The Real Mars by Michael Hanlon as the best science gift book I've seen in a long time. Clicking on its cover above takes you to a review that I just added to this site.
Dear Science Readers,
Happy Holidays! Whatever and however you celebrate, you probably do something to brighten the long, dark nights in the months surrounding the winter solstice. It's a time for gifts, gratitude, and days away from the office. And since you are a science reader, you probably give science books as gifts or settle down to read them in your favorite chair, with a hot beverage close at hand. The big question is which books to choose.
I face the same question when I select titles to add to the Science Shelf Archive or to recommend in this newsletter. I'm sure a lot of you are wondering how I discover science books and how I choose the ones to feature.
Before I answer that question, I want to recommend The Real Mars by Michael Hanlon as the best science gift book I've seen in a long time. Clicking on its cover above takes you to a review that I just added to this site.
Now that I have established something of a reputation for reviewing science books, several publishers send me books they hope I'll review or advance catalogs with request forms that allow me to select titles of interest. I admit that I select some simply because I'd like to have them and my work has earned me a few "freebies," but most of the time I choose books because I think I can sell reviews. When the advance reading copy or finished book arrives at my door, I quickly look it over and decide whether to "pitch" a review, and to whom.
That accounts for a significant fraction of the books on this site; but often, a book review editor will ask me to consider an assignment. My favorites are the quirky titles like The Whale Book: Whales and Other Marine Animals as Described by Adriaen Coenen in 1585 or The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. But I also like those that are a challenge, either because of their depth or their subject matter. The most recent such book is Richard Dawkins' The Ancestor's Tale, but I would also recommend Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker, though I gave the latter a mixed review.
Readers are also mixed about whether Why We Love by Helen Fisher adds romance to relationships or replaces it with science. My review favors the former conclusion, but I am a scientist, after all.
Besides the books that I get directly from publishers and book review editors, there are several that I read about on book review pages of my favorite science magazines or that I hear about because Amazon.com knows my reading habits. I'll occasionally share those here without necessarily creating separate pages for them on my site. For example, as someone who worked in the nuclear industry from 1974 through 1977 and understands its possibilities and problems, I was pleased to see an affordable new book that looks back on Three Mile Island from a historical persective of 25 years. 
Three Mile Island: A Nuclear Crisis in Historical Perspective by J. Samuel Walker. I haven't read it, but the reviews are very strong. I think it is an excellent companion piece to the recently reissued paperback
The Warning: Accident at Three Mile Island; A Nuclear Omen for the Age of Terror, which I read cover-to-cover while writing my chapter on nuclear accidents in Catastrophe! Great Engineering Failure -- and Success for Scientific American Books for Young Readers.
Of course all my reviews and recommendations reflect my idiosyncratic bias. If you're like me, you prefer idiosyncrasy of good books to the bland homogeneity of mass marketing. I'd like to think that you read this newsletter for the same reason. With each issue, you will get to know me and my taste better, and you will be able to decide which of the books speak to you as an idiosyncratic individual who shares some of my quirks and forgives the rest.
I'll close this newsletter with the same links I had in newsletter #1. Please feel free to send this URL (www.scienceshelf.com/news.htm) to your friends. And don't forget, you and they can join the Science Shelf's e-mail list to be alerted to the latest news at the site. Please be assured that I will not share your name or e-mail or use them for other purposes.
Again, Happy Holidays, and Happy Reading!
Fred Bortz
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard DawkinsThe Real Mars by Michael Hanlon
Copies in Seconds: Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine by Paul Roberts
The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World by Paul Roberts
Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein
Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love by Helen Fisher
Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna
The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax
Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry by Scott Huler
FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast by John and Mary Gribbin
The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart
Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution by Robin Marantz Henig
The Whale Book: Whales and Other Marine Animals as Described by Adriaen Coenen in 1585
Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith
The Architecture and Design of Man and Woman: The Marvel of the Human Body Revealed by Alexander Tsiaras
Archives of the Universe: A Treasury of Astronomy's Historic Works of Discovery edited and with Introduction by Marcia Bartusiak
Bones Rock: Everything You Need to Know to be a Paleontologist by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan
Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo Da Vinci by Bulent Atalay
The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography by Andrew TaylorI also write children's science books, which you can learn more about at "Dr. Fred's Place".
Thanks for your interest. Please e-mail me comments and suggestions about my reviews or this website.
Note: All materials on this site are the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies of reviews or columns for their own use. For permission to publish or print multiple copies of any of the materials on this site, please contact the author by e-mail.
