Best Science Books 2011: Russell Blackford, Stumbling Virtue, Men's Journal, Houston Chronicle

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:

Russell Blackford

• The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

Stumbling Virtue

• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
• Moby Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them by Donovan Hohn
• The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Men's Journal

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Houston Chronicle

• Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman

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.