Transient and Strange: Notes on the Science of Life | 
pickI applied to undergrad as a Journalism major & never took a single Journalism class. As soon as I realized what kind of writing it required (in a word: spare), I was out. 🙈 I‘m telling this story because Greenfieldboyce, the author of Transient & Strange, is an American radio journalist, the science correspondent for NPR. I‘m sure that she delighted in the freedom to write as much (or as little) as she wanted in this memoir-essay collection. 👇🏻
monalyisha 1/1: Unfortunately, I found her short-form essays to be much more powerful (“Spider at the window”, “A Moment of silence”) — not necessarily in content but they were so impressively well-crafted! Fortunately, I was also thoroughly delighted by some of the longer ones (“What else is there?”, “A life so precious as a flea‘s”, “A very charming young black hole”). Most fortunately of all, I found the book as a whole compelling & supremely readable. (edited) 3mo
monalyisha *A note about the cover: it‘s my favorite cover design in years and years. The meteoroids depicted are shiny, raised, and metallic. It suddenly hit me, about 3/4 through the collection & partway-through a pet, that the featured colors were those I listed as childhood favorites. Whenever anyone asked, I‘d exclaim, “Black, silver, and HOT BLUE!” What a (fitting) blast from the past! ☄️💫 3mo
