This year had a good harvest of excellent books.
All About Me!: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks
One of my favorite directors, having made Spaceballs, Blazing Saddles, and many more.
Bernoulli’s Fallacy: Statistical Illogic and the Crisis of Modern Science by Aubrey Clayton
Fantastic book about the theoretical and practical problems with the frequentist statistics that have taken over the academy. But there is hope for a Bayesian great awakening.
The Parade: A novel by Dave Eggers
A parable about rule followers and rebels in the aftermath of a civil war.
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else by Jordan Ellenberg
Has a neat section about the surprisingly complex math of gerrymandering.
To Rescue the Republic: Ulysses S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the Crisis of 1876 by Bret Baier
One of the lessons of history is that there is always a precedent. As polarized as the US was during the 2020 election aftermath, the end of Reconstruction must have seemed like tensions were rising while the wounds of the civil war were still fresh. The idea that Federal troops were removed from the South in exchange for the Presidency in a “corrupt bargain” seems remarkable even now.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters Steven Pinker.
Steven Pinker is always informative, and especially when he is discussing the topic of making rational judgments.
Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse Book 1) by James S. A. Corey
Space travel in real life would be a major pain, with crushing acceleration and periods of extreme boredom.
A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer A. Doudna
Now a Nobel Laureate, Dr. Doudna has a remarkable ability think deeply about not just the science, but also the potential societal implications of the CRISPR technology she helped invent.
Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions by Sabine Hossenfelder
A book for people who want to know what physics has to say about the “big questions,” like free will and the multiverse. Sadly, sometimes the answer is, not much, but there is a lot that we can say about other topics.
The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III
by Andrew Roberts.
If you’ve seen Hamilton, or just read the Declaration of Independence, you probably have a very inaccurate view of King George III. In reality, he was a very religious and conscientious monarch who suffered from deliberating bouts of bipolar disorder. He lost the colonies but won the Napoleonic wars.
Newton And The Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World’s Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson.
This could be the premise for a crime show on TV. One of the greatest but least personable scientists of all time – after discovering gravity and calculus – starts a second career as a detective investigating counterfeiting in London.
of Photons, Protons, and Proteins 