The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell
Scientists who can poetically convey the worth of their research are rare individuals indeed. Many, in fact, migrate to the professional writer's life, such as Oliver Sacks and Michael Crichton. Turin, already the subject of a previous book (Chandler Burr'sThe Emperor of Scent, 2003), not only demystifies the "hows" of smell but also chronicles his own discoveries and pays generous homage to others'. Curious beauty noses will sniff out the origins of such famed fragrances as Chanel N5, Opium, and the ever-widening world of musks. [...] The writing, when not tangled up in chemical-compound jargon, sparkles; who could not chuckle at his description of an allergy waiting to happen: "soap powder is, this side of a blowtorch, one of the harshest environments to put fragrance"?Barbara JacobsCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved