**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"Revelatory, superbly written, and pulsing with wisdom and humanity, How Infrastructure Works is a masterpiece.” —Ed Yong, author of An Immense WorldA new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us**Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable ...

**NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"Revelatory, superbly written, and pulsing with wisdom and humanity, How Infrastructure Works is a masterpiece.” —Ed Yong, author of An Immense WorldA new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us**Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable ...

From the acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum comes a wildly entertaining new history of Rome that uses the lives of twenty-one extraordinary women to upend our understanding of the ancient worldThe history of Rome has long been narrow and one-sided, essentially a history of “the Doing of Important Things.” It is a history of winning battles, passing laws, and “Having Important Opinions in Public.” And as far as Roman historia...

The bestselling author of Overthrow and The Brothers brings to life the forgotten political debate that set America’s interventionist course in the world for the twentieth century and beyond.How should the United States act in the world? Americans cannot decide. Sometimes we burn with righteous anger, launching foreign wars and deposing governments. Then we retreat—until the cycle begins again.No matter how often we debate this question, n...

Etched in the wedge-shaped letters known as cuneiform on clay tablets, the Epic of Gilgamesh stands as the earliest classic of world literature. Its earliest surviving fragments date back to the eighteenth century BC, more than 3,700 years ago. In The Buried Book, David Damrosch tells the story of George Smith, a self-taught linguist, who one momentous afternoon in 1872 was working at the British Museum, going through a pile of Layard’s clay tablets, when he suddenly real...

“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease thatreveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining . . . journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field.”—ScienceScientists and enthusiastic ...

“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease thatreveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining . . . journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field.”—ScienceScientists and enthusiastic ...

“Clever, bold, and refreshingly feminist; readers will be engaged and entertained to the very end." (Booklist)This wildly entertaining new history of Rome uses the lives of 21 women to upend our understanding of the ancient world, from the acclaimed author of A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.This is a history of women who caused outrage, led armies in rebellion, wrote poetry;...

Learn the basics of fungal biology, foraging, and identification in this in-depth illustrated introduction from the beloved scientist, mushroom enthusiast, and social media star behind Fascinated By Fungi.In Dr. Fun Guy’s Passport to Kingdom Fungi, Dr. Gordon Walker brings his scientific knowledge and love for everything fungi to the page. The first section of this book is written in a comprehensive question-and-answer format. Starting with “What are fungi...

"[An] intriguing philosophical journey into a critical issue within evolutionary theory that for too long has remained unresolved." —Wall Street JournalMatt Ridley is one of our finest science writers. This book is a treat for bird lovers and evolutionary biologists alike.” —Richard Dawkins, author of The Genetic Book of The Dead and The God DelusionThe New York Times bestselling ...

An “UNEXPECTEDLY PROFOUND,” “DEEPLY STRANGE,” and “UTTERLY UNIQUE tour of the human body” (Publishers Weekly)"A must read for anyone who’s ever been amazed or aghast at what just came out." — Rachel Yoder, author of NightbitchTo live, our bodies must continuously shed materials. Stop urinating, stop defecating, stop expelling breath, and death is near. While we often think of these materials as embarrassing waste products, they serve far more complex functions. The color of...

In this "wise and wondrous" (David Quammen) exploration, a science writer reintroduces readers to The Snake, encouraging our initial reaction to the slithery creature to be one of awe rather than disgust.**For millennia, depictions of snakes as alternatively beautiful and menacing creatures have appeared in religious texts, mythology, poetry, and beyond. From the foundational deities of ancient Egypt to the reactions of squeamish children today, it is a historical...