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#Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America by Leila Philip is a worthy followup for anyone who discovered #Beavers through 2019's #Eager by Ben Goldfarb. It's not for the squeamish, as one reads quite a lot about trapping. But one gets a perspective on the beaver's role in #AmericanHistory, and on the people who respect beavers. A readable #PersonalNarrative in the tradition of #NewJournalism. www.twelvebooks.com/titles/leila-philip/beaverland/9781538755198/

Scattershot: Life, Music, Elton, and Me by Bernie Taupin. Perfect title. Bernie is a brilliant writer, but don’t expect organization. And surprisingly little about his decades of writing lyrics for Elton John. But you’ll get elegantly-written observations about everything from love to drugs to Australia to horses to California. Who knew that Bernie was a champion on the cutting circuit? An entertaining read. #Scattershot #BernieTaupin #EltonJohn #California #Australia #Horses #NetGalley shortestrevs.com/blog/scattershot-life-music-elton-and-me/

Have you read dozens of books about the Beatles and know all sorts of trivia about them? Are you okay with messy books -- not because the book is not well-written, but because the story it tells doesn't have a neat and tidy ending? If so, Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans by Kenneth Womack is for you. It includes much of Mal Evans’ own autobiography, and comments from many of his family and friends. Recommended for the right people. #Beatles #Biography #netgalley shortestrevs.com/blog/living-the-beatles-legend-the-untold-story-of-mal-evans/

Trying to explain things like string theory with almost no mathematics is pretty well impossible, no matter how well-written. Even a lifelong sciencephile found This Way to the Universe: A Theoretical Physicist's Journey to the Edge of Reality by Michael Dine pretty dense. But reading anecdotes about famous scientists helps, although don’t be surprised if you get lost in the exponents along the way. Definitely not a quick or easy read. #Physics #netgalley shortestrevs.com/blog/this-way-to-the-universe-a-theoretical-physicists-journey-to-the-edge-of-reality/

The stories of the 35 astronauts selected in 1978 were recently told in The New Guys by Meredith Bagby. Among that groundbreaking group were NASA’s first six women astronauts, whose influence changed spaceflight, and arguably society, forever. Loren Grush tells their stories in The Six: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts. Forty years on, the struggles they overcame are still inspirational. One giant leap for everyone. #Astronauts #NASA #Spaceflight #netgalley shortestrevs.com/blog/the-six-the-untold-story-of-americas-first-women-astronauts/

What interesting people did not get #obituaries in the #NewYorkTimes? A few are collected in Overlooked: A Celebration of Remarkable, Underappreciated People Who Broke the Rules and Changed the World by Amisha Padnani. One could argue whether the first woman to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel actually “changed the world,” but many in this book did, whether their names are now familiar, like Alan Turing, or have fallen into obscurity. This collection shows how personal editorial choices are. #netgalley shortestrevs.com/blog/overlooked-a-celebration-of-remarkable-underappreciated-people/

If you don't want to browse the @atlasobscura website in the bathroom, The Impossible Road Trip by Eric Dregni might be more convenient. A well-illustrated (comparative sizes of Paul Bunyan statues?) and fun collection of travel trivia.

A Brit on Rt. 50 in the age of Trump. Slow Road to San Francisco follows Londoner David Reynolds from Ocean City, MD to the West Coast, mixing humor (his takes on baseball and roadside motels are hilarious), familiar locations & history that many Americans don't know.

Ron Evans? Who? A biography of one of the least-known astronauts, Geoffrey Bowman's A Long Voyage to the Moon tells Evans' story through those who knew him. A surprisingly different viewpoint for those who thought they already knew everything about the space age. #NetGalley

Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars: The Story of the First American Woman to Command a Space Mission by Eileen Collins starts slowly but soon becomes a page-turner. Of particular interest to young women who want to follow in Col. Collins' pioneering footsteps.