Up Close and Personal - Microhistories

Ever been so interested in a topic that you wished you could put it under a microscope and see it in splendid detail? Microhistories let you do just that. They're adventures through every aspect of a subject letting you understand it from the inside out. History buffs and curious readers alike will relish these technicolour portraits.

Updated July 8, 2026
S
Saskatchewan Information & Library Services Consortium Regina Public Library
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Barbieland : The Unauthorized History
Hitt, Tarpley.
Paper Book
"Highbrow, brilliant." --New York magazine "A rollicking tale of how Mattel spied, copied, and stole its way to market dominance, then fought with military intensity to compel us to buy more and more." --The New York Times The...
Beaverland : How One Weird Rodent Made America
Philip, Leila.
Paper Book
An intimate and revelatory dive into the world of the beaver--the wonderfully weird rodent that has surprisingly shaped American history and may save its ecological future.  From award-winning writer Leila Philip, Beaverland is a masterful work of narrative science writing,...
The Book-Makers : A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives
Smyth, Adam.
Paper Book
The five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created them. "Smyth breathes both books-as-objects and their creators back into life." --Financial Times An Economist Book of the Year Books...
The Breath of the Gods : The History and Future of the Wind
Winchester, Simon.
Eager : the surprising, secret life of beavers and why they matter
Goldfarb, Ben (Environmental journalist)
Ebook
Frostbite : How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Twilley, Nicola.
Paper Book
Winner of the James Beard Award for Literary Writing "Engrossing...hard to put down." -- The New York Times Book Review "Frostbite is a perfectly executed cold fusion of science, history, and literary verve . . . as a fellow nonfiction writer, I bow down....
Hands of time : a watchmaker's history
Struthers, Rebecca
Paper Book
"A hugely entertaining achievement." -Esquire "An engaging survey through a period of intellectual history that reveals as much about people who wear watches as the objects on their wrists." - Wall Street Journal "As impeccably crafted and precisely...
The LEGO Story : How a Little Toy Sparked the World's Imagination
Andersen, Jens.
Paper Book
"Absolutely essential reading for every LEGO fan." --Blocks The definitive history of LEGO, based on unprecedented access to the company's archives and rare interviews with the founding family who still owns the company "This book tells the story of how my...
Meet Me by the Fountain An Inside History of the Mall
Lange, Alexandra.
Paper Book
Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Awards "A smart and accessible cultural history." -Los Angeles Times "A fantastic examination of what became the mall . . . envision[ing] a more meaningful public afterlife for our shopping centers."-...
The mosquito : a human history of our deadliest predator
Winegard, Timothy C.
Paper Book
**The instant New York Times bestseller.** *An international bestseller.* "Hugely impressive, a major work."--NPR A pioneering and groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction that offers a dramatic new perspective on the history of humankind, showing...
Paper : paging through history
Kurlansky, Mark
Paper Book
From the New York Times best-selling author of Cod and Salt, a definitive history of paper and the astonishing ways it has shaped today's world. Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to...
The professor and the madman : a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford dictionary
Winchester, Simon
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture
The rise and fall of the dinosaurs : a new history of a lost world
Brusatte, Stephen
Paper Book
"THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." --Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller * Goodreads Choice Awards ...
Salt : a world history
Kurlansky, Mark
Paper Book
"Kurlansky finds the world in a grain of salt." - New York Times Book Review An unlikely world history from the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World Best-selling author Mark Kurlansky turns his attention to a common...
The Story of Birds : A New History from Their Dinosaur Origins to the Present
Brusatte, Steve.
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ​​​ From the renowned paleontologist and bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, a sweeping evolutionary history of birds, from their dinosaur origins to the 10,000+ extraordinary species...
Whack Job : A History of Axe Murder
James, Rachel McCarthy.
Paper Book
A brilliant and bloody examination of the axe's foundational role in human history, from prehistoric violence, to war and executions, to newspaper headlines and popular culture. For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill. Much...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.