Reviews

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011, Mary Roach, ed.

Relive or discover nonfiction science writing from the last year on topics from captive orcas to organ selling. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 384 p., $14.95

Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality (FT Press Science) by Samuel Barondes

A psychiatrist describes how findings in personality research can be used in everyday life to understand others and improve relationships. FT Press, 2011, 230 p., $25.99

BOOK REVIEW: The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive by Brian Christian

Review by Laura Sanders.

BOOK REVIEW: World in the Balance: The Historic Quest for an Absolute System of Measurement by Robert Crease

Review by Devin Powell.

BOOK REVIEW: The Ambonese Herbal, Volume 1: Introduction and Book I: Containing All Sorts of Trees, That Bear Edible Fruits, and Are Husbanded by People by Georgius Everhardus Rumphius; translated by E.M. Beekman

Review by Susan Milius.

Invasion of the Body: Revolutions in Surgery by Nicholas L. Tilney

The history of modern surgery is revealed through tales of surgical breakthroughs at a Boston teaching hospital that opened in 1913. Harvard Univ. Press, 2011, 358 p., $29.95

BOOK REVIEW: The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age by Nathan Wolfe

Review by Erika Engelhaupt.

A Bee in a Cathedral: And 99 Other Scientific Analogies by Joel Levy

One hundred analogies and metaphors make science more visual: Learn how chemical reactions are like school dances and how long it would take to type the human genome. A BEE IN A CATHEDRAL, JOEL LEVY Firefly Books, 2011, 224 p., $29.95

Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season’s Edge by Pete Dunne

A naturalist shares memories and pictures of travels through some of the most dramatic wilderness in the Northern Hemisphere. ARCTIC AUTUMN, PETE DUNNE Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, 258 p., $24

The Fact of Evolution by Cameron M. Smith

An anthropologist explains how evolution occurs and why it must for life to survive on an ever-changing planet. THE FACT OF EVOLUTION, CAMERON M. SMITH Prometheus Books, 2011, 346 p., $18

The Face of the Earth: Natural Landscapes, Science, and Culture by SueEllen Campbell

An English professor takes readers on a poetic exploration of geology, aided by essays from scientists and other writers. THE FACE OF THE EARTH, SUEELLEN CAMPBELL Univ. of California Press, 2011, 320 p., $26.95

Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon by Alfredo Qui±ones-Hinojosa with Mim Eichler Rivas

An autobiography charts one man’s voyage from migrant worker to brain surgeon. Univ. of California Press, 2011, 317 p., $27.50