June’s Skylarking Bookclub choice is one of the most talked-about nonfiction titles of the summer: the astonishing Silk, by Aarathi Prasad, a gorgeous history that spans continents and millennia and examines the global, natural, and cultural history (and future) of a unique material that has fascinated the world for thousands of years.

Silk—prized for its lightness, luminosity, and beauty—is also one of the strongest biological materials ever known. More than a century ago, it was used to make the first bulletproof vest, and yet science has barely even begun to tap its potential. As the technologies it has inspired—from sutures to pharmaceuticals, replacement body parts to holograms—continue to be developed in laboratories around the world, they are now also beginning to offer a desperately needed, sustainable alternative to the plastics choking our planet.

From the moths of China, Indonesia, and India to the spiders of South America and Madagascar and the silk-producing mollusks of the Mediterranean, Silk is a book rich in the passionate connections made by people of science to the diversity of the animal world. It is an intoxicating read, a mix of biography and science, that not only brings to life the vast, winding history of silk, but also looks to its future as a resource with incredible, untapped potential.

We can’t wait to discuss this book with you all! Come along at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 27 for what we know will be a fascinating discussion!