This Mortal Coil: A History of Death

"One of my favourites is an upbeat book about death: This Mortal Coil: A History of Death by biochemist Andrew Doig. The first chapter is entitled “What is Death?” which turns out to be a great starting point for a highly readable book that really does put the work of the Grim Reaper in perspective. If skeletons are your thing, forensic anthropologist Sue Black’s latest book is out in paperback: Written in Bone: Hidden Stories in What We Leave Behind. It won the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction award last year, awarded by the UK’s Crime Writers’ Association. While we’re on the subject of crime, A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by scientist, teacher and writer Neil Bradbury has gone down very well with readers (including Sue Black ) as both entertaining and informative. Dark and Magical Places is really fascinating on the neuroscience of navigation, written by someone who seems to have an even worse sense of direction than I do, scientist and author Christopher Kemp. Another book that’s been very well-received is Otherlands by palaeobiologist Thomas Halliday , taking us on a trip into pre-human history and written almost as a work of nature or travel writing. If you’ve always wondered what it would have been like to live in Alaska during the Pleistocene or Liaoning in China during the Cretaceous, this is the book for you. Psychology Books I always look out for psychology books as I find it fascinating reading about what my brain might be up to and am always slightly battling anxiety. T he Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World by science writer David Robson looks at how our expectations about what will happen affect outcomes (short answer: quite a lot). Emotional: The New Thinking About Feelings by theoretical physicist and bestselling author Leonard Mlodinow is told with gripping stories (even if, thanks to Lisa Feldman Barrett, I already know some of the underlying science he’s conveying). Business Books"