Books

The following are some books I’ve read that I recommend particularly highly. If I don’t recommend it highly, it’s not here. So, I won’t say “this is a really great book” about any of them. Or, rather, I say that about all of these. In many cases, both hardcover and paperback are available. In such cases, the link I provide will always be the paperback on the assumption that it is cheaper.

Physics

• A Brief History of Time – Stephen Hawking: The basics through relativity and quantum theory in plain language.
• Hyperspace – Michio Kako: Another good basics book that probably goes a bit farther into extra dimensions than the Hawking book. Also, it taught me a bit about the cubist art movement, based on an extra dimension of space.
• The Trouble With Physics – Lee Smolin: An interesting analysis of string theory’s lack of progress.
• The Cosmic Landscape – Leonard Susskind: Starting from the same data as Smolin, forms a very different conclusion.
• Warped Passages – Lisa Randall: Same start as Smolin and Susskind and a completely different answer. This has the most interesting physics possibilities of these three. I read them back to back to back in this order and recommend doing the same if you have that level of interest.
• Time: A Traveler’s Guide – Clifford A. Pickover: A serious study in the actual possibilities for time travel that are allowed by general relativity.

Environment/Sustainability/Politics (environmental only)

• New: Added 3/17/2009: The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment – Paul R Ehrlich & Anne H. Ehrlich. This is an excellent overview of where we came from and what we are doing to the ecosystem on which we depend for our lives. It covers a tremendous number of topics relating to the ways in which humans have come to dominate this planet and what we must do now in order to survive on it. If you’ve read many of the other books on this list some will be review. If not, this is a great compendium of information.
• Earth 2: The Sequel – Fred Krupp & Miriam Horn. From the president of the Environmental Defense Fund and journalist Horn, this book is an optimistic look at the future and how we will solve the global warming crisis. This is quite different than many other books I’ve read which do not convey such an extreme belief that the crisis is indeed solvable. There is a lot of very interesting new technology described in this book as well as a pretty good sales pitch for a cap and trade system for CO₂. Personally, I’ll take either a cap and trade system or a revenue neutral carbon tax. I don’t really see a reason to have Wall Street involved in the issue. Either way though, this is a very good book with a lot of exciting information on new technologies.
• Under A Green Sky – Peter D. Ward. This book is about mass extinctions. There have been 5 major ones, plus the one we’re in and causing today. One is known to be caused by a cometary impact 65.3 million years ago. The author is one of the scientists who proved that. Now he is presenting excellent evidence that the others were not caused by impact. The causes of the others is shocking and scary as hell. If only everyone would read this book!!
• The World Without Us – Alan Weisman. Far more than just the mental masturbation of imagining the world with no humans, this book talks about engineering and art that will last, some for mere decades, some for hundreds of millions and even billions of years. It talks about nature before during and after us and de facto wildlife preserves springing up in places you’d never expect.
• Collapse – Jared Diamond: Study of civilizations that did and did not collapse and the relevance today.
• Plan B 2.0 – Lester Brown: Describes the necessary actions for human survival. Download at the link on the title or purchase in book form.
• The Weather Makers – Tim Flannery: Details the reality of anthropogenic climate change. What is known, what is not, what we must do, and what can and cannot be saved.
• Is the Temperature Rising: The Uncertain Science of Global Warming – S. George Philander: A relatively light book and highly readable for a climate science text book.

