Anchorage Public Library has partnered with Science Friday to bring the Sci Fri Book Club to the science and reading enthusiasts in our community. The SciFri Book Club is a program created by Science Friday to bring people together around all things science reading – anything from sci-fi short stories to nonfiction science books to science articles from various publications to science-y poetry!
There’s lots of ways to participate: Read the book, join our community space, attend an event, or send a message on the SciFri VoxPop app.
This July, the SciFri Book Club will read Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves by Nicola Twilley. It’s a fascinating deep dive into the farm-to-fridge “cold chain,” a vast global network of hidden systems that keep our food cool as it’s processed, shipped, stored, and sold. Voted on as a community pick earlier this year, Frostbite explores how artificial refrigeration systems have quietly reshaped everything from global trade to daily meals over the course of the last hundred years—changing what we eat, how we live, and how we think about time and distance. From banana ripening rooms to cheese caves to futuristic cold storage labs, Twilley unpacks the science and history behind the everyday miracle of refrigeration while asking urgent questions about its environmental cost.
Frostbite brings together a range of topics including environmental science, human ecology, physiology and more—and we’ll touch on these ideas throughout this Book Club season.
Get the Ebook or audiobook from the Alaska Digital Library. You can also get a copy from your local bookstore.
This Book Club season kicks off Tuesday, July 1, and you can read along with us! We’ll be (loosely) following this schedule, but all our readers are welcome to join us at their own pace:
- July 1-7: Chapters 1-2
- July 8-14: Chapters 3-4
- July 15-21: Chapters 5-6
- July 21-31: Chapter 7-Epilogue + Final thoughts
Plus, we’ll be hosting events throughout the month! Keep an eye out on our website or join our Book Club newsletter to be the first to know.
There are so many ways to dive in and participate! You can purchase a copy of the book (and support the author and SciFri), join the discussion in our online Book Club community, sign up for our email newsletter, or RSVP for our upcoming Book Club events. Check out all the details below.
Join the SciFri Book Club community forum here.
Book Club Meeting
Want to meet other SciFri Book Club members, talk about the book selection, and find more resources for deeper learning—all without leaving your home? Our community meeting is the place for you!
Frostbite: How Refrigeration Changed Our Food, Our Planet, and Ourselves
Thursday, July 31
3:45 PM | Zoom
This discussion meeting will focus on themes and topics featured in Frostbite. You’re welcome to join us no matter your reading progress—come chat with other science-interested folks about environmental science, human ecology, physiology and more.
Upcoming Selections
- August: Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are by Rebecca Boyle. Ebook and audiobook available from the Alaska Digital Library.
- September: Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect what is Human in a World of Machines by Joy Buolamwini. Ebook and audiobook available from the Alaska Digital Library.
- October: Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations by Sam Kean.
- November: Why We Die: the New Science of Sging and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan.
- December: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion by Sean Carroll.
