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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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SKELETON KEYS

Riley Black

The Secret Life of Bone

The science of bones and the mysteries they can reveal about their original owners is told through stories of famous skeletons by a National Geographic online columnist.
Bone is a marvel, an adaptable and resilient building material developed over 500 million years of evolutionary history. It gives our bodies their shape and the ability to move. It grows and changes with us, an undeniable document of who we are and how we lived. Arguably, no other part of the human anatomy has such rich scientific and cultural significance, both brimming with life and a potent symbol of death.

Brian Switek explains in this natural and cultural history of bone where our skeletons came from, what they do inside us, and what others can learn about us when these wondrous assemblies of mineral and protein are all we've left behind. A widely recognized expert on paleontology and a Scientific American blogger, Switek is the perfect person to welcome us to the forensic labs, archaeological dig sites, and poorly lit ossuaries where bone science is conducted.

Bone is as embedded in our culture as it is in our bodies. Our species has made instruments and jewelry from bone, treated the dead like collector's items, put our faith in skull bumps as guides to human behavior, and arranged skeletons into macabre tributes to the afterlife. Bridging the worlds of paleontology, anthropology, medicine and forensics, SKELETON KEYS illuminates the complex life of bones inside our bodies and out.


Brian Switek is a collection of 206-some odd bones and associated soft tissues. He's also the author of the books MY BELOVED BRONTOSAURUS and WRITTEN IN STONE, as well as the Scientific American blog Laelaps. His bylines have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, Wired, Slate, The Wall Street Journal, Nature, and other publications, with a focus on the stories old skeletons can tell.
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Book

Published 2019-03-05 by Houghton Mifflin

Book

Published 2019-03-05 by Houghton Mifflin

Comments

Skeleton Keys is one of Medium's Most-Anticipated Books of 2019: The history of bone is longer and more involved than I could ever have expected. This book is a tribute to those essential 206-odd spooky things that hold us upright and keep all our organs right where they're supposed to be. If you're a fan of Mary Roach or Caitlin Doughty, or you just want to know exactly where this essential tissue comes from, look forward to this guy. Read more...

... There is much that startle in 'Skeleton Keys,' Brian Switek's cultural history of bone, not least that bone is startling at all. ... affable guide, and affability is required when the depth and breadth of his subject is so vast. ... I sit here now crossing my extraordinary kneecaps.I can see them better thanks to Switek's keys.

Skeleton Keys is one of their chosen Best Nonfiction Books Coming Out This Year Read more...

Brian Switek writes with remarkable grace about the natural world. In Skeleton Keys, he looks inward, making us keenly aware of the marvels of the bones that give us the scaffolding we need to survive. Every chapter has some surprise, told in elegant tales, that you will repeat to your friends.

A provocative and entertaining magical mineral tour through the life and afterlife of bone.

Humans have always had a certain fascination with bones from archeologists studying the remains of our ancestors to religious pilgrims praying before relics. Brian Switek joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the many ways bones have assumed identities outside our bodies, which he writes about in "Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone" Read more...

From touring the famed Mutter Museum and London ossuaries, to ferreting out what really happened to Richard III, Skeleton Keys is a lyrical love letter to the 206 or so bones in the human skeleton and the colorful figures who have studied them over the centuries.

This mix of fact and ethical considerations offers much for science enthusiasts to ponder. Read more...

riveting excerpt: The human bone trade is legaland booming on Instagram... Read more...

A thoughtful, engaging meditation on the origins of the human skeleton, how it functions (or malfunctions) and how we come to terms with our essential but unsettling osseous framework. ...we should enjoy Switek's talent for spinning compelling tales of old bones. Read more...

UK & CW: Prelude Books ; French: Novateures ; Italy: Il Saggiatore ; Romania: Editora Art ; Russian: Eksmo

Radio interview with Science writer Brian Switek Read more...

Skeleton Keys is an absorbing tour through the world of bones and the bones of the world. Considering in turn dinosaurs, saints, kings, and our own possible future, it is an assured and revelatory book.

Smart, lively, and hugely informative, Skeleton Keys is the ideal guide to the bones around us and in us.

A cheerful popular-science romp through the matter that makes up our skeleton... leaves the beaten path to deliver a fun explanation of the history, function, and cultural meaning of bone.

SKELETON KEYS is one of their Ten Science Non-Fiction Books to Look Forward to in 2019: "Brian Switek writes with remarkable grace about the natural world. In Skeleton Keys, he looks inward, making us keenly aware of the marvels of the bones that give us the scaffolding we need to survive. Every chapter has some surprise, told in elegant tales, that you will repeat to your friends." Read more...