Best Science Books 2012: Financial Times

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: Financial Times Best Books of 2012.

• Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change by Charles Duhigg
• The Particle at the End of the Universe: The Hunt for the Higgs and the Discovery of a New World by Sean Carroll
• The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: Risk-taking, Gut Feelings and the Biology of Boom and Bust by John Coates
• Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients by Ben Goldacre
• The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson
• A History of the World in Twelve Maps by Jerry Brotton
• Empire Antarctica: Ice, Silence & Emperor Penguins by Gavin Francis

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.