Looking to add some microbiology into your reading routine? This list of microbiology books reflects the many ways that microbes touch our lives – from being the organisms behind illnesses to the little helpers that help us make food.
So here it is, a microbiology summer reading list for microbiology enthusiasts out there. If you have a favorite microbiology book not listed here, I’d love to know, too. Happy reading!
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Microbiology books I’ve read (plus, a cookbook)
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures: I’m only part way into this book but it’s fantastic. I’ve learned so much about lichen from it (and reading this inspired my blog post on the great microbial outdoors). This book covers both the microscopic and the macroscopic when it comes to fungi: truffles, zombie ants, and more fungal goodness.
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life: If you’re looking for your first introduction to microbes, read this one. I absolutely love reading Ed Yong’s work and this book is no exception. There’s so much joy about microbes in it and it exemplifies the intricate ways microbes interact with one another or with other organisms.
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World: I didn’t know much about the networks underground that connect trees and allow them to communicate with one another until I read this book. This book takes you through the many ways of cooperation and antagonism between fungi and plants.
Life at the Edge of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World: I love how this book combines science and art in its wonderful imagery and prose. The majority of the photographs come from co-author and microbiologist Scott Chimileski, who I have blogged with in the past (and finally met outside of our neighborhood Trader Joe’s after years of microbial collaborations). It really makes a great coffee table book.
Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues: As someone who has studied Helicobacter pylori and antimicrobial resistance, it was natural that I’d be drawn to this book. This book delves into the overuse of antibiotics and other modern day practices (ex: over sanitizing and cesarean sections) that rid us of our internal microbial friends. In turn, this affects our health and the author, Martin Blaser, links our vanishing microbiota to conditions such as asthma, obesity, and irritable bowel disease.
Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats: I’ve been following Maryn McKenna’s journalistic work for some time, so I was excited to start reading this. Having studied antimicrobial resistance, I was really interested in how antibiotics fit the One Health model and this book covers exactly that.
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History: I read this one early on during the COVID-19 pandemic. There’s tons of details in this book about the 1918 influenza pandemic and honestly, I didn’t finish it. It’ll perhaps be a better read when the COVID-19 pandemic is (hopefully) more distant
Tartine Bread: This is definitely more of a cookbook than a science book, but it’s a great resource for those interested in making sourdough breads and more. There’s a lot of details here and it’s the kind of cookbook I can curl up with and just read. Their basic sourdough recipe at the beginning of the book is a reliable go-to for me.
Microbiology books on my reading list
Let’s face it. There is no way I can stop this list from growing and growing. Here are some books I’ve kept my eye on in my general reading list.
- Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague
- Never Home Alone: From Microbes to Millipedes, Camel Crickets, and Honeybees, the Natural History of Where We Live
- Microbia: A Journey into the Unseen World Around You
- The Perfect Predator: A Scientist’s Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug: A Memoir
- Miracle Cure: The Creation of Antibiotics and the Birth of Modern Medicine
- Bread Science: The Chemistry and Craft of Making Bread
- Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life
- Good Germs, Bad Germs: Health and Survival in a Bacterial World
What are you currently reading? And what has been your favorite microbiology book?
Featured image by Abhi Sharma.
There are two recent books that I highly recommend.
“The Hidden Beauty of the Microscopic World” by James Weiss. James is the Master of Microscopes for the “Journey to the Microcosmos” YouTube channel. It is a pretty quick read with gorgeous pictures.
“The Secret Language of Cells” by Jon Lieff, MD. One quarter of the book (Section III – The World Of Microbe Communication) – 8 chapters covering almost 80 pages – discusses ways in which microbes communicate and those that they communicate with. In the Appendix, Lieff lists articles for further study related to each chapter.
Other microbiology books (not in the above lists) that you may want to check out –
“Thinking Like a Phage: The Genius of the Viruses That Infect Bacteria and Archaea” by Merry Youle
“Life in Our Phage World: A Centennial Field Guide to the Earth’s Most Diverse Inhabitants” by Forest
Rohwer, Merry Youle, Heather Maughan, Nao Hisakawa
“Virolution” by Frank Ryan
“Virosphere” by Frank Ryan
“Viruses: Agents of Evolutionary Invention” by Michael G. Cordingley
“Viruses: More Friends Than Foes” by Karin Moelling
“Planet of Viruses” by Carl Zimmer
“Viruses And The Evolution Of Life” by Luis P. Villarreal
“Most Wonderful in the Smallest: A Year in Pursuit of Common Freshwater Microorganisms” by Linda
VanAller Hernick
“A Field Guide to Bacteria” by Betsey Dexter Dyer
“Microbes: The Life-Changing Story of Germs” by Phillip K. Peterson, M.D.
