'A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science'
This seemed like a useful (maintain background generalist knowledge) but un-stressful (at a nonscientists' level) evening's book; it probably was useful, and it was eventually enjoyable, but very odd to read. Angier makes a point of not writing in the dry, cagey, impersonal pitch of Real Science. I follow that far easily. But the whirligig, bubbly style she does use kept me off my balance; I had to cautiously interpret each non-literal statement to see if it was meaningful for the science, inaccurate with respect to the science; most of it was neutral decoration on the content, playing with the sound of sound words. I don't think she ever misleads a reader, not one who doesn't believe in the Doctrine of Signatures anyway. People who can handle the dry style are well-enough served by pop science publishing as it is. So this ought to be a useful and enjoyable book for some people now ill-served.
A sample sentence: "Like bones, structural proteins give the cell its shape and integrity, and like bone tissue they are not at all inert, are in fact so feisty and eager to flaunt their powers that one might think they belonged to the metaphoric skeletons that one tries to keep in one's closet."
The cover art on the paperback has the effect on me that I think the prose has on its intended audience; I don't need to interpret every step, I just like looking at it. The artist, Marian Bantjes, has a lovely website, including startling amounts of what I can't help but see as Pee-Chee doodles, immanent with talent; and other techniques, more or less formal. I particularly liked Sugar.
Find in a Library: The Canon, ISBN-13 978-0-547-05346-2
So wrote clew in Science.