{"product_id":"9781643757308","title":"On Muscle","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the bestselling author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhy We Swim\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“Remarkable . . .  A singular book about the true meanings of strength and flexibility, about our ability to define who we are and who we might be.”\u003cbr\u003e —Ed Yong, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of\u003ci\u003e An Immense World\u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e I Contain Multitudes\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eOn Muscle\u003c\/i\u003e, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. Cardiac, smooth, skeletal—these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty—and how they have distorted it—through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school—and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection. Woven throughout are stories of Tsui’s childhood with her Chinese immigrant artist dad—a black belt in karate—who schools her from a young age in a kind of quirky, in-house Muscle Academy. \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOn Muscle \u003c\/i\u003eshows us the poetry in the physical, and the surprising ways muscle can reveal what we’re capable of.","brand":"Bonnie Tsui","offers":[{"title":"Little, Brown and Company |  Paperback \/ softback  |  2026-04-07","offer_id":47343160852735,"sku":"9781643757308","price":24.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0329\/9075\/7001\/files\/BNCImageAPI_5ac851d5-ce2d-4b1d-9fb6-b16900b147a4.jpg?v=1760116457","url":"https:\/\/riverbookshop.com\/products\/9781643757308","provider":"River Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}