Best Science Books 2011: Amazon.ca Editors

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.

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.

All the previous 2011 lists are here.

This post includes the following for the Amazon.ca Editors list: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Nonfiction, Outdoors & Nature, Science.

Note that this list is somewhat similar to but not completely the same as the main Amazon list.

• Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
• In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy
• History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor
• Radioactivity: A History of a Mysterious Science by Marjorie C. Malley
• Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard
• The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker
• Moonwalking With Einstein: Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
• Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks by Ken Jennings
• Chimps Of Fauna Sanctuary by Andrew Westoll
• The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick
• Fire Season: Field Notes From A Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors
• Kraken: The Curious, Exciting, and Slightly Disturbing Science of Squid by Wendy Williams
• The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water by Charles Fishman
• The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them by Wayne Pacelle
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 by Michio Kaku
• The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos by Brian Greene
• The Crash Course: The Unsustainable Future Of Our Economy, Energy, And Environment by Chris Martenson
• Knocking On Heaven's Door by Lisa Randall
• Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution by Jim Blascovich
• The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive by Brian Christian
• The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True by Richard Dawkins

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.

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.