The index at the back

Usually the reading is random, and that is the point. But if you want more of one thing, here it is.

• HistoryOdd corners of the past that the textbooks skipped.53
• ScienceExperiments, discoveries and the strange ways bodies and minds work.31
• InventionsWho made the everyday things, and how it usually went sideways first.23
• MysteriesThings nobody has fully explained, and some that were explained much later.16
• Animals & NatureCreatures, oceans, weather and the planet doing its own thing.23
• FoodWhere the things on your plate came from.10
• Culture & WordsLanguage, art, music, sport and the habits people picked up along the way.19
• Disasters & DramaWhen things went very wrong, or very nearly did.18
• HeartwarmingThe kinder stories, including the women history tried to forget.7
• QuirkyThe ones you will tell someone about before the day is out.38
• AmericaStories from the United States.27
• EuropeStories from Britain to Russia and everywhere in between.38
• Around the WorldStories from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia.16
• Before 1800Ancient, medieval and early modern.15
• The 1800sSteam, telegraphs and very confident Victorians.21
• The 1900sThe century that moved fastest.38
• Modern TimesStories still going on, or only just finished.17