Journey Through the World With These Peculiar Microhistories

On Lighthouses by Jazmina Barrera, Translated by Christina MacSweeney

I’ve ne'er met a lighthouse I didn’t privation to cognize much about. Jazmina Barrera dives into these beauteous structures that awesome “people are here” passim past and literature. On Lighthouses is some beauteous memoir and riveting literate past — each astir uncovering a light. 

Pipe Dreams: The Urgent Global Quest to Transform the Toilet by Chelsea Wald

Pipe Dreams is my favourite benignant of microhistory: The 1 I didn’t cognize I desperately needed successful my life. Chelsea Wald chronicles the taboo past of toilets without shying distant from the atrocious parts — similar illness and privilege and h2o discarded — and shining a airy connected the scientists, engineers, and activists who are moving toward a new, much accessible benignant of sanitation. 

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Smile Stealers: The Fine and Foul Art of Dentistry by Richard Barnett

Bet you ne'er thought you’d find a publication astir your favourite spot connected earth. Smile Stealers is simply a chronology of the horrifying past of dentistry — from dentures and smiles successful photographs to its usage successful forensics — implicit with illustrations of tools and techniques to marque your look hurt. Medical historiographer Richard Barnett doesn’t clasp thing backmost successful this fascinating book. 

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Is determination a amended spot than the mall? They inspired works by George Romero and Joan Didion, arsenic good arsenic galore a teenage nightmare. Today they basal arsenic a dystopian relic of in-person consumerism. Alexandra Lange explores the invention and bequest of the modern buying mall, from architecture to community, successful Meet Me by the Fountain. 

Why We Swim by Bonnie Tsui

It sounds obvious, but it’s worthy mentioning: Humans aren’t natural-born swimmers. We person to beryllium taught, archetypal arsenic a means of survival, and present arsenic amusive and sport. Why We Swim follows swimmers astir the world, from Olympic champions to a fisherman who survived a six-hour aquatics aft a shipwreck. Bonnie Tsui is simply a swimmer herself, making her the cleanable idiosyncratic to dive into what it is that draws america to water. 

Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization by Edward Slingerland

The past of drinking tin get a small blurry, what with tales of bacchanals and pouring 1 retired for the homies, but Edward Slingerland sets it consecutive successful Drunk. Using each forms of science, medicine, and history, arsenic good arsenic lit — of people — helium breaks down what it is that draws humans to emotion intoxicant and however it tin possibly adjacent beryllium bully for us. Even much than that are tales of effect flies, fish, and crows who are known to imbibe. 

Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen

Wild aesculapian past is simultaneously the champion and worst. Quackery takes a look astatine 67 real-life cures that were not really cures. Like giving morphine to crying babies (yikes) oregon consuming tapeworms to suffer value (no thanks). Lydia Kang’s wit shines successful this romp done bizarre aesculapian experiments and scams done the ages. 

Dark Archives: A Librarian’s Investigation Into the Science and History of Books Bound successful Human Skin by Megan Rosenbloom

We saved the champion for last. Did you cognize determination were books bound successful quality skin? Megan Rosenbloom, a librarian and journalist, tells the tales of these books and the humans that brought them into the world. Dark Archives is some a technological past and a forensic travel arsenic Rosenbloom’s squad tests books to spot what they’re made of.