science

Best American Essays 2012

The Best American Essays 2012The Best American Essays 2012 by Robert Atwan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

David Brooks, as expected, compiled a thoughtful and engaging selection of essays.

Faves:

Miah Arnold: “You Owe Me”

Dudley Clendinen: “The Good Short Life”
(“But we don’t talk about how to die. We act as if facing death weren’t one of life’s greatest, most absorbing thrills and challenges. Believe me, it is. This is not dull.”)

Mark Edmundson: “Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?”
(“In reading, I continue to look for one thing — to be influenced, to learn something new, to be thrown off my course and onto another, better way.”)

Joseph Epstein: “Duh, Bor-ing”
(“One can also tell a great deal about a person by what bores him.”)

Jonathan Franzen: “Farther Away”
(“The allure of suicide, the last big score, may go underground, but it never entirely disappears.”)

Malcolm Gladwell: “Creation Myth”

Alan Lightman: “The Accidental Universe”

Ken Murray: “How Doctors Die”

View all my reviews

Recommended Reads: Jan. 22

Nevada Barr: The Rope. In Anna Pigeon, Barr has created one of the most oThe Toperiginal  and enjoyable protagonists in the mystery genre. With each book set in a different state park, fans have followed Pigeon’s adventures through more than a dozen novels. This time, Barr takes us back to 1995, where it all began for Pigeon. First published in 2012, the audiobook edition, released today, promises a thrilling wilderness adventure.

 

Jeremiah Ostriker and Simon Mitton: Heart of Darkness: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Invisible Universe. In a time of dizzying scientific discovery, it’s hard to keep up with the latest information. And sure, dark matter and dark energy sound cool, but what the hell is it? Well, for starters, it’s what makes up most of our universe. Never mind the dark side of the moon. Ostriker, a Princeton astrophysicist, and Mitton, a science historian, chronicle the ongoing trek into the ultimate dark.December's Thorn

 

Phillip DePoy: December’s Thorn. On a cold, snowy night, a strange woman shows up at Fever Devilin’s door claiming to be his wife. He offers her a seat by the fire, brews some tea… and the seventh installment of the series, centered around a Georgia folklorist, begins.

Recommended Reads 1.01.13

Welcome to a new year and a new installment of Recommended Reads. Here are some new releases to get you started on that 2013 reading list:

Unusual Uses For Olive Oil is the latest novel from the inimitable Alexander McCall Olive OilSmith, author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. Detailing the further adventures of Professor Dr von Igelfeld, the novel evokes the joy of earlier installments in the series, such as The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs.

And as with that book, daschunds are featured prominently (as you can probably tell by the cover).

In 2012, Lawrence M. Krauss, director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, published A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing, which details theories surrounding the origin of the universe.

PUniverseresenting scientific data in an accessible way, the paperback edition comes out today, featuring a new preface regarding the Higgs particle discovery and an afterword by the great Richard Dawkins.

Of course, this book will appeal to intellectual types, but is of value to all, as it engages the reader with the latest scientific theories.

Recommended Reads (Aug. 13)

It’s not too late to pack in some great summer reads. Here is Ensuing Chapters‘ recommended reads for the week of Aug. 13, highlighting upcoming and recent releases.

Dreamland: Adventures in the Science of Sleep 

by David K. Randall

Journalist and somnambulist David K. Randall explores the schematics of slumber in this round-up of sleep study anecdotes and analysis, to be released Aug. 13. This promises to be a quirky and informative science read in the vein of Mary Roach and Sam Kean.

Hell’s Angels
by Hunter S. Thompson

This seminal work of gonzo journalism, released digitally for the Nook earlier this month, is a hawg-stomp of danger, debauchery and wicked escapism. This ultra-violent ode to the outlaw biker, released in 1966, still stands as a cultural document of ’60s counter-culture, a fearless feat of immersion reporting and an epic fantasy for anyone who’s felt like ditching the mainstream, straddling a Harley and living free amid the underworld.

Of course, there is no fairy-tale ending for Thompson, who finds himself on the wrong end of the bikers’ boots. Edgy, controversial, hyperbolic, sensationalistice. Yep, it’s all those things. It’s also damn good. Finally, a reason to get a leather jacket for your Nook.

 

Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

by Rebecca Stott

Darwin wasn’t the first scientist to observe natural selection at work. His discovery was, like his theory, the product of years of evolution and adaptations, both in thought and society. Here, Stott, an English teacher and author of earlier books on Darwin, gives credit to the thinkers and tinkers who laid the groundwork for On the Origin of Species.

Recently, Stott was interviewed by New York Times‘ book reviewer John Williams. You can read their Q&A here.

 

This Will End in Tears: The Miserablist Guide to Music

by Adam Brent Houghtaling

This manifesto of misery celebrates the purist of guilty pleasures: the sad song. Sure, we’ve all enjoyed a slow-drag at a high school dance, or hit repeat on Soul Asylum’s “Endless Farewell” whilst nursing a heartbreak. But why do we enjoy them even when we’re happy?

Ballads, like heartaches, come in all varieties, but for Houghtaling, they all share a skeletal structure, which he details in This Will End in Tears. Susan Stamberg, of National Public Radio, recently interviewed Houghtaling. He offered insights to the genre, a few musical suggestions and a sneak preview of the book here.