Pick-a-Shelf discussion

December Shelf is Science

Science definitely plays a big role in our daily lives especially this crazy year! But do you like reading them? Any specific arm of science you like best to read?

This is going way beyond my comfort zone lol
I don't read science books esp. NF as I usually struggle a lot with them. I'll be placing very strict rules about library borrowings in the new year so I'm trying not to borrow anymore so I'd read the ones I've already borrowed ;p

I have Life on Earth & Artemis so I'll hopefully get to one of those. And I've just borrowed on borrowbox, Dr Karl's Random Road Trip Through Science which looks like a LOT of fun so I'm looking forward to this now :D

Wow, science! Beyond my comfort zone too... XD

Luckily it looks like the shelf is huge and isn't focused only on hard sciences or on non-fiction so I'm sure I'll find a few interesting reads on my shelves that match the theme.

Just browsing I can see The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men and Eating Animals plus a few science fiction masterpieces, all of which I'm sure I have somewhere :)

It seems only fair to have this shelf after conspiracy theory, lol! It's way beyond my comfort zone, too... Still, it looks like I have several on my TBR:

Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World
Snow Crash
Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages
How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference
Dark Matter
Bad Science
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life
Arctic Dreams

Awesome! I'm a scientist (public health and epidemiology), so I've become very aware this year about the lack of general scientific awareness in the population!
There's so many books I want to read on this shelf that I don't know where to start!

This is out of my comfort zone as well. Surprisingly I've read 9 books on this shelf. That's more than I thought! I only liked one though lol
I reccomend Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. I thought it was an interesting science fiction thriller, though some parts were a bit harder to understand.


I'll probably read another book by Blake Crouch for this one Recursion

Books on my tbr that are on this shelf:
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story
Dune
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
I, Robot
Flight Behavior

I like science as a rule. I found a book for another group that will fit this shelf: Dark Archives: A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin. It has Science - 22 users as an MPG.

Meg wrote: "Awesome! I'm a scientist (public health and epidemiology), so I've become very aware this year about the lack of general scientific awareness in the population!
There's so many books I want to read..."

You're absolutely right, this pandemic has made us all aware that too many of us (myself included) know nothing about science. I had to take several science classes at high school, but after that I moved on to studying languages and literature at university... My school teachers were mostly interested in getting to the end of the lesson and then going back home, so unless a student already had an interest in science, it was highly unlikely he or she could grow an interest out of those classes. My boyfriend studied chemistry and biology (although he works in a different field), and he's very passionate about science, so I managed to get a very basic understanding of some topics - but I'm sure if I hadn't been with him I would be as ignorant as it gets.

I like some science books. Especially more forensic type books. I loved Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers really recommend this one as well as The Martian Which was excellent.

on my tbr list
Nonfiction
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum
The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel

Fiction
Seveneves

Tien wrote: "This is going way beyond my comfort zone lol
I don't read science books esp. NF as I usually struggle a lot with them. I'll be placing very strict rules about library borrowings in the new year so ..."

Artemis was good. Not as good as The Martian but very good.

Ooh lots of books on my TBR from this one...mostly science fiction but I have some non fiction as well.

I do like knowing science. But I don't really enjoy reading about it, other than in science fiction. And I was disappointed not to find many science fiction books that I hadn't read in what I've checked so far. I might try Recursion like Lusie, since Dark Matter was so good.

I found one book on the list that surprised me: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. I've borrowed it from my daughter and started it multiple times. Maybe this month I'll finish it.

Other possibilities:
I've been considering I am a Strange Loop, but reading that author's Godel, Escher, Bach was very difficult for me, so I'm not sure whether I have the energy to tackle another by him.

Others that sound intriguing:
The Black Swan
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
How to Argue With a Racist: What Our Genes Do (and Don't) Say About Human Difference

For the rest of you, Ender's Game was a 5-star read for me, and I continued to read all of that and its related series. I recommend it. Some parts will certainly have aged since 1985, but the characters and main themes won't.

This is a great shelf, but I am not sure if I have something ready to go in December. The one bought a while back is rather controversial with at least one Mod in one of my groups and I am not sure if I want to go down that path (but it's excellent and is by an Aussie scientist--it's a revised version of a book I have read twice before). The first time he wrote it he was professor in NZ, but he's back in Australia now. That one isEvolution: Still a Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton. He makes really good points, many of which I realized on my own in university when I was studying it, but in more depth than I ever got to with it, plus some things I didn't know as it wasn't in my area.

I plan to read Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf. Hoping I can take a science non-fiction as it's about reading!

Awesome! Like Meg, I'm a scientist. Biochemistry and genetics and, now, a K-12 science educator. So I'm excited! And have tons on my TBR shelf to choose from.

Here are a few I've read and loved if anyone is looking for recommendations:
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End
The Martian
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Hidden Figures
The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness

I love science and hopefully one of these books on my TBR shelf will be a enjoyable read.

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
The Hot Zone: The Terrifying True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus by Richard Preston

I have so many books from this list on my shelves that I won't have a problem finding something to read. I have some books that I've read that I can recommend:

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating (very short)
H is for Hawk
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
Rain: A Natural and Cultural History
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity (This is long and I've only read part of it for a book group; however, I want to finish the book and may read it as part of this shelf read).

Books I own and will be using for this shelf challenge:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Underland: A Deep Time Journey
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
The Signature of All Things
The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women
The Genius of Birds

Martha wrote: "Books I own and will be using for this shelf challenge:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma"

Martha, this is a mind-blowing book. Some parts weren't easy to read for me (they were very triggering), but it's worth it. It had such an impact in my life, I think I can never thank Professor Van der Kolk too much. I hope you'll like it.

Books I have on my shelf since I love science from schooldays

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
The Emperor of All Maladies
Thinking, Fast and Slow
All That Remains: A Life in Death
Bad Science
Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom
The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry

Think I will choose one fiction and one non-fiction
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
Dark Matter

Marina (Sonnenbarke) wrote: "Martha wrote: "Books I own and will be using for this shelf challenge:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma"

Martha, this is a mind-blowing boo..."

Thanks, Marina! I think I'll read it first.

Definitely not in my wheelhouse! I'll maybe look for some sci-fi though I'm more of a scifi-fantasy girl, so I don't know what I'll find that will fit the theme. Fingers crossed something pops for me :-)