Subscribe
The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius
Graham Farmelo
As the Large Hadron Collider gears up at CERN in Switzerland, the general public is having to swot up its quantum physics. There is no better guide to doing it than this thorough biography of one of the geniuses who invented quantum theory and, through the beauty of his mathematical insights, made far-reaching predictions about the microstructure of reality that have since proved right.
A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon
Neil Sheehan
The story of the U.S. development of a nuclear armory is a surprising and instructive one, not least because it owes so much to the energy and belief of one man: Air Force general Bernard Schriever. In telling this tale, the book absorbingly spans the military and diplomatic history of the Cold War world.
The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
Iain McGilchrist
Few books this year can match this one in breadth of erudition, scope, and ambition. Though not many of its readers will agree with what McGilchrist says follows from the brain’s asymmetrical division for the nature of Western civilization, it is a highly stimulating read all the same.
Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Anne C. Heller
Heller’s biography is a riveting examination of the fascinating but in many ways rebarbative and challenging libertarian novelist who told wonderful stories in promoting raw-meat capitalism and lived a life of passionate commitment to her cause that swallowed some of her followers whole. Many love her ideas; this uncompromising account asks whether the thinker is equally lovable.
Peter Singer
This might be the most important book of the year. Philosopher Peter Singer shows not only that almost everyone in the developed world can easily contribute 5 percent of their gross income to help reduce world poverty on a massive scale; but that it is immoral not to do so, because it means we value our own convenience far more highly than the lives and health of people struggling in desperate Third World poverty. He is right.
Email
Print
Share
When a job at a French ad agency landed in his lap, novelist Rosecrans Baldwin had the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of living la vie Parisienne. And though cold réalité intruded -- in the form of financial struggles and the limits of his rudimentary Francais -- the result was a more mature take on the city of his fantasies, flaws included.
The feline acrobatics and other mysteries of everyday physics that Mark Levi explores in this charming book are just the beginning. A fun and enlightening workout for your gray matter.
Scott's doomed Antartic expedition and the haunting mysteries surrounding its failure lead to obsession in Richard Pierce's debut novel. As painter Birdie Bowers pursues her fascination with the explorer and his death, she risks both her body and her heart for answers.
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.