On Muscle

Bonnie Tsui has done something remarkable. Fusing science writing, memoir, and essay, she has written a singular book about the true meanings of strength and flexibility, about our ability to define who we are and who we might be, and about what muscle means to the kind of people who rarely feature in stereotypical stories of strength and fitness. On Muscle is a truly moving ode to the tissues that move us – Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes and An Immense WorldBonnie Tsui writes with uncommon elegance and warmth-about muscle, yes, but more than that, about movement and joy and the gorgeous, often surprising ways they entwine. On Muscle is literary and deeply personal, but also rigorously researched and powerfully inspiring. It made me want to run, jump, grab my bike, any one of which I would have done had I not at the same time been unable to stop reading – Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff, Gulp, and FuzzOnly a seriously skilled storyweaver like Bonnie Tsui can combine science, sociology, and personal experience into a joyfully careening tale about something we all take for granted but none of us really understands. The genius of On Muscle is showing not only how physical strength animates our bodies, but every other aspect of life as well. You’re about to learn more about yourself and your world than you could ever imagine – Christopher McDougall, New York Times bestselling author of Born to RunBonnie Tsui is a poet of physicality, and this book is an ode-one that explores our literal and metaphoric hearts. It is muscle as memory, muscle as meaning, muscle as magic. I am, in all ways, stronger for reading it – Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Girls & Sex and Boys & SexBeautifully written and so very smartly conceived, On Muscle takes you places that you expect it to and places that you don’t. It’s like Bonnie Tsui’s splendid Why We Swim that way. Yes, there are bodybuilders and barbells in these pages, but Tsui is more concerned with the meaning of strength, the interplay of brain and brawn, and the importance and glory of motion in life. Her book is about being alive – Frank Bruni, New York Times bestselling author of The Beauty of Dusk and The Age of GrievanceBonnie Tsui’s beautiful and entertaining storytelling made me forget I was absorbing essential knowledge. On Muscle left me with a new appreciation for the mind-body connection and a better understanding of my place in the world – Des Linden, New York Times bestselling author of Choosing to Run

A deep dive into the muscles in our body [that] promises to change the way you think about how we moveand why it matters

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year; it is currently being translated into ten languages. Bonnie is also the author of American Chinatown, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and Sarah and the Big Wave, a children’s book about the first woman to surf Mavericks and a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, the Mesa Refuge, and the Best American Essays series. She lives, swims, and surfs in the Bay Area.