Science · Similar reads
Books like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History
The best books like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and The Selfish Gene. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert is about extinction, climate change, biodiversity. If that's what drew you in, here are 12 books that share its DNA — each summarized on Superbook, and ready to chat with in the app.
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · History
Sapiens traces the full arc of human history from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa roughly 70,000 years ago to the present.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - Guns, Germs, and Steel
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Jared Diamond · Science
Guns, Germs, and Steel is Jared Diamond's attempt to answer a question posed to him by a Papua New Guinean politician named Yali: why did Europeans end up with so much cargo — wealth, technology, power — while other peoples had comparatively little?
A kindred science read.
Read the summary → - The Selfish Gene
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Richard Dawkins · Science
The Selfish Gene reframes evolution from the organism's point of view to the gene's.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary →
- A Brief History of Time
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Stephen Hawking · Science
A Brief History of Time is Stephen Hawking's attempt to explain the biggest questions in physics — where the universe came from, how it behaves, and where it might be going — to readers with no scientific training.
A kindred science read.
Read the summary → - The Demon-Haunted World
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Carl Sagan · Science
The Demon-Haunted World is Carl Sagan's argument that science is not just a body of knowledge but a way of thinking — one that humanity needs badly and uses far too rarely.
A kindred science read.
Read the summary → - On the Origin of Species
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Charles Darwin · Science
On the Origin of Species, published in 1859, is the book in which Charles Darwin presented the theory of evolution by natural selection to the general reading public.
Shares biodiversity and evolution with The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
Read the summary → - The Ancestor's Tale
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Richard Dawkins · Science
The Ancestor's Tale is Richard Dawkins's account of the history of life on Earth, told backwards: beginning with humans and traveling back in evolutionary time to meet successive ancestors at the points where different lineages join.
Shares biodiversity and evolution with The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
Read the summary → - The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction
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The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction
David Quammen · Science
The Song of the Dodo is David Quammen's magnum opus on island biogeography — the science of how species are distributed across isolated habitats and why islands, both literal and metaphorical, are where extinction concentrates.
Shares extinction and evolution with The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
Read the summary → - The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
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The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
David Wallace-Wells · Science
The Uninhabitable Earth is David Wallace-Wells's catalog of what climate change will do to human civilization if carbon emissions continue on or near their current trajectory.
Shares extinction and climate change with The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.
Read the summary → - A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
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A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution
Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg · Science
A Crack in Creation is Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg's account of how CRISPR-Cas9 works, what it can do, and why its possibilities should give everyone pause.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - A Short History of Nearly Everything
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bill Bryson · Science
A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's attempt to understand the scientific story of everything — from the Big Bang to the emergence of modern humans — by spending three years talking to scientists and reading science history.
Both dig into evolution.
Read the summary → - A World Without Ice
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Henry Pollack · Science
Henry Pollack is a geophysicist at the University of Michigan who spent decades studying the Earth's heat flow and was a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Both dig into climate change.
Read the summary →
Books like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History: quick answers
What are the best books like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History?
The best books like The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert are Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, plus 7 more below. Each was chosen for themes it shares with The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, such as extinction, climate change, biodiversity.
What should I read after The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History?
A natural next read after The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Both dig into evolution. Other strong choices are Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
What books are similar to The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert?
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History centers on extinction, climate change, biodiversity. Books with a similar feel include Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari, Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin — all free to read and chat with on Superbook.
