Best Science Books 2012: Skeptically Speaking

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: Skeptically Speaking #193 Science Books for Your Gift List.

• Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
• Gravity’s Engines: How Bubble-Blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars, and Life in the Cosmos by Caleb A. Scharf
• Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm
• Science Left Behind: Feel-Good Fallacies and the Rise of the Anti-Scientific Left by Alex Berezow and Hank Campbell
• Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen
• All Yesterdays Unique and Speculative Views of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by Darren Naish
• Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us by Maggie Koerth-Baker
• Angel Killer: A True Story of Cannibalism Crime Fighting and Insanity in New York City by Blum, Deborah
• Am I My Genes?: Confronting Fate and Family Secrets in the Age of Genetic Testing by Robert L. Klitzman
• The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner
• Incredible Arthropods: Insects, Spiders & More! by Kristie Reddick

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.