Egg: A Dozen Ovatures

Science, history, art, and food come together in this quirky examination of eggs from journalist Stark (Pandora’s DNA). Stark proves to be an excellent storyteller as she charts the surprising role eggs have played throughout history and across cultures: she covers the “egg rush” on the Farallon Islands in 1848, when one could make a fortune with eggs; the horrors of industrial-scale chicken farming; the “clown egg registry” located in a basement in London, where famous clowns are immortalized by having their likenesses drawn on eggs; and how research done on eggs in space has taught scientists a great deal about human illness and physiology. Elsewhere, Stark muses on the favorite egg dishes of French chef Jacques Pépin (“While he was the chef at France’s top political household, he sometimes made deep-fried eggs as a first course for dinner parties”), and though she mostly focuses on chicken eggs, she discusses those of humans, as well, including some insights into how she came to love her own eggs after having her ovaries removed at 39 in an attempt to prevent the ovarian cancer that has plagued generations of women in her family. This delightful paean to the egg is equal parts fun, philosophical, educational, and irreverent. (Mar.)