Deborah Blum Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
Deborah Blum on X
Book author, science journalist, publisher of Undark, and director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at MIT.

The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science
Sam Kean
In which I review @sam_kean's book, The IcePick Surgeon, for @ScienceMagazine : 'A collection of vivid historical tales reveals scientists at their most fallible'. https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2021/07/13/the-icepick-surgeon/
Paperback, 2022
$19.99$9.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson
“Seventy-five years after scientists first warned of its hazards, 60 years after Rachel Carson wrote ‘Silent Spring,’ and 50 years after it was banned, DDT is still here.” https://undark.org/2022/05/13/book-review-the-toxic-legacy-of-ddt/ via @undarkmag
Paperback, 2022
$19.99$9.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Deborah Blum
Harvey Wiley is a forgotten hero of science. This is great. (I say as author of a book about his crusade for food safety, The Poison Squad!) https://t.co/rBCBZvcP21
Paperback, 2019
$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Jungle
Harold Bloom
This is such a vivid telling by @historyauthor of the 1906 food scandals and the political showdown forced by the grisly Upton Sinclair novel, The Jungle (with some perspective from me!) https://t.co/0YCqFOOVod
Hardcover, 2010
$49.95$24.98 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Undoing Drugs: How Harm Reduction Is Changing the Future of Drugs and Addiction
Maia Szalavitz
“The essence of harm reduction,” writes @maiasz “is compassion and respect for the inherent dignity and value of human life.” Terrific review of her terrific book Undoing Drugs in @undarkmag. https://undark.org/2021/09/03/book-review-undoing-drugs/ via @undarkmag
Paperback, 2022
$17.99$8.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon
Melissa L. Sevigny
My latest review for @nytimesbooks, Brave the Wild River by @MelissaSevigny , a story of women, courage, and very dangerous water: They Overcame Hazards — and Doubters — to Make Botanical History https://t.co/wiLTAw4XBH
Out of stock

The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Rivalry, Adventure, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Sam Kean
Thank you! And The Disappearing Spoon by @sam_kean is one of my all time favorite books about chemistry. Enjoy! https://t.co/jeEEiFMZl6
Paperback, 2019
$9.99$4.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law
Mary Roach
RT @mary_roach: Here's the UK edition of my fall release, Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. It has the title I had planned to use in the US…
Paperback, 2022
$16.95$8.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
What's Gotten Into You: The Story of Your Body's Atoms, from the Big Bang Through Last Night's Dinner
Dan Levitt
In which the talented @EmilyCataneo reviews @dan_levitt's book "What's Gotten into You" and finds fascination, wonder, and occasionally strange science: The Stuff We’re Made Of https://t.co/jdN4CEQnFI via @undarkmag
Paperback, 2024
$21.99$10.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
Maria Konnikova
"It’s an underdog tale in which the rise of the underdog has an air of inevitability and sweet revenge. It’s a nonfiction Bildungsroman minus the navel-gazing." Fabulous review of @mkonnikova's new book "The Biggest Bluff" in @nytimes today. https://t.co/qOm6Yii8F8
Paperback, 2021
$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book