Description
Book SynopsisEva Barbarossa is a writer and researcher based in Los Angeles and Italy. Her writing has appeared in the
Review of Contemporary Fiction,
Surface, and
The Island Review.
Trade ReviewEva Barbarossa delights in details and shows how much fun technology can be when science appears to be magic. * Mark Kurlansky, author of Paper: Paging Through History (2016), Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas (2018), and Salmon: A Fish, the Earth, and the History of a Common Fate (forthcoming 2019) *
In this delightful and engaging account, Eva Barbarossa shows us how our attraction to magnets is just as much part of culture as it is science--and has been for millennia.
Magnet brings together everything from magic and mystery to mesmerism and MRIs as Barbarossa unpacks the meaning of a magnet's pull.
Magnet is a must read. * Lydia Pyne, author of Bookshelf (2016) and Genuine Fakes: How Phony Things Teach Us About Real Stuff (forthcoming 2019) *
Table of ContentsPrologue In which I eat hundreds of magnets.
1. Birth In which humans find a stone with magical properties.
2. Earth In which we discover we live on an ancient magnet.
3. Home In which we use magnets to find our way.
4. Alignment In which man and beast align to the magnetic fields.
5. North In which we hunt for polar magnets.
6. Health In which we believe magnets harm and heal.
7. Transcendence In which magnetic fluids provide hope.
8. Tricks In which we use magnets to make trouble.
9. Toys In which we find magnets for play and pedagogy.
10. Technology In which everything needs a magnet.
Afterword In which I do not eat more magnets. Acknowledgements Selected sources Notes Index
