PD Smith Book Recommendations & Book Mentions
This list consists of recommendations or mentions of books spotted in media, social media accounts, podcasts or other public websites.
PD Smith on X
PD Smith is an independent researcher and writer. Books - City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age, Doomsday Men, Einstein, Metaphor & Materiality. Reviews - @GuardianBooks, @TheTLS, etc.

Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive
Carl Zimmer
Life’s Edge by Carl Zimmer is a subtle and profound meditation on the science of life. It is filled with insights into the past and future of biology, and explores how scientists are probing the origins of life and how it may have evolved on other worlds. https://t.co/yPHmetPtFH
Paperback, 2022
$18.00$9.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Emperor's Feast
Jonathan Clements
In The Emperor’s Feast, Jonathan Clements cleverly uses food – the part of Chinese culture with which many western people are most familiar – as a way of charting the complex history of China, a vast country made up of many peoples, cultures and cuisines. https://t.co/og0FqOE7my
Paperback, 2022
$17.99$8.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s delightful 2003 book Gathering Moss was published for the first time in the UK. With scientific insights and indigenous natural knowledge, she shows that we need “to live like mosses” if we want to preserve our natural world. https://t.co/RF0JWK0mSN
Paperback, 2003
$18.95$9.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Planta Sapiens: The New Science of Plant Intelligence
Paco Calvo
In Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence, Paco Calvo asks us to set aside our “zoocentric” perspective and to radically revise our view of plants. A book that will change your view of plants! @littlebrown https://t.co/UL6WEUX1f7
Paperback, 2024
$19.99$9.99 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality
Kathryn Paige Harden
In The Genetic Lottery, Kathryn Paige Harden argues that, just as class & income can increase inequality, so too can genes. She seeks to “reimagine the relationship between genetics and egalitarianism” so that everyone is treated fairly. @PrincetonUPress https://t.co/DP4sj2gXiH
Paperback, 2022
$18.95$9.48 + Free shipping50% off your first book
We Own This City: A True Story of Crime, Cops, and Corruption
Justin Fenton
The New York Times said it was “one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation”. In We Own This City, Justin Fenton, a crime reporter for the Baltimore Sun, tells the shocking story. @FaberBooks https://t.co/pmLMNQYVp3
Paperback, 2022
$18.99$9.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Slime: A Natural History
Susanne Wedlich
According to science writer Susanne Wedlich, “we are all creatures of slime”. Her book is a delightfully entertaining and illuminating celebration of the “the dripping and oozing glory of slime”. @GrantaBooks https://t.co/I9p7XLHKLV
Hardcover, 2023
$28.99$14.49 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Sybil & Cyril: Cutting Through Time
Jenny Uglow
Jenny Uglow grew up with two linocuts in her family home – one by Cyril Power & the other by Sybil Andrews. Sybil & Cyril tells the story of their unconventional lives and is a brilliantly vivid evocation of British culture between the wars. @FaberBooks https://t.co/ZzD3zLZdwp
Out of stock

The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World
Suzie Sheehy
[Sheehy's] journey through the history of particle physics reveals the extraordinary ingenuity of experimental scientists and their selfless dedication to answering big questions about matter and the universe.
Hardcover, 2023
$30.00$15.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
The Story of Yoga: From Ancient India to the Modern West
Alistair Shearer
The Story of Yoga by Alistair Shearer (@HurstPublishers) is a detailed and entertaining celebration of yoga in Indian and Western culture. As the Bengali sage Anandamayi Ma said, unless yoga “aims at the Eternal, it is nothing more than gymnastics. https://t.co/7cjMHBl58j
Paperback, 2022
$17.95$8.98 + Free shipping50% off your first book