2020 Year-End Science Book Roundup

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

Science Book Roundup, Social Distancing Edition

When I posted my last science book roundup, few of us knew what was about to come. We had heard about a novel coronavirus and an outbreak of a new disease called COVID-19 in China, but only those well-versed in epidemiology or the history of previous pandemics expected to see so much of the economy … Read more

Catching up, part 3, science book roundup 2019

As I begin collecting titles for an early 2020 science book roundup, I have four left over from 2019, three from the life sciences and one celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of arguably the greatest human and technological achievement of the twentieth century. That achievement, as you probably have guessed, was the first human landing on … Read more

A Roundup of Recent Popular Math Books Plus One More

As my regular readers know, I am happy to be getting back to blogging after a hiatus due to complications following cataract surgery. This is the second catch-up blog about books for lovers of science and technology. This one covers four books about math and mathematicians and one about the nature of science itself.. My … Read more

New Science Book Roundup About the Human Condition

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

Science Book Roundup, April-May 2019

As an ongoing feature of my blog, here is my Science Book roundup for April and May of 2019. I will occasionally publish full reviews of titles that I consider particularly important. My usual caveat: For my Roundups, I don’t read all of the books in detail, but they are published by reputable publishers and … Read more

Review of A Bright Future by Goldstein and Qvist

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

Science Book Roundup, January-March 2019

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

Roundup of 2018 books that I missed

As promised in my last posting, I am returning to my book blogging with a series of roundups. I will post chronologically, beginning with some books from last year that crossed my desk after my year-end blog entries were posted. My usual caveat: I haven’t read all of these in detail, but they are published … Read more

Lamarck’s Revenge Mini-Review

Because of some complications of cataract surgery, I have been neglecting this blog. I hope this marks the beginning of more regular postings. I will soon be adding some science book roundups, but I want to start with a brief review of a book that caught my attention when it appeared late last year. As … Read more