Best Science Books 2011: io9

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: A Brilliant List of Science Books for People Who Want Their Minds Blown.

• Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker
• Eruptions that Shook the World by Clive Oppenheimer
• Radioactivity: A History of a Mysterious Science by Marjorie Malley
• The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind The Vaccine Autism Controversy by Seth Mnookin
• The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through The Madness Industry by Jon Ronson
• The Information by James Gleick
• Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed by Carl Zimmer
• Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men by Mara Hvistendahl
• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman
• Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal
• The Physics of the Future by Michiko Kaku
• Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá
• Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes

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.