FYI (edited by Bjorn Carey)

This was science presented in bite-sized chunks. Fun. I did like the approach, and the questions were fun. Not precisely deep, hard science, but still interesting. LOTS of space stuff.

Science Secrets, by Alberto A. Martínez

I tried, I really did. My mind is just not on this track right now. It's well-written, and interesting, but I couldn't get into it. For 8 weeks!

The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean

Science, even PHYSICS, made understandable. Well, kinda. This is a look at the world of science by looking at the periodical table and how it works.

What the Dog Saw : And Other Adventures, by Malcolm Gladwell (on CD)

Wow, fascinating essays about everything from birth control to economics to hair dye. The author was also the reader, and he has a lovely, calm voice. May have to find more of his stuff....

An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears

This took me almost three months to finish. Sounds like a book I'd normally give up on, doesn't it? But I forged on and I'm glad I did--it's a great historical novel set in the years between the Restoration and the Great Fire primarily in London. Many historical personages are in this book; in fact, most of the 'characters' were real people. The story is told four times, from four different vantage points, and until the last version none of the narrators is very likeable.

Great book. I will be looking for a copy of this to own so that I can reread it. By the end, it's impossible to resist flipping back through the other 'versions' to see what other people saw going on.

Where's My Jetpack? A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived, by Daniel H. Wilson, Ph.D.

Cute, fast, poppy book. Covers not just jetpacks but blimps, soldiers who never sleep, rayguns, and robots, among other things.

The future is partway here...and a long way off.

The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman

I didn't quite finish this, but it's definitely worth reading. Weisman dispenses with the question of how and why the human race disappears and moves on to "what happens next?" Will the dams hold? Will dogs survive, or be eaten by wild animals? Will pollution be terminal to the planet's existence? What will happen to the infrastructure of large cities?

Quite interesting.

Unnatural Selection, by Aaron Elkins

The Skeleton Doctor goes to the Isles of Scilly. Now I think I want to go too; they sound lovely.

The House of Power, by Patrick Carman

The first in a kids' series called Atherton, about a future world created to rescue human beings from Earth by creating a world on a man-made satellite. Mad scientists, cliff-climbing, rabbits-sheep-and-figs, and planned communities. Pretty fun.

Prose Bowl, by Bill Pronzini & Barry N. Malzberg

The redeeming feature of this book is that it's a VERY fast read. It is set about 100 years after it was published (1980) when "Old-Sport" has been closed down and the "New-Sport" is writing prose in competition.

Yeah, interesting concept, and especially piquant for Bill Pronzini who cranks out the books like most people crank out...well, other stuff. And the "other stuff" is really what these competitors are shoveling. It's all about writing in genre as fast as possible under a time limit in front of cheering crowds in stadiums.

There's a suspense element to the book, but honestly the whole story is around the "ain't it cool, the future?" construct.

Yawn.

Beyond the Body Farm : A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science, by Bill Bass and Jon Jefferson

Interesting book about how to find out who someone is with very limited information. Mostly, this isn't about the bodies on the Body Farm (the link itself isn't to anything graphic; however, you may be disturbed by some of the images if you keep on from there), but about old cases that Dr. Bass has tried to resolve through the use of more modern forensic techniques. There is a bit of history here, some factoids about how shows like CSI (et al.) distort the reality of forensic work, and a lot of basic science.

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog : and Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist's Notebook, by Bruce D. Perry and Maia Szalavitz

Early childhood psychology is so fascinating, and the title definitely draws you into this book, which has a further subtitle of what traumatized children can teach us about loss, love, and healing. Perry has an extensive two-decade background in child psychiatry, and discusses some of his more difficult cases in the book and then draws out how lessons learned with these kids can be applied to other kids.

Perry worked with the children released from the Branch Davidian compound before the remainder of the members of the cult died. He's also worked with children--like the one in the title--who were raised in utter neglect by people who just didn't know any better, and lots of people who did know better. There is no blanket indictment of parents, teachers, or anyone else, but he clearly feels that we as a society are not aware of how impressionable infants and young children really are. He also feels that science hasn't done enough research in this area, and presses for more. Mostly, he just wants people to remember that the habituated lessons learned before the age of one are long-lasting and hard to undo. Sobering and frightening.