Reviews, Views, and News from an Award-Winning Author
This blog marks a transition for me. For more than 20 years, I have been reviewing science books written for the library and bookstore crowd. For a few of those years, I even managed a four-figure supplemental income from selling my reviews to major metropolitan newspapers. Then, one-by-one, book review pages began to disappear or … Read more
After a long hiatus due to unexpected complications from cataract surgery, I am able to get back to my roundups of science books covering the second half of 2019. To keep these posts of manageable size, I will group books by topic or theme. In this one, we will focus on human traits as seen … Read more
A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow by Joshua S. Goldstein and Staffan V. Qvist (New York: Public Affairs, January 2019) Reviewed for The Science Shelf by Fred Bortz Despite disinformation campaigns by politically and financially well-connected groups, mainly in the United States, it is clear that … Read more
My catch-up science book blogging continues with a selection of titles released in the first three months of 2019 My usual caveat: I haven’t read all of these in detail, but they are published by reputable publishers and written by credible authors. I have browsed them enough to recommend picking them up from a library … Read more
As promised in my recent blog, I am returning with a few suggestions of recent science books that are suitable for gift-giving. I haven’t read all of these in detail, but they are published by reputable publishers and written by credible authors. This is the third of three postings, organized by subject area, this time … Read more
As promised in my last blog, I am returning with a few suggestions of recent science books that are suitable for gift-giving. I haven’t read these in detail, but they are published by reputable publishers and written by credible authors. This is the first of several postings, organized by subject area. In this case, we … Read more
As promised in last week’s blog, our spring roundup of science books continues with three books (or four, depending on how you count them) about catastrophes. It is a topic that is important in my own writing history. My third book Catastrophe! Great Engineering Failure–and Success (1995) was a Selector’s Choice on the National Science … Read more
At the Science Shelf, our favorite dessert is pi. So although it is a week past Pi Day 2018, we offer these recently released book treats to our readers (along with my picture in my Pi Day bowtie). I archive my book reviews at my Science Shelf website, so you may want to visit there … Read more
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolutionby Jennifer Doudna and Samuel Sternberg(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 304 pages, $28, 2017) Return to Science Shelf Home Page Note: This review is the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies for their own use. For permission to publish or … Read more
Nagasaki Life After Nuclear Warby Susan Southard(Viking, 416 pages, $28.95, July 28, 2015) Reviewed by Dr. Fred Bortz See other reviews at the Science Shelf Note: This review was originally published in The Dallas Morning News and is the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies for their own use. For … Read more