Best Science Books 2014: Globe and Mail 100

As you all have no doubt noticed over the years, I love highlighting the best science books every year via the various end of year lists that newspapers, web sites, etc. publish. I've done it so far in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013.

And here we are in 2014!

As in previous years, my definition of "science books" is pretty inclusive, including books on technology, engineering, nature, the environment, science policy, history & philosophy of science, geek culture and whatever else seems to be relevant in my opinion.

The first list I'll be highlighting this year is the Globe and Mail's Globe 100.

  • The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in a World of Constant Connection by Michael Harris
  • This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein
  • Circling the Midnight Sun: Culture and Change in the Invisible Arctic by James Raffan
  • The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age by Astra Taylor
  • Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One’s Looking) by Christian Rudde
  • The Sixth Extinction: An Unnnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert
  • No Place To Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald
  • Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
  • On Immunity: An Innoculation by Eula Biss

(Astute readers will notice that I kind of petered out on this project last year and never got around to the end of year summary. The last few years I ended up featuring dozens of lists, virtually every list I could find that had science books on it. While it was kind of cool to be so comprehensive, not to mention that it gave the summary posts a certain statistical weight, it was also way more work than I had really envisioned way back in 2008 or so when I started doing this. As a result, I'm only going to highlight particularly large or noteworthy lists this year and forgo any kind of end of year summary. Basically, all the fun but not so much of the drudgery.)

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