Last year (that was 2008), Sci made a resolution to read 100 books in a year. She did pretty well at the outset. But then she went and start this…blog thing. Book reading declined steeply. But I still fit in a good bit. Last year’s list is here.
But this year, I knew I would be busy, so I resolved only to try and read 30 books this year. So far, I haven’t made it. But I retain hope for the future!! Anyway, here are this years books. And Sci would very much welcome any recommendations any of you might have for what to read next. I’m always looking for some good science, and I’m REALLY looking for some good history. Also, good fantasy. I haven’t really found anything that grabs my attention since the Martin Song of Ice and Fire group. Anyone?
General Non-Fiction
1)Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: the Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.
2)Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss what Matters Most by Stone, Patton and Heen.
3)Professionalism is for Everyone by James Ball. Waste. Of. Time.
4)Communicating Science: Giving Talks. 43 pages. Less of a waste of time.
5)Whipping Girl: a transsexual woman on sexism and the scapegoating of femininity by Julia Serano.
6)More Sex is Safer Sex: The unconventional wisdom of economics by Steven E Landsburg.
7)The Gender Knot: Unraveling our patriarchal legacy by Allan G Johnson. Wow. Just wow. It gave me SO much to think about. So so much. One of those books that will really change how you see society.
Science
8)Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach. AWESOME!
9)Instant Egghead Guide to the Mind by Emily Anthes and Scientific American.
10)The End of My Addiction by Olivier Ameisen.
11)How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer.
12)An Odyssey with Animals: A veterinarian’s reflections on the animal rights and welfare debate by Adrian R Morrison.
13)Unscientific America: How scientific illiteracy threatens our future by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum.
14)Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion by Lee Kirkpatrick.
15)The search for the giant squid: the biology and mythology of the world’s most elusive sea creature by Richard Ellis. COMPLETELY AWESOME!!!!! SQUIDS ARE SO COOL!!!
16)The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology by Masaharu Takemura.
17)The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution by Carl Zimmer.
18)Don’t be SUCH a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style by Randy Olson.
General Fiction
19)Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and some guy named Seth who thought that Jane Austen would be cooler with zombies. OMG SO FUNNY. Even funnier if you love Jane Austen.
20) Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi.
Fantasy
21)Of Darkness, Light and Fire by Tanya Huff.
22)Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Fantastic!
23)Rhapsody by Elizabeth Hayden. I GET IT. THEY ARE UNDERGROUND. TIME PASSES. Did we really need to spend 200 pages on it?!
24)The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. BRILLIANT!
25) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. About the only good thing I can say about it is that it’s a quick read. Terribly written, the conversation is positively wooden, and the multiple descriptions of Edward’s scintillatingly perfect chest are positivity eye rolling. It’s like really cheap candy. It pushes all the right BUTTONS (romance, awww I felt that way in high school buttons), but that doesn’t make it good. I think I wasted some neurons on this one.
Historical Fiction
26)The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. Excellent.
27) Empress: A Novel by Shan Sa.
History
28)The Annals of Imperial Rome by Cornelius Tacitus. Apparently suicide was VERY popular in the first century.
29)A History of God: The 4000 year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong. Pretty good, less so in the more modern eras.
