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Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell
An extraordinary, strange, and startlingly beautiful exploration of smell, the least understood of our five senses
The nose on your face is the Buckingham Palace Guard of your body, the maitre d' of all taste, as well as the seducer of your imagination, and memory--and Jude Stewart has charmed them all into a wicked, poetic and illuminating tour of their mysterious domains. --Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs
Overlapping with taste yet larger in scope, smell is the sense that comes closest to pure perception. Smell can collapse space and time, unlocking memories and transporting us to worlds both new and familiar. Yet as clearly as each of us can recognize different smells--the bright tang of citrus, freshly sharpened pencils, parched earth after rain--few of us understand how and why we smell.
In Revelations in Air, Jude Stewart takes us on a fascinating journey into the weird and wonderful world of smell. Beginning with lessons on the incredible biology and history of how our noses work, Stewart teaches us how to use our noses like experts. Once we're properly equipped and ready to sniff, Stewart explores a range of smells--from lavender, cut grass and hot chocolate to cannabis and old books--using smell as a lens into art, history, science, and more. With an engaging colorful design and exercises for readers to refine their own skills, Revelations in Air goes beyond science or history or chemistry--it's a doorway into the surprising, pleasurable, and unfamiliar landscape of smell.
The nose on your face is the Buckingham Palace Guard of your body, the maitre d' of all taste, as well as the seducer of your imagination, and memory--and Jude Stewart has charmed them all into a wicked, poetic and illuminating tour of their mysterious domains. --Jack Hitt, author of Bunch of Amateurs
Overlapping with taste yet larger in scope, smell is the sense that comes closest to pure perception. Smell can collapse space and time, unlocking memories and transporting us to worlds both new and familiar. Yet as clearly as each of us can recognize different smells--the bright tang of citrus, freshly sharpened pencils, parched earth after rain--few of us understand how and why we smell.
In Revelations in Air, Jude Stewart takes us on a fascinating journey into the weird and wonderful world of smell. Beginning with lessons on the incredible biology and history of how our noses work, Stewart teaches us how to use our noses like experts. Once we're properly equipped and ready to sniff, Stewart explores a range of smells--from lavender, cut grass and hot chocolate to cannabis and old books--using smell as a lens into art, history, science, and more. With an engaging colorful design and exercises for readers to refine their own skills, Revelations in Air goes beyond science or history or chemistry--it's a doorway into the surprising, pleasurable, and unfamiliar landscape of smell.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2021
40 people are currently reading
486 people want to read
About the author
Jude Stewart
6 books33 followersI write about design and culture for magazines including Slate, The Believer and Fast Company among others. As a contributing editor for Print, I also blog twice monthly about color, patterns, and other design-related hilarities. And I do it all from the great city of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 19, 2021
I think it's awesome because -- spoiler alert -- I'm the author. ;-)
December 27, 2021
Really enjoyed the beginning of the book talking about the science of smell with lots of interesting factoids. I found the transition to the rest of the book a bit abrupt, as the author went through a long list of seemingly somewhat randomly chosen smells and talked about their history and her personal experience with them. I had to come to terms with the fact that this was what the majority of the book was going to be. She spent a lot of time trying to put her experience of various scents into words, which felt like an interesting exercise for her, but not as enjoyable to read and made it a bit of a slog to finish (for me personally).
One thing I found a bit strange was that the wine section didn't address the fact that blind taste tests have revealed that even experts have biases informing their perception of different wines. I was sort of left with a sense of "humans are really good at smelling things, if only we'd practice more!" which is definitely a valuable takeaway, but I think there's more to the story of why our sense of smell isn't as reliable or informative as we might hope, even when highly trained, and I think that would've been interesting to explore a bit more.
One thing I found a bit strange was that the wine section didn't address the fact that blind taste tests have revealed that even experts have biases informing their perception of different wines. I was sort of left with a sense of "humans are really good at smelling things, if only we'd practice more!" which is definitely a valuable takeaway, but I think there's more to the story of why our sense of smell isn't as reliable or informative as we might hope, even when highly trained, and I think that would've been interesting to explore a bit more.
