Written by the a man sometimes called the conscience of American medicine, Being Mortal explores the intersection of health and care. By Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books
More species of beetles exists than any other type of insect. The Book of Beetles explores 600 of the shiniest, creepiest, and strangest. By Patrice Bouchard. University of Chicago Press
Not all sports science involves doping. Faster, Higher, Stronger explores how athletes and trainers are using genetics, psychology, and data to break records. By WIRED's Mark McClusky. Portfolio Trade
Critical, smart, and self-reflective, Geek Sublime thinks deeply about how the act of creating technology is similar to the process of making art. By Vikram Chandra. Graywolf Press
The second installment in a planned trilogy about chemistry, Molecules shows how, through seemingly endless recombinations, invisible atoms are the reason for everything from rope to dope. By Theodore Gray. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
The Sixth Extinction is a damning implication of human civilization in the biggest die-off of Earth's species since an asteroid wiped the world clean of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. By Elizabeth Kolbert. Henry Holt and Co.
Did mastering refrigeration make us what we are today? How We Got To Now makes the case for that, and five other innovations by brilliantly linking science with history. By Steven Johnson. Riverhead
Great Myths of the Brain reintroduces neuroscience by debunking some of the most prevalent misconceptions about the mind. By WIRED Science Blogger Christian Jarrett. WILEY Blackwell
Beautiful pictures of undersea critters. Spineless may be the best coffee table science book of 2014. By Susan Middleton. Susan Middleton
There are many months between now and the end of the current Ebola outbreak in western Africa. And the disease will likely come back. Ebola, is a tidy book that explains everything we know, and everything we don't, about this terrifying disease. By David Quammen. W. W. Norton & Co.
The knowledge of life began with the study of animals. The Lagoon argues that Aristotle was the first person to lay an empirical eye on beasts, and therefore is the rightful father of not only biology, but all of science. By Armand Marie Leroi. Viking
Ever wonder why you like to drink alcohol? Proof: The Science of Booze goes deep into the wonders of whiskey, the a-ha of ales. the wow of wines, and who-da-thunk of hootch. By WIRED's own Adam Rogers. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves is an incredibly intimate look at the emotional lives of animals. It’ll make you realize how closely they mirror our own mental states. By Laurel Braitman. Laurel Braitman
The Public Domain Review is a non-profit organization that curates, and revitalizes, the best creative works to fall out of copyright. The Public Domain Review is a book of essays collecting the very best from the website's past three years. Highlights include invented languages, made up museums, and courtroom dramas featuring pigs. Multiple authors. Public Domain Review Press
In our downtime, all of us at WIRED Science like a good book (and we’re betting a lot of people on your holiday list do too). In 2014 we were impressed by books ranging from Atul Gawande’s expansive essays on the morality of end of life care (Being Mortal), to a coffee table tome of beautifully photographed marine invertebrates (Susan Middleton’s Spineless). We’ve curated a list of our favorites to stuff into some stockings, or into your carry on so you’re not too bored during your inevitably delayed flight to Grandma’s.
Or maybe you’re staying home for the holidays? Curl up by the fossil-fueled heater and learn how human civilization is the most destructive force since the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, with Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Looking for something lighter? Fire up your New Year’s resolution by reading Faster, Higher, Stronger: How Sports Science Is Creating a New Generation of Superathletes, by WIRED’s own Mark McClusky. And as the Ebola crisis in west Africa enters its second year, you’d be remiss if you didn’t read David Quammen’s superb summary of the disease and its toll on people.
Whatever your plans, you’ll have plenty of travel time to tear your way through most of these. Already read them all? Congratulations smarty, let us know what you think in the comments!
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