2022: A Reading List
Science Non-Fiction Books Across 4 Categories
I started writing on Medium in March 2020 as an epidemic simmered and then boiled over into a full pandemic. During lockdown, I tried to finally dedicate time to writing as well as read more scientific nonfiction. Over the next year, I managed to post a Medium article almost every month and sometimes twice or even three times a month. I also read 11 nonfiction books (in addition to my usual fiction indulgences) though not all were strictly science, some veered into business topics. But overall, I was happy with progress from my previous state of not writing at all and maybe reading three or for nonfiction books a year.
But then around March 2021 both my writing and reading dropped off. Perhaps it had to do with vaccinations rolling out to the under 40 crowd or spring blooming which led to a shift in how I spent my time. After a year of limiting interactions, it was blissful to meet up with groups of people again. Meanwhile, my laptop gathered dust in the corner. Now, as the winter sets in again, I am reminded to return both to writing and reading more. In that spirit, I have decided to compile my list of science nonfiction that I meant to read in 2021. Here’s to doing better in 2022.
Latest in Biotech
An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System by Matt Richtel — With so many therapies under development that target the immune system for treating cancer or managing chronic inflammatory diseases, there is a lot to stay updated on in this area of research. I would also recommend the 2018 book The Beautiful Cure by Daniel David.
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson — I had read Crack in Creation by Jennifer Doudna which traces the journey to discover CRISPR from her perspective. While I was at first hesitant to read this biography because it seemed like the same material covered from a third person, I became interested because it also goes into her early life as well as more on her concerns about how CRISPR could be misused.
Junk DNA: A Journey Through The Dark Matter of Genome by Nessa Carey — Covers the recent advances in the understanding of non-coding parts of DNA captures which represents a new frontier in understanding the human genome. It would be interesting to understand how junk DNA impacts gene expression in the contect of epigenetics and proteomics as well.
Into the Future
Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old by Andrew Steele — Debated whether to put this in the biotech category but, in the end, put it in futuristic since I think we are still a long way from achieving the “biological immortality” the book discusses. But maybe I will change my mind after reading it.
The Case for Mars The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must by Robert Zurbin — After reading Extraterrestrial by Avi Loeb earlier this year, my youthful interest in space exploration was sparked again. I was also intrigued by The Space Barons about Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos but got a bit tired of hearing news on billionaires and their rocket ships.
Age of AI: Our Human Future by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher — I have been avoiding reading about AI. Maybe I am worried it would be too complicated or worse, scare me. But it is becoming an inevitable part of the future so probably better to learn more about it.
Spirit of the Times
The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis — Who can resist a good Michael Lewis retrospective? Many of us are still processing the chaos of the last year, but maybe I am ready to take a look back on everything.
Life’s Edge: The Search for What it Means to be Alive by Carl Zimmer — Embarrassed to say I have yet to read She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, a book on heredity which has been on my list for a while, but this is another book by Carl Zimmer which came out this year. I am especially curious about his perspective on whether viruses are alive, a topic that has been on my mind (for some reason) as of late.
Vaxxers: The Inside Story of the Oxford AstraZeneca Vaccine and the Race Against the Virus by Sarah Gilbert — While it was beat out by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, I had actually thought the AZ vaccine would be the first to get regulatory approval. I am curious to understand the full history and maybe why it got delayed when it seemed ahead of the mRNA vaccine candidates.
Beauty of Nature
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach — I have been a fan of Mary Roach since her since I read her 2008 book about sex called Bonk as a college student. Looking forward reading to her punchy style of writing on the th etopic of wildlife gone rouge.
Entangled Fungi: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake — I will confess I am just intrigued to read a book about fungi written by a someone with a druid name like Merlin. Also, I read the book The Tangled Tree by David Quammen at the start of this year and am curious to learn more about how fungi fit into the early evolutionary tree.
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Simrad —This book was on several suggested reading lists for 2021 and the topic of plant communication is not well understood. Excited to learn about the most recent discoveries.
