Science

Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection / John Green

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Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection
By: John Green
Genre: Nonfiction, History
Number of Pages: 198
Published: March 18, 2025
Publisher: Crash Course Books
Dates Read: July 12, 2025 - July 14, 2025
Format: Library Book / Audiobook

John Green talks about tuberculosis’ history and how it’s connected to many things.

This book goes beyond statistics by putting a name to a patient, Henry, a young tuberculosis patient at Lakka Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, and humanizing the experience of living with TB. 

Green isn’t wrong that everything is tuberculosis – is some of it stretched a little bit to make the connection? Sometimes, but for how long this disease has been around, it’s bound to be connected to everything in some way, shape, or another.

I do applaud Green for calling out big pharmaceutical companies (cough cough Johnson&Johnson) for having such high prices for medicine for no other reason than greed – because if you heal a patient, that’s one less person using your medicine. 

“What’s different now from 1804 or 1904 is that tuberculosis is curable, and has been since the mid-1950s. We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis. But we choose not to live in that world.”

But also the fact that TB becomes drug resistant because it’s constantly evolving into different strains is INSANE.

Overall, I knew I would enjoy this book – I like anything John Green writes to be honest. This is definitely a crash course in tuberculosis, but it’s an amazing starting point for people.

An Immense World / Ed Young

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An Immense World
By: Ed Yong
Genre: Nonfiction, Science, Nature
Number of Pages: 464
Published: January 1, 2023 (1st Published June 21, 2022)
Publisher: Random House
Dates Read: May 25, 2024 - June 9, 2024
Format: Hardcover

In An Immense World, author and science journalist Ed Yong challenges us to think beyond our own senses to perceive the world around us through the eyes (and senses) of animals and insects alike.

Shoutout to my first ever nonfiction science book that wasn’t assigned to me for a class (yes, I’ve been out of school for nine years…).

This definitely made me think about animals and not only their place in the world, but mine as well. I still think about the amount of smells my dogs are experiencing every time I let them outside to use the restroom – it gives me a little patience, even if I’m in a time crunch and they’re smelling everything.

There was a lot of information that was given throughout this book. I had to take this in chunks and read another book alongside it – which I don’t usually do and will read one book from front to cover before picking up the next one. I knew I would get “annoyed” with just reading information upon information. I’m glad I broke it up because it did help me enjoy it more. That, and marking fun facts that I enjoyed (another thing I don’t do).

I really enjoyed the footnotes that the author included within the pages, to me, that made the information a little more personal and felt like a friend was giving me fun facts from their field. I may not understand everything, but those footnotes helped a lot.

Everyone should try and read this. It’ll open your eyes to seeing the world in a whole new way! If nonfiction, or science isn’t your thing, trust me, I know, break this up into chunks. Ed Yong breaks up the chapters into sections that are only a few pages at most, and just read those here and there.

Just some of the fun facts I learned or, that I have continuously thought about, since finishing this:

  • Ants are essentially a group of highly specialist wasps that evolved.
    • This explains why I don’t like looking at ants up close – I hate wasps with a passion.
  • How “quiet” is the world now that there aren’t massively big animals roaming around?

Inventor Adventure: A Self-Watering Journey / Selma Benkiran

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Inventor Adventure
By: Selma Benkiran
Genre: Children’s, Science 
Number of Pages: 36
Published: January 19, 2024
Publisher: Mi Camino Publishing
Dates Read: April 24, 2024
Format: eBook

When Lilo realizes his beloved plants won’t be watered while he’s on vacation, he decides to simply invent a machine that will water them for him. The job is easier said than done and Lilo gets discouraged by the setbacks, but his family has his back and teaches him valuable lessons with each one.

As a plant lover who struggles to remember which plant needs watering and when – even when I see my plants everyday! – I empathize with Lilo, especially when you’ve kept certain plants alive for a long time.

His determination to find a solution, even when there were setbacks, were encouraging, even to this adult.

This book is filled with a lot of trial and errors and Selma Benkiran explains all the steps and thought processes through it all. One of my favorites was:

“Forget perfect. Start with good enough. An easy solution that you can have fun inventing. Then make it better and better.”

That’s just something I feel like adults need reminding of too.

Overall, this book is engaging and informative for all ages. Parents will have fun reading to their littles.

*Thank you for the author for reaching out with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Secrets of the Octopus / Sy Montgomery

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Secrets of the Octopus
By: Sy Montgomery
Genre: Nonfiction, Science
Number of Pages: 192
Published: March 19, 2024
Publisher: National Geographic
Dates Read: March 15, 2024 - March 16, 2024
Format: ARC / eBook

Filled with beautiful National Geographic photography, Secrets of the Octopus explores the underwater world of the octopus and brings to light new information that affirms the underwater, alien-like creatures are one of the world’s most intelligent and complex creatures.

Y’all – this is my first nonfiction book that’s not a memoir and/or wasn’t assigned to me in school (which, I’ve been out of school for 9 years, if that tells you anything…). I asked for an advance copy of this off NetGalley because that always gives me a little more pressure on myself to actually read the book and not just say I will. Plus, once I found out this was a companion novel for the newest special coming out, I wanted it even more. Oh man, am I glad I did.

Obviously being my first nonfiction novel, I haven’t read anything by Sy Montgomery before, but I really like her writing. It was informative but I never felt like I was just being thrown the science. It was written in a way that was easy to follow and understand. I was constantly screenshotting and highlighting things all the time. I read this in two days and then proceeded to chat my partner’s ear off about it over lunch the following day.

I learned so many things and am proud to say octopuses are my new favorite marine animal.

Overall, I believe anyone who picks up this book will be walking away a little bit more of a lover of these eight-legged saltwater creatures with this easy to digest novel. This will also get one excited for the miniseries coming out here soon.

*Thank you National Geographic and NetGalley for an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Pebbles and the Biggest Number / Joey Benun, Laura Watson (Illustrator)

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Pebbles and the Biggest Number
By: Joey Benun, Laura Watson (Illustrator)
Genre: Children's, Science
Number of Pages: 48
Published: July 1, 2023
Publisher: Joey Benun / Self Published
Dates Read: July 21, 2023
Format: eBook

Pebbles the Butterfly loves to count. One day, he sets out to travel around the world to find the biggest number. On his travels, he meets tons of friends, and experiences all kinds of crazy weather. What’s the biggest number Pebbles can find?

This is such a wonderful children’s book about the fun and excitement of numbers. As a kid (and still as an adult honestly), I love learning random facts and this book is full of them as we follow along with Pebbles’ travels, including Number Note, where you see how many zeros are in a number, Did You Know?, where there’s fun facts about something on the current page(s), and Science Spots, with interesting science facts.

I can see a wide range of children enjoying this book due to the amazing and bright illustrations done by Laura Watson. I can see the ones reading the book to the children would also have a fun time reading because of all the little facts and tidbits within the story. There’s even a spot where it prompts the child to ask an adult what the biggest number they know is.

This is cute and adorable and I can’t wait to share the fun facts that I learn from it.

*Thank you Joey Benun for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review