‘The Way to Go’ by Kate Ascher

If you’re the kind of person that likes to know how the infrastructure all around you works, then you’re gonna love Kate Ascher’s books.

In 2007’s The Works: Anatomy of a City, she showed us the myriad factors that keep a city like NYC running every day. You find out all sorts of interesting things: how electricity makes its way from the power plant to your home outlet, how traffic lights are coordinated, how the mail gets processed, and a lot more. These facts are accompanied by excellent illustrations that even a kid can understand.

And now, she has just released a new book called The Way to Go: Moving by Sea, Land, and Air that explores the world of transportation. This time around, you get to learn how helicopters actually fly, how planes and ships navigate, what keeps bridges from falling apart, what happens when lightning strikes a plane, the way airports manage local airspace, and much more.

Just like the last book, The Way to Go is chock-full of rich illustrations. If you need an example, Slate has an excerpt you can check out. As you will see, these are great reads for curious people young and old.

The Way to Go is available from Amazon for $26, and only as a hardcover. The Works: Anatomy of a City is a $14 paperback.