Fans pick 20 books like The Collector's Book of Fluorescent Minerals

I was introduced to Fluorescent Mineral collecting by my son. I started going to shows, joining mineral groups, and reading everything I could on fluorescent minerals. Realizing that there were no books with lots of photographs on the subject, and having written quite a few heavily illustrated books of collecting subjects, I decided to to a book that would appeal to new and old mineral collectors. The book was a success and lead to the publishing of a second book. Lots of fluorescent mineral experts helped by reviewing the text and photos for accuracy, and my publisher was pleased with the success of the books. Schiffer Books started an entirely new avenue of books on Minerals that it now publishes.

I was introduced to Fluorescent Mineral collecting by my son. I started going to shows, joining mineral groups, and reading everything I could on fluorescent minerals. Realizing that there were no books with lots of photographs on the subject, and having written quite a few heavily illustrated books of collecting subjects, I decided to to a book that would appeal to new and old mineral collectors. The book was a success and lead to the publishing of a second book. Lots of fluorescent mineral experts helped by reviewing the text and photos for accuracy, and my publisher was pleased with the success of the books. Schiffer Books started an entirely new avenue of books on Minerals that it now publishes.

I was introduced to Fluorescent Mineral collecting by my son. I started going to shows, joining mineral groups, and reading everything I could on fluorescent minerals. Realizing that there were no books with lots of photographs on the subject, and having written quite a few heavily illustrated books of collecting subjects, I decided to to a book that would appeal to new and old mineral collectors. The book was a success and lead to the publishing of a second book. Lots of fluorescent mineral experts helped by reviewing the text and photos for accuracy, and my publisher was pleased with the success of the books. Schiffer Books started an entirely new avenue of books on Minerals that it now publishes.

I am a senior geologist emeritus (retired in 2020) whose research focused on volcanic features on Mars, Venus, and the Moon, particularly very long lava flows. I enjoy studying features on Earth in order to improve our understanding of similar features on other planets (also including the study of sand dunes). I worked for more than 32 years at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., which allowed me to do scientific research while also presenting the wonder of planetary geology to public audiences throughout the U.S. and in several countries across the world.

I grew up in Yorkshire and spent many happy hours as a teenager wandering about the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, looking at giant Henry Moores in the rolling landscape. I subsequently trained as an art historian and have spent the last thirty years writing about art, from the YBAs to our prehistoric roots. A Little History of Art was borne out of this journey. Increasingly I have been drawn to researching what art can tell us about British history. My bookshelves groan with monographs but these five volumes have helped me think more deeply about Britain’s landscapes and its past. I hope they will do the same for you.

Robert M. Hazen, Senior Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Earth and Planets Laboratory and the Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, received the B.S. and S.M. in geology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ph.D. at Harvard University in Earth science. His most recent book is The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years from Stardust to Living Planet, which explores the intricate coevolution of the geosphere and biosphere.

I have always loved writing and drawing, so the perfect combination of these two passions is creating picture books. I began my career as a nonfiction book editor, writing texts for illustrated children’s books. I soon became a freelance writer and have never looked back. I love writing on many subjects for readers from kindergarten to high school—but my favorite is writing narrative non-fiction picture books. I get a kick out of finding just the right story to communicate tricky information so the reader has fun while they learn. This is the best way to discover amazing truths about our incredible world.

As a biology professor, I communicate frankly with adults about climate change, trusting them to comprehend the accelerating crisis. As a mom of Millennials, I channeled worries about their coping with wildfires, droughts, and extinctions into editing an anthology of young adults’ climate essays. Grandchildren posed a new worry: how should climate realities be introduced to the newest generation? My attempt at that task is a biography of Thoreau, focusing on his 1850s nature observations that ecologists now use to assess 21st-century climate shifts. Luckily, other children’s book writers also offer stories, memoirs, and other approaches to inform without alarming young readers; the best inspire determination to craft a better future.

When I grew up I assumed growth is good. Tomatoes grow, so do people—and economies too? Certainly, recessions were bad: many workers were made ‘redundant’. But as we grew older we noticed that growth continued yet people’s lives were getting harder. Looking back, the 1970s in Britain appears a golden age: almost everyone had plenty to eat, society was relatively equal, and all to a soundtrack of fabulous music. With climate change and other environmental threats it’s getting more obvious with each passing season that a global social transformation is required. These are the questions that have driven my own research, on climate politics, growth ideology, and technology fetishism.

I am a scientist who has worked at the coal face of the debate around the origin of animals and ‘Snowball Earth’ his entire career, using a combination of experimental and descriptive science. Over three decades, I have witnessed first-hand how careful attention to detail in study after study has removed doubt from once provocative, even crazy, ideas that are now widely accepted. I love reading popular science from the perspective of the hands-on scientist who has witnessed the debate first-hand and contributed to received knowledge by conceiving new experiments, amassing data, and, more than often, in entirely unexpected ways through sheer curiosity.