February 5, 2022
Can you explain the smell of your favorite item? It must be one of the most difficult task to achieve. Adjectives can describe the general, overall quality of the smell. Wispy, rancid, airy, musty, stale, fresh, putrid, faint, light, floral, and acrid are all adjectives that could pertain to smell. Smell origins usually take the form of a noun (the smell of leather) or an adjective (a leathery smell). But how would you explain the noun itself?
As I read the book and witnessed firsthand how the writer managed to do that- I was impressed. Then I thought- well explaining the smells of different objects… that would be boring? But it wasn’t. It was surrounded with delicious, interesting stories. Like how “vanilla” became a word to explain “basic”- because despite how much people tried initially, they couldn’t make it exciting or delicious. How some plants have cyanide, but we do not get poisoned when we eat them. How Sri Lanka used to be called “Ceylon” - which we add to the tea. Like first pencils were used from cedars of southern states and when we switched to less expensive option, people missed the smell, so they added the smell of cedar to them. Bergamot comes from the word “beg-armudi” which means prince of pears in Turkish (maybe the old Turkish?) ….
Like Jude mentioned in conclusion, there aren’t too many words to explain smell. We should definitely write about smell and invent more smell-related words. Thank you Jude for this wonderful book. Looking for more from you…
As I read the book and witnessed firsthand how the writer managed to do that- I was impressed. Then I thought- well explaining the smells of different objects… that would be boring? But it wasn’t. It was surrounded with delicious, interesting stories. Like how “vanilla” became a word to explain “basic”- because despite how much people tried initially, they couldn’t make it exciting or delicious. How some plants have cyanide, but we do not get poisoned when we eat them. How Sri Lanka used to be called “Ceylon” - which we add to the tea. Like first pencils were used from cedars of southern states and when we switched to less expensive option, people missed the smell, so they added the smell of cedar to them. Bergamot comes from the word “beg-armudi” which means prince of pears in Turkish (maybe the old Turkish?) ….
Like Jude mentioned in conclusion, there aren’t too many words to explain smell. We should definitely write about smell and invent more smell-related words. Thank you Jude for this wonderful book. Looking for more from you…
November 16, 2021
The title does not lie! It's been a long time since I read a book that bloomed my knowledge with such speed and delight, page upon page of revelations indeed. The prose is swift and tight, but also rich and even poetic. The research is fastidious, and so expertly synthesized. And the form of the book, with these elegant categories (sweet, savory, earthy, resinous, funky, etc.) and short, intense chapters, allows one to truly ramble. Really, after such an awful last year and half, not least for smell, this book feels like a true gift to the senses.
January 14, 2023
As someone trying to learn how to describe smells, this book was extremely helpful!
March 22, 2022
Like sleep, smell has interested me for as long as I can remember. I've always had a keen sense of smell and I set out to learn more about the process of olfaction when I started listening to Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell by Jude Stewart.
The author's choice to break down fragrances and smells into the following groups was a novel approach:
Flowery & Herbal
Sweet
Savoury
Earthy
Resinous
Funky
Sharp & Pungent
Salty & Nutty
Tingling & Fresh
Otherworldly
These creative categories provided a neat structure for exploring smell by learning more about a number of fragrances within each group. In taking this approach, the author describes the smell to the reader while also delivering an overview of the item being discussed. This resulted in a 'micro history' of fragrances like jasmine, hot chocolate, tobacco, truffles and cash to name a few.
The audiobook is narrated by Gabra Zackman, and her tendency to sometimes over pronounce or over-emphasise words and phrases began to grate on my nerves after a while. I suspect the poetic nature of some of the descriptions begged to be acknowledged, but I found it off-putting.
An unavoidable limiting factor when reading or learning about smell is that the reader can't smell the thing being described. Of course, for this book, you could assemble the items according to the table of contents, but usually readers don't have that advantage. The author does a terrific job describing certain scents like: cinnamon, durian, stinky cheese, freshly sharpened pencils, frankincense, new car, new baby or old books, and being familiar with these items I could quickly relate.
However fragrances like ambergris, petrichor, skunk, truffles and melting permafrost left me frustratingly unsatisfied and stubbornly wishing I could smell these in the real world, despite their detailed descriptions.
