Heat

Starred review from December 17, 2012
Streever’s follow-up to his 2010 New York Times bestseller, Heat, follows a structure as he explores any place hot or anything that creates heat, like Death Valley, forest fires, coal, oil, nuclear bombs, cooking, and volcanoes. There is stream of consciousness in Streever’s style: a chapter that starts with a walk in the desert can contain tangents about 18th-century scientist Lavoisier, heat stroke, nuclear test sites, fevers, firewalking, hyponatremia, and the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. But it’s delivered in funny, matter-of-fact prose, as when describing his ineptitude at starting a fire (“If the world were populated by people like me, we would still be living in trees and eating fruit. Climate change would not be an issue”). In this worthy companion to Cold, Streever is able to mix the pop science, personal experiences, and historic asides into a fun and informative commentary on a subject that few people think about despite its inherent life and death implications. 12 b&w illus.

November 1, 2012
From the author of Cold (2009), another engaging, easy-to-read, free-ranging exploration of a natural phenomenon. Streever mingles his personal adventures with heat and hot places with tidbits about early mistaken notions about heat, current events and research involving it, and narratives of those who have lived through its toughest challenges. Opening with a scene in which he tests his endurance by holding his hand over an open flame, the author then recounts his own experiences in the blistering, dry heat of the American Southwest. From natural heat, Streever moves on to unmanaged heat (wild fires and their disastrous effects), controlled fires, cooking, peat mining and Iron Age smelting. The author also humorously recounts his own hapless attempts to master the art of starting a fire. To give a sense of Streever's scope and technique, his chapter on petroleum features a brief history of oil drilling in the United States, a visit to a museum on the site of Drake Well in Pennsylvania, a taste of oil, a canoe trip down a nearby creek and an interview with a refinery engineer in Alaska; his treatment of volcanoes includes not only the mechanisms underlying eruptions and Pliny's description of the eruption of Vesuvius, but an extensive account of his own trip to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, where he attempted to make popcorn on freshly hardened lava. At the end, the author recounts his pleasant chat with a physicist and his impressions of the pipes inside the supercollider at Brookhaven, where temperatures of trillions of degrees are produced. Although not aimed at the young, this funny and factual blend of science, history and adventure would make an ideal gift for an inquisitive adolescent.

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December 1, 2012
Science and nature writer Streever, author of the best-selling Cold (2009), this time turns his attention to the opposite temperature phenomenon. He begins with vivid recollections of his experience in Death Valley, a desert too hot for cactus, with measured temperatures of 148 degrees and gruesome consequences for wanderers. Streever goes on to chronicle visits to other hot spots, including Santa Barbara, California, in the wake of a devastating, unmanaged fire, a volcanic slope in Hawaii, coal mines in the Netherlands, a thermonuclear processing plant in South America, and fire-walking schools. Streever intersperses his personal adventures with fascinating science, culture, and history, from the invention of matches to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima to discussions of the relative merits of coal, oil, and thermonuclear heat and environmental issues. With engaging storytelling skill and deep scientific knowledge, Streever offers a fascinating exploration of one of the basic necessities of everyday life. A detailed notes section is as fascinating as the text.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)