Book Review: Stuff Matters
Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Make Up Our Man-Made World
By Mark Miodownik
Adult Nonfiction
As a child, I was fascinated by how things were made. But as an adult, I began to see our tendency to move away from such learning in order to avoid becoming bogged down by the detail of it all—detail that, without our childlike sense of wonder, can just seem tedious at times.
Thankfully, Stuff Matters with its intelligent and whimsical yet down-to-earth funny style is sure to reignite that youthful passion of discovery all over again!
The book brings the man-made world to life, changing metals, plastics and paper into the fascinating materials that they are. Miodownik’s absorbing tales, both personal and historical, add flavor to the book, which discusses the everyday—and the rare—materials we tend to use without sparing much thought as to where they come from, how they work, or what they are made of. Some of the materials discussed occur naturally, such as diamond and coal, though the majority are man-made, turning even the most mundane of household staples into objects of fascination!
Be it steel, plastic, chocolate, glass, silicon chips, elastic or concrete, Miodownik has a gift for telling their stories in a way that is sure to engage.
To reserve a copy of the book from the Chehalis Library, click here.
And if you enjoy Stuff Matters be sure to check out The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean, available here.