Stewart makes some observations I wanted her to explore further, like this one about line-dried laundry. Why doesn't washing that's hung outside in cities smell like pollution or absorb the smells of the heavily populated streets below? I'd like to know why my apartment doesn't smell like the scented candles I burn every night when I come home from a few days away.
Stewart also had an engaging section about vanilla as the base of all flavour, and the contrast between white and black, with the seeds being black, but perception that vanilla is white. I'd never considered that vanilla was its flavour and instead always considered it as the base flavour, especially with respect to ice-cream.
I also enjoyed the chapter discussing 'Smell as Emotional Time Travel' but somehow still wanted more. The exercises in the book were promising, although acknowledging and noticing smells is already a regular part of my existence, noting smells multiple times an hour. It was a timely reminder that many people don't notice or acknowledge the presence of smells within their immediate environment.
Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell by Jude Stewart is recommended to non fiction readers who enjoy micro histories and whiffing out information relating to our sense of smell.
For more on ambergris, you can check out my review of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris by Christopher Kemp as well as my interview with the author here.
The author's choice to break down fragrances and smells into the following groups was a novel approach:
Flowery & Herbal
Sweet
Savoury
Earthy
Resinous
Funky
Sharp & Pungent
Salty & Nutty
Tingling & Fresh
Otherworldly
These creative categories provided a neat structure for exploring smell by learning more about a number of fragrances within each group. In taking this approach, the author describes the smell to the reader while also delivering an overview of the item being discussed. This resulted in a 'micro history' of fragrances like jasmine, hot chocolate, tobacco, truffles and cash to name a few.
The audiobook is narrated by Gabra Zackman, and her tendency to sometimes over pronounce or over-emphasise words and phrases began to grate on my nerves after a while. I suspect the poetic nature of some of the descriptions begged to be acknowledged, but I found it off-putting.
An unavoidable limiting factor when reading or learning about smell is that the reader can't smell the thing being described. Of course, for this book, you could assemble the items according to the table of contents, but usually readers don't have that advantage. The author does a terrific job describing certain scents like: cinnamon, durian, stinky cheese, freshly sharpened pencils, frankincense, new car, new baby or old books, and being familiar with these items I could quickly relate.
However fragrances like ambergris, petrichor, skunk, truffles and melting permafrost left me frustratingly unsatisfied and stubbornly wishing I could smell these in the real world, despite their detailed descriptions.
Stewart makes some observations I wanted her to explore further, like this one about line-dried laundry. Why doesn't washing that's hung outside in cities smell like pollution or absorb the smells of the heavily populated streets below? I'd like to know why my apartment doesn't smell like the scented candles I burn every night when I come home from a few days away.
Stewart also had an engaging section about vanilla as the base of all flavour, and the contrast between white and black, with the seeds being black, but perception that vanilla is white. I'd never considered that vanilla was its flavour and instead always considered it as the base flavour, especially with respect to ice-cream.
I also enjoyed the chapter discussing 'Smell as Emotional Time Travel' but somehow still wanted more. The exercises in the book were promising, although acknowledging and noticing smells is already a regular part of my existence, noting smells multiple times an hour. It was a timely reminder that many people don't notice or acknowledge the presence of smells within their immediate environment.
Revelations in Air: A Guidebook to Smell by Jude Stewart is recommended to non fiction readers who enjoy micro histories and whiffing out information relating to our sense of smell.
For more on ambergris, you can check out my review of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris by Christopher Kemp as well as my interview with the author here.
July 14, 2022
I can't do half ratings, but I guess my true rating would be 2.5/5!!
It started off fun and interesting, but then each section ended so abruptly and it started feeling like I was reading a listicle of sorts instead of a book. Each section was a collection of smells that were grouped together for what felt like arbitrary reasons, with Stewart talking about her personal experience with them as well as their actual history - of which the latter was more interesting.
She also kept trying to explain how things smelled to HER which was a bit boring to read sometimes lol... Luckily I was listening to this via Audiobook on like 1.75x speed while sewing so it wasn't such a struggle for me lolllllll.
IDK. I feel let down by this book because it wasn't as detailed or analytical as I expected.. I guess the runtime should have been a good indicator for me that it wasn't going to be as all encompassing as I wanted as the runtime was around the same as This Is Your Mind on Plants and Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. I think Jude Stewart bit off more than she could chew with this book and wanted to cover a LOT but ended up not covering anything in great detail... Just my o(pi)nion...
