Best Science Books 2012: New York Times 100 Notable Books

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 2012 lists are here.

This post includes the following: New York Times 100 Notable Books.

• Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate by Ivor Noël Hume
• Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams
• Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution by Rebecca Stot
• The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life by Robert Trivers
• Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer by Susan Gubar
• On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder
• The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
• Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
• Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt

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 most of my lists from Largehearted Boy.

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 or The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or maybe even something else from today's list.