Nose Dive

The ultimate guide to the smells of the universe - the ambrosial to the pungent, and everything in between - from the author of the acclaimed culinary guides ON FOOD AND COOKING and KEYS TO GOOD COOKING
From Harold McGee, James Beard award-winning author and the leading expert on the science of food and cooking, comes the extensive and wide-ranging exploration of the awe-inspiring world of smell. In UNTITLED ON SMELL, McGee takes us on a sensory-filled adventure, from the sulfurous aroma of the nascent earth over four billion years ago, to the sweetly fragrant Tian Shan mountain range north of the Himalayas, to the keyboard of your laptop, where trace notes of formaldehyde escape between the keys. We'll sniff the ordinary (wet pavement, bonfires, and cut grass) and extraordinary (fresh bread, wine, and chocolate), the delightful (roses, incense, and vanilla) and the unpleasant (skunks, spoiled meat, and rotten eggs). We'll smell each other. We'll smell ourselves....