Best Science Books 2011: Boston Globe

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: Science, Non-Fiction.

• Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science by Michael Nielsen
• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick
• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
• Blue Revolution: Unmaking America's Water Crisis by Cynthia Barnett
• For the Love of Physics: From the End of the Rainbow to the Edge of Time - A Journey through the Wonders of Physics by Walter Lewin, with Warren Goldstein
• The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
• John James Audubon's Journal of 1826: The Voyage to the Birds of America by John James Audubon
• Cycles of Time: An Extraordinary New View of the Universe by Roger Penrose
• Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku
• The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive by Brian Christian
• Plastic: A Toxic Love Story by Susan Freinkel
• Adventures in the Orgasmatron: How the Sexual Revolution Came to America by Christopher Turner
• Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

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.