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Michelle Francl's Top Book Recommendations

Want to know what books Michelle Francl recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Michelle Francl's favorite book recommendations of all time.

1
Why does cooking bacon smell so good? Can cheese really give you bad dreams? Why do onions make you cry?

Find out the answers in this compendium of amazing and easy-to-understand chemistry. Featuring 58 different questions, you will discover all sorts of wonderful science that affects us on daily basis. Andy Brunning opens up the chemical world behind the sensations we experience through food and drink - popping candy, hangovers, spicy chillies and many more. Exploring the aromas, flavours and bodily reactions with beautiful infographics and explanations, WHY DOES ASPARAGUS MAKE...
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Recommended by Michelle Francl, and 1 others.

Michelle FranclThis book reminds us that humans are small chemical factories, taking in raw materials, turning them into energy and building materials and producing wastes, some of them smellier or more colorful than others. (Source)

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2
Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. In The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook—chief medical examiner...
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Recommended by Michelle Francl, and 1 others.

Michelle FranclDeborah Blum’s book reminds me that molecules are powerful witnesses, if only we have the skills to interrogate them, and sometimes they are killers. (Source)

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3
Through family interviews, diaries, letters, and workbooks that had been sealed for over sixty years, Barbara Goldsmith reveals the Marie Curie behind the myth—an all-too-human woman struggling to balance a spectacular scientific career, a demanding family, the prejudice of society, and her own passionate nature. Obsessive Genius is a dazzling portrait of Curie, her amazing scientific success, and the price she paid for fame. less
Recommended by Michelle Francl, and 1 others.

Michelle FranclTo me, the strength of Goldsmith’s biography of Marie Curie is how it so clearly characterizes the depth of her obsession with her scholarly work in the face of almost unimaginable difficulties, from her struggles to afford her education in Paris to the loss of her beloved Pierre. (Source)

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4
One of the four elements of classical antiquity, water is central to the environment of our planet. In Life's Matrix, Philip Ball writes of water's origins, history, and unique physical character. As a geological agent, water shapes mountains, canyons, and coastlines, and when unleashed in hurricanes and floods its destructive power is awesome. Ball's provocative exploration of water on other planets highlights the possibilities of life beyond Earth. Life's Matrix also examines the grim realities of depletion of natural resources and its effects on the availability of water in... more
Recommended by Michelle Francl, and 1 others.

Michelle FranclH2O didn’t disappoint. Ball talks about tough scientific topics in ways that are both accurate and truly accessible. (Source)

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5
Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history?

The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it's also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance,...
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Timothy J. JorgensenI do like the story of radium. (Source)

Michelle FranclSam Kean brings the periodic table to life with the stories you didn’t hear in high school chemistry but will wish you did. (Source)

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