Natalie Angier's six best books

New York Times science writer Natalie Angier won a Pulitzer prize in the category of beat reporting, for a series of 10 feature articles on a wide array of scientific topics. She is the author of Woman: An Intimate Geography and The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science.

She told The Week magazine about her six best books. One title on the list:

Mutants: On Genetic Variation and the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi

In this astonishing book, Leroi elucidates the making of the human body by describing cases of the program gone off-kilter: Chang and Eng, the conjoined twins; human cyclops; and Harry Eastlake, whose muscles gradually turned to sheets of bone. Leroi writes with such clarity and nuance that his approach feels inclusive rather than voyeuristic and is, throughout, exhilarating.

Read about another book on Angier's list.

--Marshal Zeringue