It started off fun and interesting, but then each section ended so abruptly and it started feeling like I was reading a listicle of sorts instead of a book. Each section was a collection of smells that were grouped together for what felt like arbitrary reasons, with Stewart talking about her personal experience with them as well as their actual history - of which the latter was more interesting.
She also kept trying to explain how things smelled to HER which was a bit boring to read sometimes lol... Luckily I was listening to this via Audiobook on like 1.75x speed while sewing so it wasn't such a struggle for me lolllllll.
IDK. I feel let down by this book because it wasn't as detailed or analytical as I expected.. I guess the runtime should have been a good indicator for me that it wasn't going to be as all encompassing as I wanted as the runtime was around the same as This Is Your Mind on Plants and Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. I think Jude Stewart bit off more than she could chew with this book and wanted to cover a LOT but ended up not covering anything in great detail... Just my o(pi)nion...
December 4, 2022
This book started out strong, discussing how smell differs from other senses and what science currently does and does not know about smell (like you have olfactory receptors in your skin and some of your organs, not just in your nose). However, the majority of the book was spent on specific smells and profiling them. I would have liked more cultural and scientific content in the book.
December 24, 2021
Jude is an insighful author whose worldview was formed through the eyes of an artist. Beginning her career in the visual arts, she found herself at an art exhibit in Europe that paired visual experiences with related scents. It was executed so effectively that she thought about scent more and more in the following months, and that increasing interest led to a new project for her year in lockdown - and this book is the result.
'Revelations in Air' is well researched and annotated, a great summary of the global research into the science of scent and how it creates such deep and evocative memories. Anyone who's in the wine or food fields, any student of cognition, and any curious, intelligent reader will find Jude's book to be time well spent, and one to be kept close at hand in a personal reference shelf!
'Revelations in Air' is well researched and annotated, a great summary of the global research into the science of scent and how it creates such deep and evocative memories. Anyone who's in the wine or food fields, any student of cognition, and any curious, intelligent reader will find Jude's book to be time well spent, and one to be kept close at hand in a personal reference shelf!
January 24, 2023
An attempt to classify and put into words the differing nature of smells.
Stewart, who previously wrote about color, personally investigates 50 odors, dividing them into flowery and herbal, sweet, savory, earthy, resinous, funky, sharp and pungent, salty and nutty, tingling and fresh, and otherworldly. Her descriptions of smells--from petrichor to old books, play-doh to ditto sheets--are wonderfully descriptive and inventive. Between chapters she offers exercises to develop your own smelling, which I didn't try but certainly could imagine doing. Reading it was tedious at times but also brought back a lot of memories of my own. A really interesting read -- though maybe in smaller chunks. Curiously, available (at least in book form) at from only one library system in my states.
Stewart, who previously wrote about color, personally investigates 50 odors, dividing them into flowery and herbal, sweet, savory, earthy, resinous, funky, sharp and pungent, salty and nutty, tingling and fresh, and otherworldly. Her descriptions of smells--from petrichor to old books, play-doh to ditto sheets--are wonderfully descriptive and inventive. Between chapters she offers exercises to develop your own smelling, which I didn't try but certainly could imagine doing. Reading it was tedious at times but also brought back a lot of memories of my own. A really interesting read -- though maybe in smaller chunks. Curiously, available (at least in book form) at from only one library system in my states.
January 28, 2025
definitely a favourite! not only was i exposed to scents/smells beyond perfumery, but i also learned to try and approach smells like puzzles. not only to sniff, but to think of ways of articulating that smell into language. my language is limited and i don't want that to limit my experience of the vast osmocosm awaiting my repeated arrival, but i will venture forth regardless.
every time i came back to this book, i felt truly grateful to be alive, and perhaps i am just in search of life through olfactory adventures.
every time i came back to this book, i felt truly grateful to be alive, and perhaps i am just in search of life through olfactory adventures.
January 10, 2022
Quirky, eye-opening, authoritative, and, at times, a little gross. Exactly what I love when reading about science. Stewart's conversational tone is perfect for this olfactory journey like none other. It's all here: baby smells, floral smells, and the long-lost scent of damp purple-printed ditto sheets! Recommended for fans of The New Yorker's Annals of Medicine and other "popular" science writing.
