As recommended by readers of Electric Speed in February 2026

Animals & Nature

• While reading Ed Yong’s An Immense World, I bombarded my unsuspecting friends with texted animal science facts that they probably didn’t care about. I freaking loved that book and I hope your mom does too! —Jessica Snyder
• Your mom’s probably already read Ed Yong’s An Immense World, but if not, GO! She probably hasn’t encountered Thor Hanson’s Feathers. Those two are my all-time favorites. —Deb Robson
• I just finished Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. It’s an illuminating nonfiction account of living with a wild hare in a barn conversion in England. If your mom likes learning about animals, this book might be a good pick for her. It has many ‘who knew?’ moments. It also has delightful drawings of hares at the start of every chapter…a nice bonus. —AK White
• I recommend The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger. —Laurie Rawlins
• Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. A mix of memoir, biography (of the scientist/ichthyologist David Starr Jordan), and science (the taxonomy of fish). Lots of research by Miller, and yes there’s a metaphor at work. One of my top 10 favs. —Andrea A. Firth
• Science book: Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. —Carol Spindel
• I strongly recommend Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller. Readers of Electric Speed are likely to be charmed by its mix of memoir, biography and natural history. As Roger Ebert used to say, “Two thumbs up!” —Kristin Luker
• Jane, only one science book? That would have to be David Quammen’s Song of the Dodo, but surely everybody knows that one by now, so let me add Ed Yong’s An Immense World. Sid Mukherjee’s books are terrific, and let me mention a wonderful book that might not fit squarely in the science category: The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester. —Bob Peterson
• Couldn’t choose just one book to recommend. Whittled it down to three: An Immense World by Ed Yong, Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake, The Light Eaters by Zoe Schlanger. —Rachel Young
• In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall! And I highly recommend also listening to a couple of interviews of Jane in her later years—then you’ll really hear the book in Jane’s voice. For example—her interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the “Wiser Than Me” podcast which I also recommend. —Jen Darnell
• If she’s an animal lover, The Science of Pets by Jay Ingram is 10/10, as are all his other books, to be honest. He’s got some pop psychology ones like The End of Memory that are excellent as well. —Meg Wheeler
• My partner reads science books all the time. These are only a few of the many he recommends: The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth’s Past Mass Extinctions by science journalist Peter Brannen. Katie Mack’s The End of Everything, Astrophysically Speaking. Helen Scales’s The Brilliant Abyss. An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong. Our 10-year-old daughter read this twice. —Sandhya Jain-Patel
• Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn about indoor ecosystems, very interesting and accessible despite an academic author. Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist by Frans de Waal. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf, bio of remarkable man who anticipated Darwin. Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World by M. R. O’Connor. —Janet Majure

Biology, Evolution & Genetics

• I have two books for you, both by the same author Nick Lane. They're excellent books. And one can learn a lot in reading them. Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World and Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life. Pretty heavy reads, but very informative! —John Leschinski
• I love DNA, but R&D is leading us to the brave new world. Hacking Darwin by Jamie Metzl. —Becke Turner