“The Amoeba in the Room: Lives of the Microbes” by Nicholas P. Money
“March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen” by John L. Ingraham
“Kin: How We Came to Know Our Microbe Relatives” by John L. Ingraham
“Planet of Microbes: The Perils and Potential of Earth’s Essential Life Forms” by Ted Anton
“The Invisible Kingdom: From the Tips of Our Fingers to the Tops of Our Trash, Inside the Curious World of
Microbes” by Idan Ben-Barak
“Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World” by Bernard Dixon
“Germ Code, The : How to Stop Worrying and Love the Microbes” by Jason Tetro
“The Germ Files: The Surprising Ways Microbes Can Improve Your Health and Life (and How to Protect
Yourself from the Bad Ones)” by Jason Tetro
“Microbes from Hell” by Patrick Forterre
“Microbes: An Invisible Universe” by Howard Gest
“Philosophy of Microbiology” by Maureen O’Malley
“Seen and Unseen: Discovering the Microbes of Yellowstone” by Kathy B. Sheehan, David J. Patterson,
Brett Leigh Dicks, & Joan M. Henson
“The Surprising Archaea: Discovering Another Domain of Life” by John L. Howland
“The Third Domain: The Untold Story of Archaea and the Future of Biotechnology” by Tim Friend
“The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life” by David Quammen
“Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made Earth Habitable” by Paul G. Falkowski
“The Hidden Half of Nature: The Microbial Roots of Life and Health” by David R. Montgomery
“Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution” by Lynn Margulis & Dorion Sagan (and many of
Lynn Margulis’ other books)
“The Microcosm Within: Evolution and Extinction in the Hologenome” by William B. Miller Jr
“Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century” by Howard Bloom
“In the Company of Microbes : Ten Years of ‘Small Things Considered” ” by Elio Schaechter
“Meet Your Bacteria” by Nichola Temple & Catherine Whitlock
“Intimate Strangers (Unseen Life On Earth)” by Bert Dodson
“The Secret Life of Your Microbiome: Why Nature and Biodiversity are Essential to Health and Happiness”
by Susan L. Prescott, MD, PhD and Alan C. Logan, ND
“The Human Superorganism: How the Microbiome is Revolutionizing the Pursuit of a Healthy Life” by
Rodney Dietert, PhD
“10% Human: How Your Body’s Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness” by Alanna Collen
“I, Superorgamism: Learning to Love Your Inner Ecosystem” by Jon Turney
“Welcome to the Microbiome: Getting to Know the Trillions of Bacteria and Other Microbes In, On, and
Around You” by Rob DeSalle & Susan L. Perkins
“The Whole-Body Microbiome: How to Harness Microbes―Inside and Out―for Lifelong Health” by B. Brett
Finlay & Jessica M. Finlay
“The Symbiont Factor: How the Gut Microbiome Redefines Health, Disease and Humanity” by Dr. Richard A
Matthews
“The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our
Choices, and Our Overall Health” by Emeran Mayer
“Microbes Mindcrobes: Human Entanglement with Microbes on a Physical, Mental, Emotional and Quantum
Level” by Helga Zelinski
“The Psychobiotic Revolution: Mood, Food, and the New Science of the Gut-Brain Connection” by Scott
Anderson
“This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society” by
Kathleen McAuliffe
“The World Within: How Our Microbiome Shapes Who We Are” by Dr Patricia M Worby PhD
“Slime: How Algae Created Us, Plagues Us, and Just Might Save Us” by Ruth Kassinger
“Deadly Companions: How Microbes Shaped Our History” by Dorothy H. Crawford
“Reinventing the Wheel: Milk, Microbes, and the Fight for Real Cheese” by Bronwen & Francis Percival
“Fermentation as Metaphor” by Sandor Ellix Katz ( and his other fermentation books )
“Cultured: How Ancient Foods Can Feed Our Microbiome” by Katherine Harmon Courage
“Molecules, Microbes, and Meals: The Surprising Science of Food ” by Alan Kelly
“Truly Cultured: Rejuvenating Taste, Health and Community With Naturally Fermented Foods” by Nancy Lee
Bentley
And the entire Small Friends Book series by Ailsa Wild, Aviva Reed, Briony Barr & Gregory Crocetti –
“Zobi and the Zoox : A Story of Coral Bleaching”
“The Squid, the Vibrio, and the Moon”
“Nema and the Xenos : A Story of Soil Cycles”
“The Forest in the Tree : How Fungi Shaped the Earth”
thank you for sharing!
The Virus and the Vaccine by Debbie Bookbindin
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