best science books 2009

This list is usually the very, very last of the best books lists of the year. It's a good list, but since it's UK-based there are a number of books that we probably won't be seeing on North American shores for another year or so. I'll probably get around to updating my 2009 summary list later this week or next week. We Need To Talk About Kelvin: What everyday things tell us about the universe by Marcus Chown Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?) By Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne In Search of the Multiverse by John Gribbin Everyday Practice of Science…
For the last little while I've been compiling lists from various media sources giving their choices for the best books of 2009. Some of the lists have been from general media sources, in which case I've just extracted the science-related books. From science publications, I've included most or all of the mentioned titles. What I'm doing in this post is collating all the books I've mentioned in all those lists and compiling a sort of master list of all the books mentioned three or more times. There were twelve of them and they are listed below. Some notes/caveats: These aren't in any way the…
A big list of 35 titles in various categories: Astronomy, Biography, Biology, Climatology, Environmental Science, Evolution, Geology, Health Sciences, History of Science, Mathematics, Natural History, Neurology, Oceanography, Paleontology, Physics, Psychology, Science, Technology, Zoology. This particular list that Library Journal does every year is one that I always use for collection development. I'll order pretty well all the books that we don't already have. It's also heartening that a good chunk of the books that we do have were checked out when I checked the other day. BTW, I may get…
Oddly and interestingly, Amazon.ca has a different list that the US parent. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity & Hope by William Kamkwamba Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann Green Metropolis by David Owen Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis by Alanna MitchellThis is one of the last lists I'll do for 2009 --…
I thought I'd combine a couple lists that only have a couple of relevant items. January Magazine The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York by Matthew Goodman The Bizarre and Incredible World of Plants by Wolfgang Stuppy Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim Planet Ape by Desmond Morris with Steve ParkerNational Book Critics Circle Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City by Greg Grandin The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation…
The Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association has released it's list of 2009 Notable Books. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
A pretty extensive list from The London Times, across multiple categories: science, stocking stuffers, biography, graphic novels and nature. Mad Science: 100 Amazing Experiments From The History Of Science by Reto Schneider How To Make A Tornado: The Strange And Wonderful Things That Happen When Scientists Break Free by The New Scientist Bad Science by Ben Goldacre Strange Fruit: Why Both Sides Are Wrong in the Race Debate by Kenan Malik Your Inner Fish: The Amazing Discovery Of Our 375-Million-Year-Old Ancestor by Neil Shubin The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard…
Two items in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's list. The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care by T.R. Reid The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution And The Birth Of America by Steven Johnson
Nice list of coffee table books, biographies and other books from Scientific American. Galápagos: Preserving Darwin's Legacy edited by Tui de Roy Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle by Michael Benson The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton, and Antarctic Photography by David Hempleman-Adams, Emma Stuart and Sophie Gordon No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale by Felice C. Frankel and George M. Whitesides Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century by Masha Gessen. (A biography of Grigory Perelman) The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the…
A nice list from the SF Chronicle: Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon by Neil Sheehan Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, by Greg Grandin Googled: The End of the World As We Know It by Ken Auletta The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos H. Papadimitriou Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David…
The New Scientist's CultureLab blog asked a whole slew of editors and contributors to name a notable 2009 book. It's quite an extensive list. Catching Fire: How cooking made us human by Richard Wrangham Codes of the Underworld: How criminals communicate by Diego Gambetta The Natural History of Unicorns by Chris Lavers Darwin's Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins by Adrian Desmond and James Moore Confabulation: Views from neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology and philosophy edited by William Hirstein Bad Science by Ben Goldacre Reading in the Brain: The science and…
The New Zealand Listener has a few good suggestions from two different categories: Science and Journalism & Essays. The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure and Human Evolution by Denis Dutton The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins Innocents in the Dry Valley: An Account of the Victoria University of Wellington Antarctic Expedition, 1958-59 by Colin Bull On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition and Fiction by Brian Boyd The Best of New Zealand Geographic: Exploring our Land and Culture
Not surprisingly, a very fine list from the AIP's Physicsworld website: The Physics of Rugby by Trevor Davis First Principles: The Crazy Business of Doing Serious Science by Howard Burton Oliver Heaviside: Maverick Mastermind of Electricity by Basil Mahon Atomic: The First War of Physics and the Secret History of the Atom Bomb by Jim Baggott Lives in Science by Joseph C Hermanowitz 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung by Arthur I Miller Perfect Rigor by Masha Gessen Plastic Fantastic: How the…
A nice list from a bunch of categories from the Washington Post, although some of items in the the science section seem strangely unscientific: Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes The Art and Politics of Science by Harold Varmus A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary by Andrew Levy The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care by T. R. Reid The Fatal Strain: On the Trail of Avian Flu and the…
One of the five non-fiction books chosen by Salon was a science book. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
A nice list of technology/business books: Googled: The End of the World as we Know it by Ken Auletta Inside Larry & Sergey's Brain by Richard L. Brandt The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein The Accidental Billionares: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal by Ben Mezrich Stealing MySpace: The Battle to Control the most Popular Website in America by Julia Angwin Behind The Cloud: The Untold Story of How Salesforce.com Went from Idea to Billion-Dollar Company-and Revolutionized an Industry by Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler Smasher by Keith Raffel
I've cobbled together this list from three lists from The Independent: Nature & Environment, Biography and History. The Running Sky: A bird-watching life by Tim Dee Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo by Michael McCarthy Edible Seashore: river cottage handbook no. 5 by John Wright Logicomix: an epic search for truth by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie di Donna Darwin's Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins by Adrian Desmond and James Moore The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius by Graham Farmelo Blood, Iron and…
From Time's Top 10 Non-Fiction books: The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos H. Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di DonnaAs usual, if you've seen any best book of the year lists out there that you think I should mention, please let me know.
A nice list from The Barnes & Noble Review: Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives by Joseph Kanon Michael Specter The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann Ivory's Ghosts: The White Gold of History and the Fate of Elephants by John Frederick Walker The Fallen Sky: An Intimate History of Shooting Stars by Christopher Cokinos A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana by João Magueijo
Not surprisingly, being a science magazine Seed has a very fine list of books for science enthusiasts: Boyle: Between God and Science by Michael Hunter A Brilliant Darkness: The Extraordinary Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Ettore Majorana, the Troubled Genius of the Nuclear Age by João Magueijo NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman Moyasimon 1: Tales of Agriculture by Masayuki Ishikawa Nature's Patterns: a Tapestry in Three Parts (Shapes, Flow, Branches) by Philip Ball Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth's Climate by…