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Best Science Books 2011: Booklist Online Editors' Choice

By jdupuis on January 4, 2012.

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 2011 lists are here.

This post includes the following: Booklist Online Editors' Choice.

  • The Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President By Candice Millard
  • Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon By Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa and Mim Eichler Rivas
  • Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation By Andrea Wulf
  • The Book of Universes: Exploring the Limits of the Cosmos By John D. Barrow
  • Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them By Donovan Hohn
  • A Planet of Viruses By Carl Zimmer
  • The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments By Jim Baggott
  • The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water By Charles Fishman
  • The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood By James Gleick
  • The Most Human Human: What Talking to Computers Teaches Us about What It Means to Be Alive By Brian Christian
  • The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement By David Brooks
  • The Atlas of Birds: Diversity, Behavior, and Conservation By Mike Unwin
  • Atlas of the Great Plains By Stephen J. Lavin and others
  • Encyclopedia of American Environmental History. 4v. Ed. by Kathleen A. Brosnan
  • Encyclopedia of Pollution. 2v. By Alexander E. Gates and Robert P. Blauvelt
  • Patrick Moore's Data Book of Astronomy. 2d ed. Ed. by Patrick Moore and Robin Rees

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 a lot of lists from Largehearted Boy.

The summary post for 2010 books is here and all the posts for 2010 can be found here. For 2009, it's here and here.

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 and consider picking that one up or something else from the lists.

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