Books
The essential reading list for anyone who wants to go deeper. Each book is here because it shaped the thinking behind Purify The World or because it covers territory this site does not have the space to explore in full.
JUMP TO
Count Down by Dr Shanna Swan
The science behind falling sperm counts, declining fertility and the chemicals responsible, written by the world's leading researcher on the subject.
Exposure by Rob Bilott
The full inside story of the lawyer who took on DuPont over PFAS contamination and spent nearly three decades winning.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
The 1962 book that started everything. The original wake-up call on pesticides and their effects on the natural world.
Slow Death by Rubber Duck by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie
Two environmentalists poison themselves with everyday household products to prove just how much chemical exposure happens in a normal week.
Sicker Fatter Poorer by Dr Leonardo Trasande
The NYU paediatrician who quantified the $340 billion annual cost of endocrine disrupting chemicals on why everyday chemical exposure is making us chronically ill.
WOMEN'S HEALTH
The New Menopause by Dr Mary Claire Haver
The most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to perimenopause and menopause available. Science, empathy and practical tools in one book.
The Galveston Diet by Dr Mary Claire Haver
The anti-inflammatory nutrition programme developed specifically for women navigating menopause. Practical, evidence-based and written by a doctor who went through it herself.
Estrogen Matters by Dr Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris
The evidence-based case for why the fear around estrogen therapy has cost millions of women decades of unnecessary suffering.
The Menopause Brain by Dr Lisa Mosconi
A neuroscientist at Cornell explains what menopause actually does to the brain, why it matters, and what women can do about it.
Perimenopause Power by Maisie Hill
A warm, practical and UK-focused guide to navigating perimenopause with confidence. One of the most accessible books on the subject.
The Hormone Cure by Dr Sara Gottfried
A broader look at hormonal imbalance across a woman's life, with substantial coverage of perimenopause and menopause.
Count Down
Dr Shanna Swan with Stacey Colino. Published 2021. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Count Down is the book that brought Dr Shanna Swan's decades of reproductive research to a mainstream audience. It covers the global decline in sperm counts and fertility rates, the specific chemicals responsible, how they work inside the body, and what individuals can do to meaningfully reduce their exposure. Swan writes with unusual clarity for a working scientist, and co-author Stacey Colino ensures the book remains accessible throughout without dumbing down the science.
The book covers phthalates and their anti-androgenic effects on fetal development, BPA and its hormone-mimicking properties, PFAS and their accumulation in the body, pesticide residues in food, and the practical steps Swan herself takes to reduce exposure in her own daily life. It is the single most comprehensive and readable guide to the link between everyday chemicals and reproductive health currently available.
Connects directly to: the Dr Shanna Swan Expert Talk, our Start Here page, and the sperm count study entry in Research and Studies.
Exposure
Rob Bilott. Published 2019. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Rob Bilott's own account of nearly three decades fighting DuPont over PFAS contamination. The book covers how he discovered the contamination while representing a West Virginia farmer whose cattle were dying, how he obtained DuPont's internal documents proving the company had known about the health risks for decades, and the lengthy legal battle that eventually resulted in over a billion dollars in compensation for affected communities and the EPA's first binding drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals.
Exposure is more than a legal thriller. It documents in precise detail how a company can know that a chemical it manufactures is harming people, suppress that knowledge, and continue producing it for decades with the help of a regulatory system that was not designed to catch it. The 2019 film Dark Waters, listed in our Documentaries section, is based on this book.
Connects directly to: the Rob Bilott Expert Talk, the Dark Waters entry in Documentaries, and our Home and Living page on PFAS in cookware and food packaging.
Silent Spring
Rachel Carson. First published 1962. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Silent Spring is the book that started modern environmentalism. Published in 1962, it documented how the widespread use of synthetic pesticides, particularly DDT, was devastating bird populations across America by moving through the food chain and preventing reproduction. Carson wrote it at a time when the chemical industry was considered an unqualified force for progress, and the book's reception was fierce. Industry lobbyists tried to discredit her and suppress publication. It was serialised in The New Yorker, became an immediate bestseller, and directly contributed to the eventual ban on DDT in the United States in 1972.
