Why read The Most Perfect Thing?

Book cover of The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg

Book description

'I think that, if required on pain of death to name instantly the most perfect thing in the universe, I should risk my fate on a bird's egg' Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 1862 How are eggs of different shapes made, and why are they the shape they are? When does the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Most Perfect Thing as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Danna Staaf

Author

This book made me look at something familiar—a bird’s egg—with delightful new depth and wonder. Like all the best science writing, it reminded me how research, far from decreasing our awe at the natural world, can immeasurably increase it.

I loved learning both answers to everyday questions (what are those bits of white on a chicken yolk?) and aspects of the world I’d never have guessed (cuckoo mothers can match their egg color to the color of host eggs).

From Danna's list on babies and parenthood throughout the animal kingdom.