Book Review - Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik

I enjoy nonfiction books that help me better understand my world around me as long as they do it in an interesting and informed way and are written by someone with firsthand experience and/or knowledge of the subject.

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik is an overview of common (and a few uncommon) materials in our world. It is available as an eBook, Audiobook, and as one of those paper things your grandparents used to read.

The Good

Stuff Chosen. The author chose a lot of really interesting, everyday materials that I have personal experience with such as stainless steal, graphite, diamonds, porcelain, paper, and concrete. This made it much more meaningful. And the exotic materials he brought up were linked to familiar ones, and he explained how these new materials could affect my future life.

Stuff Described. The author did an excellent job describing the history, development, and make up of the materials as well as their uses, limitations, and other aspects. I was really fascinated, never got lost, and never felt like he was leaving important information out.

The Bad

Narration. The narration wasn't bad, but it was a little dry and academic. I'm sure this provides an air of sophistication and authority, but it does make the material less interesting than it needs to be.

What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the author had included more stuff.

Overall

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik is a fascinating look at the materials that we interact with everyday such as graphite, paper, concrete, plastic, and so much more. The history, development, uses, and possible future are all covered in sufficient detail that I was informed, interested, and never confused or felt talked down to. The exotic materials the author brings up are linked to existing materials with practical future applications, so they seemed appropriate. The narration was a little dry and academic, but I'm sure that was purposeful to make this book sound authoritative. I give this book a solid 4.5 out of 5 eReaders.