Popular Science Books

If you like learning about nature, science, and technology, but you aren't a PhD scholar or serious academic, this list is for you! Readable nonfiction books on fascinating topics that bridge the gap between informative and entertaining. Learn something new and have fun at the same time!

Updated July 16, 2026
LINCC (Libraries in Clackamas County) Milwaukie Ledding Library
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Popular Science Books

If you like learning about nature, science, and technology, but you aren't a PhD scholar or serious academic, this list is for you! Readable nonfiction books on fascinating topics that bridge the gap between informative and entertaining. Learn something new and have fun at the same time!

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Fuzz : when nature breaks the law
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
What's to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers...
Gravity : how the weakest force in the universe shaped our lives
Clegg, Brian.
Paper Book
A history of gravity, and a study of its importance and relevance to our lives, as well as its influence on other areas of science. Physicists will tell you that four forces control the universe. Of these, gravity may the most obvious, but it is also the most mysterious. Newton...
Here comes the sun : a last chance for the climate and a fresh chance for civilization
McKibben, Bill
Paper Book
Our climate, and our democracy, are melting down. But Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about the climate crisis, insists the moment is also full of possibility. Energy from the sun and wind is suddenly the cheapest power on the planet and growing faster than any energy source in...
How to : absurd scientific advice for common real-world problems
Munroe, Randall
Paper Book
For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally bad that no one would ever try it. HOW TO is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.Bestselling author...
The map that changed the world : William Smith and the birth of modern geology
Winchester, Simon.
Paper Book
In 1793, British canal digger William Smith noticed that the rocks he was excavating were arranged in layers, and that the fossils found in one layer were very different from those found in another. Determined to create a map that would display this hidden underside of England, he spent 20 years...
The matter of everything : twelve experiments that changed our world
Sheehy, Suzie
Paper Book
The astonishing story of twentieth-century physics, told through the twelve experiments that changed our worldA 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: NEW SCIENTIST * WATERSTONES * SUNDAY TIMES'A splendid idea, vividly carried out: I enjoyed this book enormously' PHILIP...
Meteorite : the stones from outer space that made our world
Gregory, Tim
Paper Book
The monster's bones : the discovery of T. Rex and how it shook our world
Randall, David K.
Paper Book
One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best Books of 2022 A gripping narrative of a fearless paleontologist, the founding of America's most loved museums, and the race to find the largest dinosaurs on record. In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly...
The perfectionists : how precision engineers created the modern world
Winchester, Simon
Paper Book
"Another gem from one of the world's justly celebrated historians specializing in unusual and always fascinating subjects and people." -- Booklist (starred review) The revered New York Times bestselling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to...
Rocket men : the daring odyssey of Apollo 8 and the astronauts who made man's first journey to the Moon
Kurson, Robert
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind's historic first mission to the Moon, from the bestselling author of Shadow Divers. "Robert Kurson tells the tale of Apollo 8 with novelistic...
The secret lives of numbers
Kitagawa, Kate
Paper Book
The protagonists of this book won't be familiar to most readers. Pythagoras, Newton and Descartes seldom feature. Instead, it highlights the remarkable lives and works of a diverse group of pioneers, who fought millennia of oppression to leave a spectacular legacy of mind-melting ideas and theorems....
StarTalk : everything you ever need to know about space travel, sci-fi, the human race, the universe, and beyond
Tyson, Neil deGrasse
Paper Book
Thisillustrated companion to the popular podcast and National Geographic Channel show is an eye-opening journey for anyone curious about our universe, space, astronomy and the complexities of the cosmos. For decades, beloved astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has interpreted science...
I Told You So!: Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right
Kaplan, Matt
Paper Book
An energetic and impassioned work of popular science about scientists who have had to fight for their revolutionary ideas to be accepted--from Darwin to Pasteur to modern day Nobel Prize winners. For two decades, Matt Kaplan has covered science for the Economist. He's...
The underworld : journeys to the depths of the ocean
Casey, Susan
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From bestselling author Susan Casey, an awe-inspiring portrait of the mysterious world beneath the waves, and the men and women who seek to uncover its secrets "An irresistible mix of splendid scholarship, heart-stopping adventure...
The wave : in pursuit of the rogues, freaks, and giants of the ocean
Casey, Susan
Paper Book
From Susan Casey, bestselling author of The Devil's Teeth, an astonishing book about colossal,  ship-swallowing rogue waves and the surfers who seek them out. For centuries, mariners have spun tales of gargantuan waves, 100-feet high or taller. Until recently...
Wild chocolate : across the Americas in search of cacao's soul
Jacobsen, Rowan
Paper Book
2025 JAMES BEARD AWARD FINALIST "Inspiring." -MARK BITTMAN "One of the best stories under the sun." -JOSÉ ANDRÉS From James Beard Award-winner Rowan Jacobsen, the thrilling story of the farmers, activists, and chocolate makers...
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