secret perfume science perfumes

books:

PERFUMES: THE GUIDE
LUCA TURIN

The Viking Press, 2008

The Secret of Scent: Adventures in Perfume and the Science of Smell

9 reviews
Luca Turin

Harper Perennial, 2007

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
I wrote a longer review of "The Emperor of Scent." The Good: Turin definitely has an interesting, original theory of olfaction. As I said in my earlier review, I think there's some chance that he may be right, even though many other olfactory experts dismiss the theory. I'm ready to believe that he could be a creative genius. Turin has a curious writing style that is worth noticing. At ...

The Secret of Scent

2 reviews
Luca Turin

Faber and Faber, 2007

Fun and Furious
The most fun you can have with chemistry without blowing up the lab! A natural writer, Turin is both a genius scenteur and scientist. His theory makes complete sense (no pun intended) despite the opposition from entrenched adversaries in the field. Endows the reader with the vicarious excitement of iconoclastic discovery while honestly acknowledging the frustration of presenting it to the ...

Perfumes: The Guide

63 reviews
Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez

Viking Adult, 2008

Equal parts Carl Sagan, Paul Fussell, and Pauline Kael
I expected a light, dumb read. What I got was the most hilarious and thought-provoking book I've read in the last five years. They explain the technicalities of the subject as directly and patiently as your favorite high school teacher, but the reviews are acidic and laugh-out-loud funny (My friends are sick to death of me calling them to read them passages.). When you consider how intimately ...