I review The Emperor of Scent.
The Emperor of Scent by Chandler Burr is what scientific nonfiction should be: engaging, fun, funny, and thrilling. It provides just the right amount of biology and high-school organic chemistry to adequately portray the theory, but not enough to overwhelm Joe the Reader who whiled away the time spent in AP Chemistry by talking about the Ebonics robot in the movie Transformers (not me). It’s the story of an underdog where the antagonists aren’t evil bastards as much as scientific corruption is and where everybody’s surprising and where the way the story’s told is almost as smart as the people it’s about.
(Using emails between Stewart and Turin (who gave a TED talk in 2005. You might have been there, if you were insanely rich enough to pay the $6,000/year membership fee.) does get old after a while, though. Emails in the book overall prove that scientists as a rule like molesting English. Also, the Author’s Note would have worked just as well at the end of the book.)