More than sixty years later, Silent Spring reads as both a warning that was partially heeded and a reminder of how much remains unresolved. The specific chemicals Carson wrote about are gone, but the pattern she identified, industry introducing chemicals faster than science can assess their effects, with regulators slow to respond, is exactly the pattern playing out today with PFAS, phthalates and the full range of compounds covered on this site. Jeremy Grantham has said that he would like to write something that does for chemical toxicity today what Silent Spring did for pesticides in 1962. That ambition is the reason this site exists.
Connects directly to: the Jeremy Grantham Expert Talk and our About page.
Slow Death by Rubber Duck
Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. First published 2009, updated edition 2019. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Two Canadian environmentalists deliberately expose themselves to everyday household products for one week, taking blood and urine samples before, during and after, to measure exactly how much chemical exposure a normal week of modern life produces. The results are alarming. Three days of eating tinned tuna more than doubles mercury levels. Two days of using standard personal care products containing phthalates produces a measurable spike in urinary phthalate levels. The specific chemicals they test include Teflon compounds, BPA, triclosan, brominated flame retardants and pesticides.
What makes Slow Death by Rubber Duck distinctive is its tone. It is genuinely readable, often funny, and consistently empowering rather than despairing. Smith and Lourie are clear throughout that exposure is not inevitable and that individual choices make a measurable difference, which is exactly the position Purify The World takes. The book also covers the specific ways in which chemical industry lobbying influences both regulation and public perception, giving useful context for why many of these chemicals remain in widespread use despite the available evidence.
Connects directly to: our Beauty and Skincare page on phthalates and parabens, our Home and Living page on PFAS in cookware and cleaning products, and our Food and Nutrition page on pesticide residues.
Sicker Fatter Poorer
Dr Leonardo Trasande. Published 2019. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Trasande builds the case that the epidemic increases in chronic disease seen over the past half century, obesity, diabetes, infertility, learning disabilities and certain cancers, cannot be explained by genetics or lifestyle alone. He documents the role of endocrine disrupting chemicals in driving these conditions across five main categories: bisphenols, phthalates, pesticides, flame retardants and PFAS. His research has quantified what most policy makers ignore, finding that endocrine disrupting chemical exposure costs the US $340 billion annually and Europe €163 billion in avoidable disease burden.
What sets Sicker Fatter Poorer apart from other books in this space is Trasande's explicit focus on what individuals can do. He argues that while systemic regulatory change is essential, the choices we make about what we eat, cook with and put on our bodies make a measurable and meaningful difference to our personal chemical body burden. As a paediatrician he also gives particular attention to the effects of chemical exposure during fetal development and early childhood, the period of greatest vulnerability.
Connects directly to: the Dr Leonardo Trasande Expert Talk, our Start Here page on endocrine disruptors, and our Research and Studies page.
The New Menopause
Dr Mary Claire Haver. Published 2024. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
The New Menopause is the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to perimenopause and menopause currently available. Dr Haver draws on decades of clinical experience and the latest research to explain what is actually happening in a woman's body during this transition, why the medical system has failed so many women, and what can genuinely help. She covers the full range of symptoms, the evidence behind hormone replacement therapy, the role of nutrition, strength training and sleep, and the importance of finding healthcare providers who truly understand this stage of life.
What makes this book stand out is its tone. Haver writes with the same warmth and directness that has built her following of over two million people. The science is rigorous and properly referenced. The delivery feels like a conversation with a doctor who genuinely cares. For any woman in perimenopause or menopause, or anyone who loves one, this is the first book to reach for.
Connects directly to: the Dr Mary Claire Haver Expert Talk and our Women's Health section.
The Galveston Diet
Dr Mary Claire Haver. Published 2023. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
The Galveston Diet began as a nutrition programme Dr Haver developed for her own patients when she realised the standard dietary advice she had been giving them was not working during menopause. The programme is built around three principles: intermittent fasting for its anti-inflammatory benefits, an anti-inflammatory way of eating focused on fiber, healthy fats and reduced added sugar, and a fuel refocus that increases protein intake to support muscle mass during a period when it is naturally declining.
