Michel Pastoureau’s captivating history of the world’s most popular color reveals blue’s ever-changing cultural role from prehistoric times to the modern day.
Original, entertaining and enlightening, “Blue” — translated from its original French — is also beautifully illustrated.
French artist Yves Klein’s “Blue Sponge Relief” is a brilliant choice for the back cover. Essentially a monochromatic work, using Klein’s patented ultramarine “International Klein Blue,” it conveys a sense of the infinite and creates a magical effect, drawing the reader into its unique and unforgettable shade, just as Pastoureau’s writing draws you into his book.
One of the most surprising facts in the book is that blue does not even feature in the earliest primitive cave paintings. Reds, blacks, browns and all shades of ochre are common, but blues and greens are conspicuously absent, and the use of white is also rare. Blue also played an insignificant role in the European culture of the Middle Ages. It was not even used in painting to depict the sky, which was commonly colored white, red or gold.
The Egyptians, and other peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East, however, considered blue to be a lucky color; it chased evil away and brought prosperity. Whereas the Romans believed that blue was barbaric and that bright blue eyes were ugly.
Nowadays, of course, blue conjures images of the azure sky, an inviting sea, and it expresses feelings of tranquility, serenity and peace. Blue is not an aggressive color. It is reassuring and breeds hope and trust. The United Nations, UNESCO and European Union have all chosen blue for their flag.
“A color is a social phenomenon,” writes Pastoureau. “It is society that ‘makes’ color, defines it, gives it its meaning.”
Book Review: Michel Pastoureau’s captivating history of the world’s most popular color
Book Review: Michel Pastoureau’s captivating history of the world’s most popular color
Book Review: ‘Gut: the inside story of our body’s most underrated organ’
The New York Times bestseller “Gut: the inside story of our body’s most underrated organ” by Dr. Giulia Enders is an eye-opener.
Originally published in German in 2014 as “Darm mit Charme,” the English version, “Gut,” translated by David Shaw, has gone through several revisions, the most recent of which was published in January 2026.
Layering her medical knowledge with lived human experience, Enders shapes the material at hand into a tangible map of digestion, metabolism and immunity while weaving in real life stories to tie it all in.
She begins with her own personal story, before providing additional context as an expert who specializes in internal medicine and gastroenterology, with a focus on gut health, microbiology and the gut-brain connection.
While some parts might seem like an oversimplification, I like her storytelling style — she makes the dense science accessible for the masses.
Viewers of Netflix might have seen her animated antidotes more recently as one of the main experts in the 2024 documentary, “Hack your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut.”
Similarly, in this book, she expressively explores the microbiome’s connection to the brain and delves into psychobiotics — the microbes that influence mood, stress and even depression.
Enders showcases how and why the gut is powerful; it is not just background machinery within the human body, or even an organ often oddly used as a punchline in a joke.
She highlights how digestion, immunity, metabolism, and mental health are all intertwined and that the gut might arguably be the most vital and predictable organ we could use as a metric to predict overall imminent and immune health.
Some of the things she mentions at the beginning of the book hit me in the gut, as they say. She touches on some key things that are intricately linked and might unlock some of the digestive issues one might develop throughout one’s life. I feel seen.
Nodding along with nearly each page flip, I found my stomach flipping with excitement too, finally finding the parallels between her early experiences and connecting it to my own eventual gut issues.
By the last page, “Gut” will leave you aware that everything does happen for a reason.
You feel those butterflies in your stomach? It is not merely poetic — it signals much more than a seemingly fleeting feeling. It is central to how your whole body works. The “gut feeling” is not just a feeling but also a fact.
“Seen under the microscope, bacteria look like nothing but little, bright spots. But taken together, their sum is much greater than their parts,” she writes.
“Most sit in our mucus membrane, training our immune system, soothing our villi, and producing vitamins. If the good and the bad are in equilibrium, the bad ones can make us stronger and the good ones can keep us healthy.”
When the science parts get slightly too heavy, the whimsy illustrations scattered throughout the book will make you feel grounded. Illustrated by her older sister, Jill Enders, the playful drawings make the complex concepts even easier to digest.
