“What are the best Science And Nature books released in 2020?” We looked at 215 of the top Science And Nature books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 20 books, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Science And Nature” book lists, are ranked below by how many times they appear. The remaining 175+ titles, as well as the sources we used, are in alphabetical order on the bottom of the page.

Our other Best Of 2020 Articles:

• The Best Art, Photography, And Coffee Table Books
• The Best AudioBooks
• The Best Biography And Memoir Books
• The Best Graphic Novels And Comics
• The Best Cookbooks
• The Best Fiction Books
• The Best Books (All Categories)
• The Best History Books
• The Best Kids, Children, and Youth Books
• The Best Mystery, Horror, and Thriller Books
• The Best Nonfiction Books
• The Best Poetry Books
• The Best Science And Nature Books
• The Best Science Fiction And Fantasy Books
• The Best Young Adult Books

Previous Years: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015

All titles have been added to a Bookshop list as well!

Happy Scrolling!

Top 20 Best Science And Nature Books From 2020

20.) Diary of a Young Naturalist written byDara McAnulty

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Times
• The Guardian

From sixteen-year-old Dara McAnulty, a globally renowned figure in the youth climate activist movement, comes a memoir about loving the natural world and fighting to save it. Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the turning of a year in Dara’s Northern Ireland home patch. Beginning in spring–when

19.) Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships written byCamilla Pang

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• Financial Times 2
• Five Books

Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of eight, Dr Camilla Pang struggled to understand the world around her. Desperate for a solution, Camilla asked her mother if there was an instruction manual for humans that she could consult. But, without the blueprint to life she was hoping for, C

18.) Fathoms: The World in the Whale written byRebecca Giggs

Lists It Appears On:

• Bookpage
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Booklist 2

Finalist for the 2020 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction Finalist for the 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction A “delving, haunted, and poetic debut” (The New York Times Book Review) about the awe-inspiring lives of whales, revealing what they can teach us about ourselves, our planet, an

17.) Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family written byRobert Kolker

Lists It Appears On:

• Barnes & Noble 4
• Smithsonian
• NPR

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The heartrending story of a midcentury American family with twelve children, six of them diagnosed with schizophrenia, that became science’s great hope in the quest to understand the disease. Don and Mimi Galvin seemed to be living the American dre

16.) The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World written byPatrik Svensson

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Smithsonian

Remarkably little is known about the European eel, Anguilla anguilla. So little, in fact, that scientists and philosophers have, for centuries, been obsessed with what has become known as the “eel question” Where do eels come from? What are they? Are they fish or some other kind of creature altogeth

15.) The World According to Physics written byJim Al-Khalili

Lists It Appears On:

• Financial Times 2
• Five Books
• Waterstones

Quantum physicist, New York Times bestselling author, and BBC host Jim Al-Khalili offers a fascinating and illuminating look at what physics reveals about the world Shining a light on the most profound insights revealed by modern physics, Jim Al-Khalili invites us all to understand what this crucial

14.) Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe written byBrian Greene

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 5
• The Times 2

Instant New York Times Best-seller “A splendid and invigorating read.” –Maria Popova, Brain Pickings From the world-renowned physicist and best-selling author of The Elegant Universe comes a captivating exploration of deep time and humanity’s search for purpose. Until the End of Time is Brian Green

13.) Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life written byLulu Miller

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Smithsonian
• NPR

A “remarkable” (Los Angeles Times), “seductive” (The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and–possibly–even murder.​ “At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish…c

12.) X+Y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto For Rethinking Gender written byEugenia Cheng

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• Booklist 2
• NPR

A brilliant mathematician examines the complexity of gender and society and forges a path out of inequality. Why are men in charge? After years in the male-dominated field of mathematics and in the female-dominated field of art, Eugenia Cheng has heard the question many times. In x + y, Cheng argues

11.) How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don’t) Say About Human Difference written byAdam Rutherford

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Telegraph
• Barnes & Noble 5
• Goodreads

Race is not a biological reality. Racism thrives on our not knowing this. Racist pseudoscience has become so commonplace that it can be hard to spot. But its toxic effects on society are plain to see–feeding nationalism, fueling hatred, endangering lives, and corroding our discourse on everything f

10.) The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think written byJennifer Ackerman

Lists It Appears On:

• The Times
• Waterstones
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Booklist 2

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Genius of Birds, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds — how they live and how they think. “There is the mammal way and there is the bird way.”

9.) The Great Pretender written bySusannah Cahalan

Lists It Appears On:

• Five Books
• The Guardian
• The Telegraph
• The Times 2

“One of America’s most courageous young journalists” and the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling memoir Brain on Fire investigates the shocking mystery behind the dramatic experiment that revolutionized modern medicine (NPR). Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity–how do yo

8.) The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread — and Why They Stop written byAdam Kucharski

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• The Guardian
• Financial Times 2
• The Times 2

From ideas and infections to financial crises and fake news, an “utterly timely” look at why the science of outbreaks is the science of modern life These days, whenever anything spreads, whether it’s a YouTube fad or a political rumor, we say it went viral. But how does virality actually work? In Th

7.) World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments written byAimee Nezhukumatathil

Lists It Appears On:

• Bookpage
• The Wall Street Journal
• Barnes & Noble 2
• NPR

A Kirkus Prize Finalist for Nonfiction An Indie Next Pick, September 2019 A Publishers Weekly “Big Indie Book of Fall 2020” A BuzzFeed Best Book of Fall 2020 A Literary Hub “Most Anticipated Book of 2020 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2020 A Ralph Lauren Summer Reading Recommendation A Garden & Gun Su

6.) A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future written byDavid Attenborough

Lists It Appears On:

• The Wall Street Journal
• Waterstones
• Amazon
• Financial Times
• Goodreads

In this scientifically informed account of the changes occurring in the world over the last century, award-winning broadcaster and natural historian shares a lifetime of wisdom and a hopeful vision for the future. See the world. Then make it better. I am 93. I’ve had an extraordinary life. It’s only

5.) Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art written byJames Nestor

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 5
• Goodreads
• NPR

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly. There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thous

4.) Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl written byJonathan C. Slaght

Lists It Appears On:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Smithsonian
• The Times
• NPR

A terrifically exciting account of [Slaght’s] time in the Russian Far East studying Blakiston’s fish owls, huge, shaggy-feathered, yellow-eyed, and elusive birds that hunt fish by wading in icy water . . . Even on the hottest summer days this book will transport you.” –Helen Macdonald, author of H

3.) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures written byMerlin Sheldrake

Lists It Appears On:

• The Telegraph
• Waterstones
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Goodreads
• The Times

A mind-bending journey into the hidden universe of fungi, “one of those rare books that can truly change the way you see the world around you” (Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk). “Dazzling, vibrant, vision-changing . . . a remarkable work by a remarkable writer, which succeeds in springing l

2.) The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars written byJo Marchant

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble 5
• Booklist 2
• Smithsonian
• NPR

Luminous and fascinating journey through science, religion, culture and everything in between.”–Newsweek, “25 Must-Read Fall Fiction and Nonfiction Books to Escape the Chaos of 2020” A tour de force on par with Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari–Booklist (starred review) An historically unprecedented di

1.) Vesper Flights written byHelen Macdonald

Lists It Appears On:

• Waterstones
• Barnes & Noble 2
• Bookpage
• Goodreads
• The Guardian
• NPR

Animals don’t exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves. In Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nost

The 175+ Additional Best Science And Nature Books Released In 2020

27 Best Science And Nature Book Sources/Lists