Books like The Secret of Scent by Luca Turin

A lively exploration of how maps shape and reflect civilization, highlighting the bidirectional influence between cartography and history through engaging stories and map lore.

Gary Greenberg challenges conventional views on the early Israelites, arguing that they were native Egyptians and that pre‑Exodus biblical narratives are largely derived from Egyptian mythology.

A captivating memoir about Luca Turin's lifelong quest to understand and decode the sense of smell, leading to a Nobel Prize-winning breakthrough.

In a quiet Southern cemetery, Finch Nobles—the survivor of a childhood fire—tends flowers and hears the voices of the dead, whose stories interweave with her own lonely life and the town’s hidden grief.

An olfactory adventure that explores the trends and crazes that have shaped the way we've spritzed over the past century. Signature scents and now-lost masterpieces, the visionaries who conceived them; the wild and wonderful campaigns that launched them; the women and men who wore them--every perfume has a tale to tell. Join Lizzie Ostrom, the nose behind "Odette Toilette," as she examines one hundred perfumes and scents in all their fragrant glory, revealing a fascinating social history along the way. From the belle époque through the swinging sixties, to the naughty nineties and into the aughts, Ostrom brings intelligence and wit to this most ravishing of subjects. There was the patriotic impact of English Lavender during World War I, and perfumes that captured the Egyptomania of the 1920s. Estée Lauder created Youth Dew and with it, distilled the essence of 1950s suburbia. Patchouli oil, the "anti-perfume" of the 1960s, was sure to keep money out of the hands of corporations and "the man." And who could forget the fervor created by the grunge androgyny of CK One? Scent is truly a passport to memory, making this book both a lush treat and an insightful examination of the twentieth century through the most mysterious of the five senses.--Adapted from dust jacket.

From the acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams, here is an inspired, lyrical meditation on religion and science that explores the tension between our yearning for permanence and certainty, and the modern scientific discoveries that demonstrate the impermanent and uncertain nature of the world. As a physicist, Alan Lightman has always held a scientific view of the world. As a teenager experimenting in his own laboratory, he was impressed by the logic and materiality of a universe governed by a small number of disembodied forces and laws that decree all things in the world are material and impermanent. But one summer evening, while looking at the stars from a small boat at sea, Lightman was overcome by the overwhelming sensation that he was merging with something larger than himself--a grand and eternal unity, a hint of something absolute and immaterial. Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine is Lightman's exploration of these seemingly contradictory impulses. He draws on sources ranging from Saint Augustine's conception of absolute truth to Einstein's theory of relativity, from the unity of the once-indivisible atom to the multiplicity of subatomic particles and the recent notion of multiple universes. What he gives us is a profound inquiry into the human desire for truth and meaning, and a journey along the different paths of religion and science that become part of that quest. -- Provided by publisher.

A definitive, comprehensive guide to over 1,200 perfumes, written by scent experts Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez, blending scientific insight with critical review to help readers navigate fragrance choices.

A layperson's guide to the inescapable stew we're in.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer Avis Lang explore how astrophysics tools—from celestial navigation to satellite warfare—have shaped and been shaped by military power, revealing a long‑standing, mutually influential relationship between science and defense.