February 8, 2023
In a word this book is incredible. I have never felt so engrossed in a non fiction book and the descriptions and the history behind what some might call a mundane topic. I learned so much and realized a lot of things as well not just about the world around me but how I interact with it. This book can really help you put into perspective a whole layer of your life you might be overlooking.
November 18, 2021
This is an illuminating exploration into the world of smell. Who would've thought that learning about the act of smelling would be so fascinating?! Highly recommend Revelations in Air for a refreshing and informative deep-dive in to a sense that many of us oftentimes take for granted.
June 8, 2023
An entertaining, light read about specific smells. Light on the science of smelling, long on the descriptions of smells—for instance, new car smell. Could have used a strong editor and a thesaurus (bower was used at least 8 times, and it was far from the only repeat offender.)
November 18, 2021
Luminous book. Hard to imagine better writing on the topic.
December 3, 2021
What a great book! Appreciated seeing my world in a new way.
December 4, 2021
Fascinating.
December 4, 2021
Esse livro é excelente. Certamente está entre os melhores que já li.
Recomendo fortemente.
Recomendo fortemente.
December 31, 2021
I learned a lot in an interesting way.
The tea chapter was misleading though. “But tea drinking offers no nutritional value.” That is false. Many teas have many different nutritional values.
The tea chapter was misleading though. “But tea drinking offers no nutritional value.” That is false. Many teas have many different nutritional values.
March 31, 2022
useful and interesting. recommend to everyone interested in enhancing their daily life.
April 17, 2022
Enlightening and fun
June 3, 2022
Full of deep illustration and intense imagery this is the least boring science book ever.
August 16, 2022
I've read a far superior book on this exact topic, so this was a severe disappointment.
November 17, 2022
I should have liked this more than I did. Hard to put my finger on why.
December 25, 2022
Was ok, but not as interesting as I thought it was going to be.
January 27, 2023
This was a unique book that held my attention. I can smell things that other people can’t, so I was especially interested in reading about smells. Entertaining and educational.
August 20, 2025
exactly what i wanted it to be. loved all of the smelling exercises that were included, and felt like the perfect execution of a passion project
June 27, 2022
I thoroughly enjoyed Revelations In Air and would recommend it to anyone who wants to tune in a little more to their sense of smell. Very timely, as I’m sure people will read this and follow the activities as they regain their sense of smell post-COVID.
October 15, 2022
Smell is trendy these days, and this is the second book I've read on the topic and by far the more entertaining and accessible. Stewart starts where I wish all such books would start: with sensory biology. Unfortunately the mechanics of smell aren't actually worked out, but some fun facts: there are about 400 chemical receptor types in your olfactory bulb, but they don't precisely match specific molecules so there's not a one-to-one map between what you smell and the receptors you smell them with like there is with taste; smell neurons connect to a different, older part of your brain than vision or taste neurons, a part related to memory; some smells activate trigeminal nerves, which deal with temperature, touch, and pain sensing.
That's really just the beginning, but there are some good citations. The bulk of the book consists of mini essays on particular smells, their history, their implications. The one on tobacco actually made me want to smoke a pipe just to experience a "room note." The one on pencils taught me that most American pencils were made of eastern red cedar in the 19th century because of its color and fine scent, a tree I grew up with in the northeast. When supplies ran low, manufacturers switched to incense cedar, a common mountain tree in my new home of California, but they had to be scented and dyed before consumers would accept them.
Looking forward to finding more books on sensory biology. It's insane that we can sense anything at all.
That's really just the beginning, but there are some good citations. The bulk of the book consists of mini essays on particular smells, their history, their implications. The one on tobacco actually made me want to smoke a pipe just to experience a "room note." The one on pencils taught me that most American pencils were made of eastern red cedar in the 19th century because of its color and fine scent, a tree I grew up with in the northeast. When supplies ran low, manufacturers switched to incense cedar, a common mountain tree in my new home of California, but they had to be scented and dyed before consumers would accept them.
Looking forward to finding more books on sensory biology. It's insane that we can sense anything at all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews