For the ethologically inclined

If you enjoyed William D. Hamilton week, I highly recommend Lee Alan Dugtakin's books. The Imitation Factor is a book length exposition on research which shows how many organisms use socially embedded information in making their decisions; if you want to understand the utility of conformity it's enlightening. The Altruism Equation consists of seven biographical sketches of prominent thinkers in social biology; worth checking out just for the chapter on J. B. S. Haldane. That being said, the prose is definitely workmanlike as opposed to masterful, A Reason for Everything and The Darwin Wars are both more polished, while exhibiting overlap considerably in material. Finally, Game Theory and Animal Behavior puts the lie to the idea that organismic biology is simply "social work." Dugatkin is the editor, but his chapter is probably the best in terms of depth of clarity and width of scope. Though the section on the intersection of game theory, ethology and quantitative genetics is a close second in my book. If you read this blog you know that I'm a big fan of population genetics, and the derivations from a priori assumptions, but sometimes it is important to approach questions from the other angle and try and grapple with modeling the messy reality of animal behavior as the starting point. And understanding animals is a right step in the direction to understanding humans....