2010 Freethinker’s Science Book Club

One of the other things I missed while trapped in dissertation purgatory was reading books. Actual full-length books not related to my research. A quick search of the blog shows I read exactly 2 books in 2009. Pathetic. Especially from someone who was known for always having a book with her, even in the shower (paperbacks only). The woman who used to joke that it was a good thing she didn’t smoke, because she didn’t have enough money for cigarettes AND books, and who boasted that the only room in her house without a bookshelf was the bathroom.

The luxury of long showers disappeared when I had children, and my leisure reading time evaporated over the last couple of years, partially from the demands of grad school, and also from the development of my other hobby, knitting, which gave me a much needed sense of accomplishment when analyses weren’t going well or I couldn’t face revising another chapter. A new baby put the brakes on knitting, though, as it’s difficult to hold pointy needles with a baby in your lap. But a book, I might be able to do, and it would be more educational than watching the latest on demand comedy special while the baby nurses and naps.

Inspired by MaryMac at Pajamas & Coffee, I’m starting a book club for 2010 here at Freethinker’s. While Mary is doing the NY Times Top 10 Books of 2009 in 10 weeks (10 in 10 in ’10), I’ve chosen a dozen of the best science books published in the last year, and can’t come up with a catchy acronym. After scouring the best book lists from a variety of sources (see below) here are my picks:

• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science (A, R, C, S, T, Y)
• Darwin’s Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin’s Views on Human Evolution (I, N)
• Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species (A, E, F)
• Plastic Fantastic: How the Biggest Fraud in Physics Shook the Scientific World (F, N)
• Not a Chimp: The Hunt to Find the Genes that Make Us Human (N)
• Lives in Science: How Institutions Affect Academic Careers (P)
• The Natural History of Unicorns (N, W)
• Boyle: Between God and Science (D)
• First Principles: The Crazy Business of Doing Serious Science (P)
• The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
  (A, P, N, E)
• Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention
  (W, N)
• Cracking the Einstein Code: Relativity and the Birth of Black Hole Physics
  (N)

I’ve decided to read these in chronological order from the date of publication, which means that Darwin’s Sacred Cause is up first. From the jacket: 

There has always been a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? It’s difficult to overstate just what Darwin was risking in publishing his theory of evolution. So it must have been something very powerful—a moral fire, as Desmond and Moore put it—that propelled him. And that moral fire, they argue, was a passionate hatred of slavery.

To make their case, they draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, unpublished family correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships’ logs. They show how Darwin’s abolitionism had deep roots in his mother’s family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America—from the rise of scientific racism at Harvard through the dark days of the Civil War.

Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin’s time argued that blacks and whites had originated as separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin abhorred such “arrogance.” He believed that, far from being separate species, the races belonged to the same human family. Slavery was therefore a “sin,” and abolishing it became Darwin’s “sacred cause.” His theory of evolution gave all the races—blacks and whites, animals and plants—an ancient common ancestor and freed them from creationist shackles. Evolution meant emancipation.

In this rich and illuminating work, Desmond and Moore recover Darwin’s lost humanitarianism. They argue that only by acknowledging Darwin’s Christian abolitionist heritage can we fully understand the development of his groundbreaking ideas. Compulsively readable and utterly persuasive, Darwin’s Sacred Cause will revolutionize our view of the great naturalist.

I’d like to invite my readers to join in the fun.  Feel free to read along with me, or choose your own favorite science book.  We’ll read one a month for 2010, and all be more science literate at the end.

If 12 books a year is not an achievable goal, for whatever reason, please consider the Science Book Challenge 2010. To participate:

1. Read at least three nonfiction books in 2010 related to the theme “Nature & Science”. Your books should have something to do with science, scientists, how science operates, or the relationship of science with our culture. Your books might be popularizations of science, they might be histories, they might be biographies, they might be anthologies; they can be recent titles or older books. We take a very broad view of what makes for interesting and informative science reading, looking for perspectives on science as part of culture and history.
2. After you’ve read a book, write a short note about it giving your opinions of the book. Tell us what you’d tell a friend if you wanted to convince your friend to read it–or avoid it.

Sources:

• The Best of 2009: Amazon Editors Picks in Science (A)
• The Royal Society 2009 Longlist (R)
• The Economist Books of the Year (E)
• Financial Times Books of the Year (F)
• Christian Science Monitor Best Nonfiction Books of 2009 (C)
• New Scientist Best Books of 2009 (N)
• Physics World Top 10 Books 0f 2009 (P)
• Washington Post Best Books of 2009 (W)
• Salon Best Nonfiction Books of 2009 (S)
• The Independent Best Biographies for Christmas (I)
• Time Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2009 (T)
• SEED Magazine Year’s Best Books (D)
• New York Times 10 Best Books of 2009 (Y)

– Image Credits: Chocolate Geek
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