<p>By the author of * Cutting for stone,
My Own Country*
by Abraham Verghese.
[Abraham</a> Verghese](<a href=“http://www.abrahamverghese.com/book_my_own_country.asp]Abraham”>http://www.abrahamverghese.com/book_my_own_country.asp)</p>
<p>I would suggest that you get her a subscription to Scientific American. The articles are extremely well written and fascinating, about a variety of science topics, and the subscription is reasonably priced. Articles have references, and she can request those through the library, or find some online, so that she can read the original journal articles about the topics of interest.</p>
<p>The Flamingo’s Smile is sitting on my shelf next to The Beak of the Finch. Thanks for reminding me, gimmechocolate. The Flamingo was written in the 80’s so it may read like ancient history, but Stephen Jay Gould is good.</p>
<p>The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>Rachel Carson Silent Spring
James Watson Double Helix (also noted earlier)
Tracy Kidder The Soul of the New Machine (not biology/chemistry – but nonetheless universal)</p>
<p>Having worked in Haiti for 5 years, I was also glad to see Mountains Beyond Mountains (although it seemed long to me). I second some of the above suggestions, especially the Gould books. I would also add Richard Dawkins’ “The God Illusion” or “The Blind Watchmaker.” I just finished “A Short History of Everything” and it was OK, but not great.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a good Carl Sagan book for her, look for “Dragons of Eden.”</p>
<p>Seconding the works of Stephen Jay Gould (RIP) and Oliver Sacks (my favorite is An Anthropologist on Mars).</p>
<p>Sue Hubbell: Broadsides from the Other Orders (about many kinds of small invertebrates) and A Book of Bees (bee entomology and behavior).</p>
<p>Another one that kept my attention:</p>
<p>“Dark Banquet: Blood and the Curious Lives of Blood-Feeding Creatures” by Bill Schutt</p>
<p>Anything by Mary Roach, who is a wonderful female scientist and author. I recently heard her on NPR promoting her new book “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” which is all about how we prepare humans to travel through and live in space. She’s also written: “Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife”, “Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers”, and “Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex”. Even though she tackles strange subjects (she said in her NPR interview that she thinks within her lurks the soul of a 12 year old boy), her writing is very funny, very interesting, delving into all of the little scientific details that make larger things possible.</p>
<p>Loads of great suggestions here. A new book deemed a “biography” of cancer is getting a ton of great reviews, though I haven’t read it yet: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee.</p>
<p>I like biology as well, Scientific American ( although I liked * The Sciences* a publication by the New York academy of sciences better) but a book that everyone who is interested in the sciences might like is called [Wrinkles in Time](<a href=“http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Nobel/”>http://www.lbl.gov/Publications/Nobel/</a>) by George Smoot.
It is * not* a book about astrophysics for astrophysicists.
I loved it , it is clearly written and very engaging.</p>
<p>Look at Mean Genes by Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan. Fascinating and popularly written but deep at one level.</p>
<p>huh! given all the hoopla about liberal arts being the be-all and end-all of critical thinking (and as a chemical engineer please consider my personal limits) i suggest the following:</p>
<p>queen of fats (biochem)
sirens of titan (philosophy questioning the value of scientific understanding)
out of gas (energy)
zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance (philosophy of making quality judgments)</p>
<p>just another technocrat’s opinion</p>
<p>Michael Behe, The Edge of Evolution
Ross King, Brunelleschi’s Dome
Temple Grandin, Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior</p>
<p>The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor’s Heroic Search for the World’s First Miracle Drug, Thomas Hager. </p>
<p>The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John M. Barry.</p>
<p>I was about to rec both The Demon Under the Microscope and The Great Influenza, too. The Great Influenza especially because Barry spends a lot of the book explaining the history of medical science and research in the US and the need to build a dedicated research and teaching facility.</p>
<p>Also, if she’s into public health And The Band Played On, by Randy Shilts is about the beginnings of the AIDS epidemic and the government’s response (or lack thereof) in the early 80’s.</p>
<p>The Mold in Dr. Florey’s Coat by Eric Lax is about the work to transform penicillin into a useful therapeutic, which was not not done by Alexander Fleming, even though he took all the credit.</p>
<p>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is really good.</p>
<p>The Ghost Map By Stephen Johnson is a good study of John Snow and the birth of epidemiology.</p>