This is not a weight loss diet in the conventional sense. It is a framework for eating in a way that works with the hormonal reality of menopause rather than against it. Haver is honest throughout about what the evidence supports and where the science is still developing. For women who want practical nutritional guidance specific to this stage of life, The Galveston Diet is the most evidence-based option currently available.
Connects directly to: the Dr Mary Claire Haver Expert Talk, our Women's Health section and our Food and Nutrition page.
Estrogen Matters
Dr Avrum Bluming and Carol Tavris. Published 2018. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Estrogen Matters makes the evidence-based case that the fear around hormone replacement therapy, sparked by the misreported Women's Health Initiative study in 2002, has caused enormous and unnecessary suffering for millions of women. Dr Avrum Bluming is an oncologist who has spent decades studying estrogen therapy, including in women with a history of breast cancer. He and science writer Carol Tavris go through the research in detail, explaining what the WHI actually found, why the headlines were wrong, and what the full body of evidence shows about the benefits of estrogen for women's health, longevity and quality of life.
This book sits alongside the Haver Expert Talk as essential reading for any woman who has been told she cannot or should not take HRT. It is rigorous, readable and at times quietly furious about what has been done to women in the name of misinterpreted science.
Connects directly to: the Dr Mary Claire Haver Expert Talk and our Women's Health section.
The Menopause Brain
Dr Lisa Mosconi. Published 2024. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Dr Lisa Mosconi is a neuroscientist and the director of the Women's Brain Initiative at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her research focuses specifically on how menopause affects the brain, a subject that has been almost entirely overlooked in both clinical practice and public conversation. The Menopause Brain explains why brain fog, memory changes, sleep disruption and mood shifts during this transition are not psychological but neurological, driven by measurable changes in brain structure and function as estrogen levels decline.
Mosconi also covers the relationship between menopause and dementia risk, why the timing of hormone therapy matters for brain protection, and what lifestyle factors have the strongest evidence for supporting brain health during and after this transition. This is one of the most important and underread books on women's health published in recent years.
Connects directly to: the Dr Mary Claire Haver Expert Talk and our Women's Health section.
Perimenopause Power
Maisie Hill. Published 2021. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
Perimenopause Power is written specifically for a UK audience and covers the full transition from perimenopause through menopause with a warmth and practicality that makes it one of the most accessible books on the subject. Maisie Hill is a women's health practitioner who has worked with hundreds of women navigating this stage of life. She covers what is happening hormonally, how to recognise where you are in the transition, what options are available including HRT and non-hormonal approaches, how to talk to your GP effectively, and how to support yourself through the emotional and relational dimensions of this change.
The tone is direct, knowledgeable and free of the shame that surrounds so much menopause content. For UK readers in particular this is often the first book people recommend to friends who are just beginning to notice changes and do not yet have the language for what is happening.
Connects directly to: our Women's Health section and the Dr Mary Claire Haver Expert Talk.
The Hormone Cure
Dr Sara Gottfried. Published 2013, updated 2014. Available on Amazon UK and in most bookshops.
The Hormone Cure takes a broad look at hormonal imbalance across a woman's life, with substantial coverage of perimenopause and menopause. Dr Sara Gottfried is a Harvard-trained physician who approaches hormonal health through a combination of conventional medicine and lifestyle interventions. She covers estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and thyroid hormones and how imbalances in each present differently and can be addressed.
A note on scope: The Hormone Cure is broader in its approach than the other books in this section and includes some supplement and lifestyle recommendations that go beyond what is covered by strong clinical trial evidence. It is included here because it offers useful context on hormonal health across a lifetime and many readers find it a helpful starting point. As with all health decisions, any specific interventions are worth discussing with a qualified healthcare provider.
Connects directly to: our Women's Health section and our Food and Nutrition page.
MORE TO COME
We add new titles as we read and verify them. If you have read something you think belongs here, send it to support.purifytheworld@gmail.com and we will take a look.
All books link to Amazon UK search results. Purify The World may earn a small commission on purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.