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Sciencey summer books we love: Pompeii, quantum physics, and more
SciAm books editor Bri Kane shares her favorite science books for every summer mood
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American 's Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feltman. You're listening to part two of our summer reading series. Today I'm chatting with SciAm 's books and culture lead, Bri Kane. She's going to tell us more about the magazine's Summer Reading Challenge, plus some of her own favorite summer reads.
Bri, thanks so much for coming on to chat with us today.
Bri Kane: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me, Rachel. I'm so excited to talk to you.
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Feltman: I think we did this last summer, talking about some summer reads to recommend for our listeners. But this summer is extra special because of our Summer Reading Challenge. So why don't we start by you telling us a little bit about that?
Kane: Yeah, I mean, summer is the best time of year to read, to find all of the books you've been saving up and to take them on vacation with you. So we're doing Scientific American 's first-ever Summer Reading Challenge this year, where it's basically book bingo. You get the bingo card on our website or our social media, and you read along and do some bookish activities with us this summer, and you can win some really cool prizes. I got some special reading challenge tote bags and stickers, as well as all of our classic Scientific American stickers and fun stuff.
Feltman: Amazing. Well, let's start with your first recommendation. Why don't you tell me about a nonfiction book you're excited about?
Kane: Yeah, Entangled States, by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, came out this year, and I'm still thinking about it even though I finished it a few weeks ago. It's a queer physicist turned science journalist who writes [these] memoirish physics essays. It's incredible. I mean, they connect the concepts of, like, quantum physics and ultracold particles to learning about yourself as a queer person and coming to America to get a better education and what living this life really means in our modern world, but again, somehow connects it to quantum physics, which is not something I've thought about much recently, but I've been thinking about it a lot more since reading this book.
Feltman: Yeah, it's also not even our first recommended book involving queer physics this year . [Laughs.]
Kane: Exactly. There's something happening in physics, and I'm really excited about it. I mean, this—it's really heartfelt, it's really relatable, but it's also a really fast read. Like, it's really not that long, and I flew through it. I thought it was incredible.
Feltman: Well, and that leads me to an important question, which is: What makes something a good beach read to you? Obviously these are summer reads, maybe not specifically beach reads, but I feel like that's the quintessential summer reading situation.
Kane: For me, a beach read is something that I don't wanna put down, that I can read really quickly at the beach, that's really exciting as soon as I open it up. Even if I put it down to run into the waves or to build a little sandcastle, as soon as I pick it back up, I wanna be enthralled and like, "Oh, my god, I can't believe that I was even able to put this down for a moment."
And this one is definitely like that. The short essays really grab you, but because they're short, you have lots of nice little checkpoints to finish your reading and go do something else in between chapters.
Feltman: Oh, wow. That is a perfect summer read feature. But as much as having bite-sized reads on the beach, you know, can satisfy some folks, others, they wanna sink their teeth into something and really get lost in the sauce of a book, wherever they are—including on the beach. So what recommendations do you have for them?
Kane: I mean, if you're looking for a big, dense nonfiction for this summer, I think The Lost Voices of Pompeii, it's by Dr. Jess Venner, is an absolute must read. I mean, we all remember learning about Pompeii and the excitement of the volcanoes and all of the destruction that happened so quickly. It's really exciting to think about. But there's these huge gaps in the historical record, and there's only so much we can understand about those final moments. This book really tries to tackle that and address the difficulty in tackling that in a really interesting way. If you're trying to slowly read a nonfiction over a long trip or a long vacation, this is definitely one that's worth it to make room in your luggage. Like, this one is going to have you putting down and telling everyone around you, "Did you know this about Pompeii?" for days on end.
Feltman: Yeah, that sounds great. Not my cup of tea, personally, but that's what's so awesome about Scientific American 's book coverage: there's something for everyone. [Laughs.]
Kane: Even if you weren't a volcano kid, this one is still a really cool science history book, and it will get you a bingo box.
Feltman: Ooh, yeah. Remind us what some of the bingo boxes are. There's some really fun ones in there.
Kane: Yeah, we're trying to read from authors that are underrepresented in science. We're trying to read some STEMinist romance, some ecohorror, trying out audiobooks, trying out annotating your books or keeping a books journal. I do this. I've been doing it religiously for a few years, and I think it's really helped my reading life.
We're also buddy reading with SciAm staff, so if you listen in and read any of these books along with me this summer, that counts as a buddy read. But we're doing all sorts of really fun stuff: going to the library, reading your book outside, reading science history books. I mean, there's a ton.
Feltman: I know there's an audiobo...
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