Best Science Books 2011: The Globe and Mail 100

Another list for your reading, gift-giving and collection development pleasure.

Every year for the last bunch of years I've been linking to and posting about all the "year's best sciencey books" lists that appear in various media outlets and shining a bit of light on the best of the year.

All the previous 2011 lists are here.

This post includes the following: The Globe 100.

• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick
• Here on Earth: A Natural History of the Planet by Tim Flannery
• The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death by John Gray
• The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll
• The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
• Phoenix: The Life of Norman Bethune by Roderick and Sharon Stewart
• Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug are Killing North America's Great Forests by Andrew Nikiforuk
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops and You by Misha Glenny

I'm always looking for recommendations and notifications of book lists as they appear in various media outlets. If you see one that I haven't covered, please let me know at jdupuis at yorku dot ca or in the comments.

I am picking up a lot of lists from Largehearted Boy.

The summary post for 2010 books is here and all the posts for 2010 can be found here. For 2009, it's here and here.

For my purposes, I define science books pretty broadly to include science, engineering, computing, history & philosophy of science & technology, environment, social aspects of science and even business books about technology trends or technology innovation. Deciding what is and isn't a science book is squishy at best, especially at the margins, but in the end I pick books that seem broadly about science and technology rather than something else completely. Lists of business, history or nature books are among the tricky ones.

And if you wish to support my humble list-making efforts, run on over to Amazon, take a look at Steve Jobs and consider picking that one up or something else from the lists.