When my friend Lorenzo suggested me this book I was a bit sceptic. I thought that a book on material science could be boring. It is not astrophysics, there are not black holes, stars or galaxies. But Mark Miodownik is able to make material science interesting and absorbing. The book starts with a picture of Mark on his terrace, he takes the clue from the objects around  him and starts to narrate the story of a material. From this book you will learn that plastic was born to substitute ivory in billiards, why it is difficult to make steal but not bronze, what is an aero-gel and many other things.
I strongly advice this book to all my friend physicists and chemists, and in general everybody wants to learn more about the materials the surround us.