It's difficult to give a review of this book, which consists of essays on different topics and subjects in science. It's not my cup of tea but each to their own.

I really enjoyed Dr. Schwarcz's book, the first title of his I've read. As a popular science and medical history nerd, the topics are wide-ranging and fascinating, delivered in bite-size format. Sometimes scientific writing requires a lot of mental bandwidth on the reader's part, but these essays are short, not overly complicated or highly jargon-y, appealing to a broader audience. The author's conversational, storytelling style was engaging, and I learned a bit from each snippet (some were more interesting to me than others, e.g. 'Aconite Murder' 'Oh, That Old Book Smell' and 'Silkworm Poo'). Based on other reviews, the author has books similar to Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex, so I will be looking out for those. Only complaints are that the book could really use a table of contents or index, and the editing needs to be tightened. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

In Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex, Dr. Joe Schwarcz provides short blurbs about everyday science stuff that are easy to digest and focus more on the story of the science rather jumping straight into the hard concepts. Dr. Schwarcz’s writing is very approachable and each segment is short enough to read in just a few minutes and feel satisfied about learning something. This was the first time I had read any of Dr. Schwarcz’s work; when I saw the title on NetGalley “Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life” I had to check it out to see if there is anything that can possibly be worked into any of the “science of everyday life” courses I teach. I think that the simple explanations of techniques and concepts in layman terms is great for any non-scientist to jump into.

This book is designed to make the reader think critically about buzzwords and the science in the news – like “superfoods” and “biobased”. These words make things sound positive and beneficial to health and the environment – but a lot of it is just good marketing. Even as a scientist, I found myself starting to think more skeptically about headlines popping up!

The nature of the book is such that there is no cohesive plot line or large organization. This makes it easy to jump in anywhere and to share select stories to supplement some general learning in a classroom setting. I do think that I personally would have enjoyed it a bit more if it was organized by timeline or by larger topic. As an educator, I wish that the table of contents had a bit more descriptions of each segment or an index at the end so they are easier to reference. I also had a want for references and recommended further readings on the topics; especially for a book that was pushing some healthy skepticism, not citing the sources had me raise an eyebrow. I am not sure if Dr. Schwarcz’s works usually include an index or references in the final version.

All in all I think that this work does show that there is “science, science everywhere” and that “we all practice science on a daily basis” in our critical thinking and reasoning with the world around us.

Strong Points: For the most part, the essays were pretty interesting, and I walked away learning something from them. Like the stingers on bees contain the same chemical that is responsible for giving bananas their signature smell. And bats are the primary pollinators of agave. No bats = no tequila
The author is the director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society and has published several books in this format. It’s clear he’s very knowledgeable, yet he did a nice job of being playful with these essays.

Weak Points: A few essays weren’t as clever as others. While I enjoyed this book, it felt a little coffee table-booky—not one you would need to read cover to cover.

An interesting collection of little science stories. Rather reminded me of a more serious take on "Uncle John's Bathroom Readers". You can read the book from cover to cover, or just pick out the stories that interest you. Not a hard read. Could have used a good proofreader.

A interesting overview of many topics, which the reader can then pursue more in depth on their own. The book could have done with a better edit, some sentences were repetitive.

This is the first book that I have read by Dr. Joe and I loved it! The short chapters of fascinating subjects are perfect for times when you only have a few minutes to read. I always seem to have multiple books in play: car book, porch book, bedside book, etc. This one makes a perfect car book. You can read a chapter in a few minutes while you are waiting for an appointment. Would be the perfect book for a Ride Share driver!!! Full disclosure, I was lucky enough to be given an advanced copy of this book to preview. But, the opinion is all mine.

While it’s to be expected, there are some errors that could benefit from additional proofreading. Dr. Schwarcz covers a wide range of scientific topics. Some topics are admittedly more interesting than others. Each snippet is digestible, informative, and easily captures the attention of the reader. Books surrounding science can often be overwhelming and overly technical at times, however, that’s not an issue for this author. This is a perfect book for those of us who want to continue learning without having to dive in to overwhelming literature.

Josef Schwarcz is a Hungarian-Canadian chemistry teacher whose endeavour it was to make his fairly dry subject a bit more entertaining for his audience.
This 8th offering by Schwarcz is another rather random collection of bite-size chunks of chemistry in our daily lives has achieved just that:
From bee stingers that smell of danger (and bananas) to the accidental spill that gave us vulcanised rubber, from meat juice to manufacturing lead shot, to death by monkshood poisoning, shrink-wrapped cucumbers, Hitler’s penchant for probiotics laced with psycho drugs or “that old book smell”, you can find it all in here.

Ideal for your knowledge-hungry five-minute coffee breaks.

This book is a collection of popular science essays, covering lots of different subjects. Each one is a good introduction to its subject, leaving you to decide if you want to learn more about the subject. It does however need a proofreader, there are sentences repeated back to back in some of the essays.

I loved this book. As with his previous books, the snippets are well written and in a conversational tone, with Dr. Schwarcz showing a good sense of humor. The topics are fascinating and I found that there was a lot of great information that, to me, falls into the area of the history of science, which I love. Dr. Schwarcz also did a great job of not only discussing some scientists' accomplishments, but also calling them out for bad behaviour. I love the snippet format, that makes the book easy to pick up and read whenever some time pops up, although quite frankly I loved the book so much I just read it straight through. Although very sciency, Schwarcz explains everything very clearly and does not use jargon. Overall, this book is well worth reading and provides captivating accounts of science, for people familiar or not with science. Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for the advance reader copy.