Best Science Books 2011: The Guardian

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 Guardian Books for giving: science, Biography, History, Nature.

• Incoming!: or, Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Meteorite by Ted Nield
• Survivors: The Animals and Plants That Time Has Left Behind by Richard Fortey
• Here on Earth: A New Beginning by Tim Flannery
• The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
• World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement by Robert P. Crease
• The Genius in My Basement by Alexander Mastersb
• Britain's War Machine: Weapons, Resources and Experts in the Second World War by David Edgerton
• Inside Nature's Giants by David Dugan and Richard Dawkins
• Planet Dinosaur by Cavan Scott and Darren Naish
• Frozen Planet by Alastair Fothergill, Vanessa Berlowitz and David Attenborough
• Plant Pests by David V Alford
• Plant Galls by Margaret Redfer
• Marches by Andrew Allott
• Collins Bird Guide
• The Urban Birder by David Lindo
• Big Cats: Facing Britain's Wild Predators by Rick Minter
• Animal London: A Spotter's Guide by Ianthe Ruthven
• The Royal Entomological Society Book of British Insects by Peter C Barnard
• The Handbook of the Mammals of the World: volume 2, Hoofed Mammals edited by Don E Wilson and Russell A Mittermeier
• The Handbook of the Birds of the World: Volume 16: Tanagers to New World Blackbirds edited by Josep del Hoyo, Andrew Elliot and David A Christie

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.