Biological Evolution/Human and Other Animal Brains, Minds, and Behavior

• Full House – Stephen Jay Gould: General evolution and the wonder of the evolutionary perspective.
• The Third Chimpanzee – Jared Diamond: All about us, what’s unique in kind versus magnitude.
• The Blind Watchmaker – Richard Dawkins: The science of evolution, why it explains the tree of life in ways that creationism cannot, not yet as preachy as his later work so possibly more persuasive.
• Our Inner Ape – Franz de Waal: Study of our behavioral characteristics and their similarity and differences from our closest cousins, the chimp and the bonobo, each of whom is more closely related to us than either is to gorillas.
• The Naked Brain – Richard Restak, M.D.: The current state of brain science and imaging. Scary!
• New: Added 3/17/2009: The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy and Why They Matter – Marc Bekoff with forward by Jane Goodall. The excellent quick read discusses the emotions of some of the various sentiences with whom we share this planet. The point is not whether the non-human animals have emotions. Anyone with a dog should know they do. The question is not whether they have the same level of intelligence we do. The question is whether they feel joy and pain and suffer when we mistreat them. There are a wealth of cases presented as evidence of the emotions of non-human animals. As we are animals too, we can observe and study their emotions. We can even test them with the same brain scans we use on humans and confirm that they indeed feel as we do using the same brain structures we have. This has far-reaching implications regarding our own morals as we cause tremendous pain and suffering in many animals and for what we should do going forward. Anyone who still believes the behaviorist psychologists of days gone by still have a point owes it to themselves to read this book and do some very serious introspection. (Sorry for such a long rant about one of the shortest books on the list.)
• Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think – Marc D. Hauser: Been a while, can’t give details.
• The Animal Mind – James L. and Carol Grant Gould: Also been a while.
• The Parrot’s Lament – Eugene Linden: Amazing anecdotes of animal intelligence. The author makes no claims about this being scientific only that the sheer number of these amazing stories indicates a need for further study of animal intelligence.
• Kanzi – Sue Savage-Rumbaugh: The incredible story of Kanzi, a bonobo at the Yerkes Primate Research facility that learned language the way we do, just by being around it.
• Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape – Frans De Waal with incredible photos by Frans Lanting: A very detailed book on the bonobo.
• Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind – David Berreby: A very interesting book on the many ways which we use to divide us from them including race, religion, ethnic background, etc. It examines the many ways in which these divisions are not static and how some races simply merge into the mainstream and what was formerly a race is now simply not. The only thing changed is our viewpoint. It also looks at the brain biology in the way we do this as well as the effects on the brains of members of a stigmatized group.
• Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5 Billion-Year History of the Human Body – Neil Shubin. This book explains a tremendous amount about the history of our evolution and how it has affected what we are today, including a variety of common health problems like bad backs, hernias, and the like. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in their own body. Oh, and for those who are looking for a less confrontational book on evolution than one from Dawkins, this one simply provides the facts. It’s pretty convincing and cool to say “well, we wanted to find an animal between these two, went to exposed rocks of the right age, and after a lot of searching, there it was!”
• Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind – Gary Marcus. This is a great book about a lot of the problems with our brains and why, though they do some things amazingly well, they do some things very poorly, in particular remembering things. Also though, even when we have enough time to make a conscious choice, we still generally revert to simpler sections of our brains and let them do the work. There is a reason for this, unfortunately. However, Gary Marcus offers not only explanations, but also some suggestions for workarounds for the kluges in our heads.
• Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts – Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson. If Kludge could be described as an owner’s manual for our brains, Mistakes were made could be the owner’s manual for our minds. This book describes both the value and the huge cost of our self-justification for the decisions we make. It covers everything from minor decisions to dealings with our spouses to wars. Even W gets a good amount of honorable mention. (Dishonorable?)

Politics (excluding environmental policy)

• What’s the Matter With Kansas – Thomas Frank: Written by a native Kansan, describes the neocon movement, its reasons for being, and why it is misguided … and all without once using the term neocon.
• The I Hate Corporate America Reader – Clint Willis and Natie Hardcastlem editors: A collection of articles detailing the ways in which corporate America is harming Americans and generally being completely unpatriotic.
• Trilogy of novels: Ishmael, The Story of B, My Ishmael – Daniel Quinn: Though these are novels, they are a highly interesting look at society from a Stranger in a Strange Land style viewpoint. Get past who was chosen as the stranger, suspend disbelief, it’s worth it.

Technology/Programming:
NOTE: I am trying to avoid making this a programming site. I’m putting recommendation(s) here for books that may be of interest to a general audience as well as to other geeks.

• Dreaming in Code – Scott Rosenberg: This is a good read for the general audience and geeks alike. It describes the problems with the software development process that are the reasons why so many projects run late, despite good teams with the best of intentions. Wondering why it’s taking so long for a new piece of software or the next version of your favorite, read this.

Feel free to strike up a conversation about any of these or add your own recommendations to my reading queue.