Best Science Books 2009: Library Journal Best of 2009 Sci-Tech Books

A big list of 35 titles in various categories: Astronomy, Biography, Biology, Climatology, Environmental Science, Evolution, Geology, Health Sciences, History of Science, Mathematics, Natural History, Neurology, Oceanography, Paleontology, Physics, Psychology, Science, Technology, Zoology.

This particular list that Library Journal does every year is one that I always use for collection development. I'll order pretty well all the books that we don't already have. It's also heartening that a good chunk of the books that we do have were checked out when I checked the other day.

BTW, I may get around to updating my Top Books of the Year list...or I might not.

• Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe by Gates, Evalyn
• The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Farmelo, Graham
• Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Yoon, Carol Kaesuk
• Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance To Save Humanity by Hansen, James
• A World Without Ice by Pollack, Henry N.
• Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto by Brand, Stewart
• What We Leave Behind by Jensen, Derrick & Aric McBay.
• The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning by Lovelock, James
• Evolution: The Story of Life by Palmer, Douglas & Peter Barrett (illus.)
• Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Wrangham, Richard
• Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Zoellner, Tom
• Taming the Beloved Beast: How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System by Callahan, Daniel
• Experimental Man: What One Man's Body Reveals About His Future, Your Health, and Our Toxic World by Duncan, David Ewing
• The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by Reid, T.R.
• Science: A Four Thousand Year History by Fara, Patricia
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Holmes, Richard
• Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Levenson, Thomas
• The Math Book: From Pythagoras to the 57th Dimension, 250 Milestones in the History of Mathematics by Pickover, Clifford
• One Square Inch of Silence: One Man's Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Hempton, Gordon & John Grossmann
• Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery by Nicholls, Steve.
• Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City by Sanderson, Eric W. & Markley Boyer (illus.)
• Cold: Adventures in the World's Frozen Places by Streever, Bill
• Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey into Seeing in Three Dimensions by Barry, Susan R.
• Think Smart: A Neuroscientist's Prescription for Improving Your Brain's Performance by Restak, Richard, M.D.
• World Ocean Census: A Global Survey of Marine Life by Crist, Darlene Trew & others.
• How To Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn't Have to Be Forever by Horner, Jack & James Gorman.
• Collider: The Search for the World's Smallest Particles by Halpern, Paul.
• On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction by Boyd, Brian
• Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Behavior by Dahaene, Stanislas
• Nature's Patterns: A Tapestry in Three Parts. Includes: Shapes, Flow and Branches by Ball, Philip.
• Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future by Mooney, Chris & Sheril Kirshenbaum
• The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking Our World, from the Internet to Artificial Limbs by Belfiore, Michael
• The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society by DeWaal, Franz
• On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear by Ellis, Richard
• Rewilding the World: Dispatches from the Conservation Revolution by Fraser, Caroline