Non-Fiction Books Focused on S.T.E.A.M.

Updated April 27, 2026
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Humble pi : when math goes wrong in the real world
Parker, Matt (Mathematician)
Paper Book
#1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER   AN ADAM SAVAGE BOOK CLUB PICK The book-length answer to anyone who ever put their hand up in math class and asked, "When am I ever going to use this in the real world?"  "Fun, informative, and relentlessly entertaining,...
This way up : when maps go wrong (and why it matters)
Cooper-Jones, Mark
Paper Book
*AN INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!* *AUDIO BOOK NARRATED BY MARK COOPER-JONES AND JAY FOREMAN*  *An Audible Most Anticipated Listen!* The debut book from the YouTube sensation and all-round cartographical nerds, The Map Men! ...
Invisible labor : the untold story of the cesarean section
Somerstein, Rachel
Paper Book
An incisive yet personal look at the science and history of the most common surgery performed in America--the cesarean section--and an exposé on the disturbing state of women's health and maternal medical care When Rachel Somerstein had an unplanned C-section with her first child, the...
The cure for women : Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the challenge to Victorian medicine that changed women's lives forever
Reeder, Lydia
Paper Book
"Valiant and timely .... reintroduces its subject as a hero for this moment." ―The New York Times How Victorian male doctors used false science to argue that women were unfit for anything but motherhood--and the brilliant doctor who defied them ...
The exceptions : Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the fight for women in science
Zernike, Kate
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book As late as 1999, women who succeeded in science were called "exceptional" as if it were unusual for them to be so bright. They were exceptional, not because they could succeed at science but because of all they accomplished despite the...
The doctors Blackwell : how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women--and women to medicine
Nimura, Janice P.
Paper Book
Elizabeth Blackwell believed from an early age that she was destined for a mission beyond the scope of "ordinary" womanhood. Though the world at first recoiled at the notion of a woman studying medicine, her intelligence and intensity ultimately won her the acceptance of the male medical...
The dance of life : the new science of how a single cell becomes a human being
Zernicka-Goetz, Magdalena
Paper Book
A renowned biologist's cutting-edge and unconventional examination of human reproduction and embryo research Scientists have long struggled to make pregnancy easier, safer, and more successful. In The Dance of Life, developmental and stem-cell...
Einstein's tutor : the story of Emmy Noether and the invention of modern physics
Phillips, Lee (Computational physicist)
Paper Book
The revelatory story of an intellectual giant who made foundational contributions to science and mathematics and persevered in the face of discrimination against women in science. Emmy Noether is one of the most important figures in the history of science and mathematics.
Brave the wild river : the untold story of two women who mapped the botany of the Grand Canyon
Sevigny, Melissa L.
Paper Book
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. With its churning waters and treacherous boulders, the Colorado was famed as the most...
A brief history of black holes : and why nearly everything you know about them is wrong
Smethurst, Becky
Paper Book
Black Holes are the universe's strangest and most fascinating objects - Dr Becky explains all, and why nearly everything you know about them is wrong.Right now, you are orbiting a black hole. The Earth goes around the Sun, and the Sun goes around the centre of the Milky Way: a supermassive...
Sisters in science : how four women physicists escaped Nazi Germany and made scientific history
Campbell, Olivia (Journalist)
Paper Book
" The extraordinary true story of four women pioneers in physics during World War II and their daring escape out of Nazi Germany In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were...
Destroyer of worlds : the deep history of the Nuclear age
Close, F. E.
Paper Book
The thrilling and terrifying seventy-year story--"kinetic, dramatic, and compulsively readable" (Patchen Barss)--of the physicists that deciphered the atom and created the hydrogen bomb  A Guardian Best Book of the Year  ...
Sisters of the jungle : the trailblazing women who shaped the study of wild primates
McGoogan, Keriann
Paper Book
A scientist's memoir that delves into the history of primate field studies and the women who shaped the discipline of primatology, including Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birutė Galdikas and Alison Jolly. Since the 1970s, the science of primatology has been dominated by women--a unique...
The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks
Skloot, Rebecca
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "The story of modern medicine and bioethics--and, indeed, race relations--is refracted beautifully, and movingly."--Entertainment Weekly NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM HBO® STARRING OPRAH WINFREY AND ROSE BYRNE * ONE OF THE "MOST...
Playful : how play shifts our thinking, inspires connection, and sparks creativity
Holman, Cas
Paper Book
A designer, educator, and play expert calls for adults to add more fun, exploration, and imagination to their lives "Radiant and essential ... this book brings a sense of transcendence. Reading it was not only inspiring; it was joyful." --Elizabeth Gilbert, NYT bestselling...
The Genius of Trees : How They Mastered the Elements and Shaped the World
Rix, Harriet.
Paper Book
A mind-expanding exploration of how trees learned to shape our world by manipulating the elements, plants, animals, and even humankind, possessing agency beyond anything we might have imagined "Astounding . . . a true masterpiece . . . Rix refuses to put herself much in the picture,...
A Short History of Nearly Everything: 2. 0
Bryson, Bill
Paper Book
A wonder-filled quest to understand everything that has happened in the history of the earth, from the Big Bang theory to the rise of civilization and beyond--revised to reflect the last two decades of scientific advancement. How did we get from being nothing at all to where we...
The science of pets
Ingram, Jay
Paper Book
In the tradition of The Inside of a Dog, top science writer and TV personality Jay Ingram shares new insights into the hearts, minds, and bodies of the animals who love us (or do they?). More than one billion pets live in homes around the world, sleeping on dog beds,...
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...
The emperor of all maladies : a biography of cancer
Mukherjee, Siddhartha.
Paper Book
Selected as One of the Best Books of the 21st Century by The New York Times Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, adapted as a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is "an extraordinary achievement" (The New Yorker)--a magnificent,...
The secret lives of numbers : a hidden history of math's unsung trailblazers
Kitagawa, Kate
Paper Book
Shortlisted for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize A new history of mathematics focusing on the marginalized voices who propelled the discipline, spanning six continents and thousands of years of untold stories. "A book to make you love math." --Financial Times Mathematics...
Chamber divers : the untold story of the D-day scientists who changed special operations forever
Lance, Rachel
Paper Book
The previously classified story of the eccentric researchers who invented cutting-edge underwater science to lead the Allies to D-Day victory In August 1942, more than 7,000 Allied troops rushed the beaches of Normandy, France, in an all but-forgotten landing. Only a small...
Revenge of the tipping point : overstories, superspreaders, and the rise of social engineering
Gladwell, Malcolm
Paper Book
Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns in this New York Times bestseller that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami ... Miami? What does...
Empire of AI : dreams and nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Hao, Karen
Paper Book
A New York Times Notable Book * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction * A New York Times Bestseller * Named a Best Book of the Year by Smithsonian, Scientific American, and Elle * Winner of the Porchlight Business Book Award
The age of surveillance capitalism : the fight for a human future at the new frontier of power
Zuboff, Shoshana
Paper Book
An exposé of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior   "Groundbreaking, magisterial, alarming." - Financial Times The...
Replaceable you : adventures in human anatomy
Roach, Mary
Paper Book
The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what's available--sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet...
Blood in the machine : the origins of the rebellion against big tech
Merchant, Brian
Paper Book
"The most important book to read about the AI boom" (Wired): The "gripping" (New Yorker) true story of the first time machines came for human jobs--and how the Luddite uprising explains the power, threat, and toll of big tech and AI today ...
Architects of intelligence : the truth about AI from the people building it
Ford, Martin.
Digital file
How will AI evolve and what major innovations are on the horizon? What will its impact be on the job market, economy, and society? What is the path toward human-level machine intelligence? What should we be concerned about as artificial intelligence advances? ...
Nexus : a brief history of information networks from the Stone Age to AI
Harari, Yuval N.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. "Strikingly original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the...
Four lost cities : a secret history of the urban age
Newitz, Annalee
Paper Book
In Four Lost Cities, acclaimed science journalist Annalee Newitz takes readers on an entertaining and mind-bending adventure into the deep history of urban life. Investigating across the centuries and around the world, Newitz explores the rise and fall of four ancient cities, each the center of a...
Wired for love : a neuroscientist's journey through romance, loss, and the essence of the human connection
Cacioppo, Stephanie
Paper Book
From the world's foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content...
The devil's castle : Nazi eugenics, euthanasia, and how psychiatry's troubled history reverberates today
Antonetta, Susanne
Paper Book
The Devil's Castle delves into the forgotten history of eugenics and links it to present-day psychiatry to explain how we as a culture continue to get mind care so wrong In The Devil's Castle, Susanne Paola Antonetta weaves a haunting narrative that confronts the...

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