and Beyond
by:
Sonia Shah
4.07 avg rating — 4,009 ratings 170. 
Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves
by:
Frans de Waal
4.21 avg rating — 5,466 ratings 173. 
The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True
by:
Richard Dawkins
4.05 avg rating — 27,033 ratings 173. 
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales
by:
Oliver Sacks
4.15 avg rating — 23,340 ratings 173. 
Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science
by:
Richard Preston
3.75 avg rating — 5,027 ratings 
177. 
Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are
by:
Joseph E. LeDoux
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 5,134 ratings 178. 
What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World
by:
Jon Young
4.11 avg rating — 1,624 ratings 
179. 
Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health 4.11 avg rating — 3,391 ratings
179. 
Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity
by:
Jamie Metzl
3.98 avg rating — 3,710 ratings 182. 
182. 
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug
by:
Thomas Hager
4.09 avg rating — 5,802 ratings 182. 
Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about Alternative Medicine
by:
Simon Singh
4.11 avg rating — 4,557 ratings 
186. 
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology
by:
Ray Kurzweil
3.93 avg rating — 12,331 ratings 187. 
Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain
by:
António Damásio
3.96 avg rating — 9,779 ratings 
187. 
The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates
by:
Frans de Waal
4.15 avg rating — 5,522 ratings 187. 
The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World
by:
Patrik Svensson
3.92 avg rating — 21,239 ratings 192. 
193. 
The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life
by:
Nick Lane
4.18 avg rating — 5,766 ratings 193. 
The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science (TED Books) 4.06 avg rating — 5,072 ratings
198. 
The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer 3.77 avg rating — 5,730 ratings
198. 
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by:
Steven Johnson
3.95 avg rating — 3,539 ratings