10 Best Books to Give as Gifts This Year
There's nothing better than giving the gift of reading. Well, I guess you could give the give of a driving, but this is in a more realistic price range. Luckily, 2016 brought us lots of books covering science, technology, space, and pop culture. These are the ones we'd recommend.
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide To The World's Hidden Wonders
With more than 600 locations spanning 450 pages, Atlas Obscura-a physical creation of the popular website-takes readers to the most fascinating hidden locations across the world. Filled with illustrations, maps, and photos, every page is full of curiosities like Knoxville's Body Farm, where visitors can see rotting corpses on display, and Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, the launch site of Yuri Gagarin's famous trip into space. Atlas Obscura wants to show you a world that is still full of surprises.
Star Wars Art: Ralph McQuarrie
There is no Star Wars without Ralph McQuarrie. As he was the lead illustrator behind the space opera's original trilogy, the film's popularity rests on McQuarrie's shoulders almost as much as George Lucas's. With more than 2,000 images, this book is the ultimate compendium of the amazing work that shaped the record-setting franchise. The images reveal the early days, when Lucas had an idea but no conception of this new galaxy far, far away would even look like. The amazing visuals you see on screen are a direct influence of McQuarrie's pen. Whether it's a gift for a lover of Star Wars or just art in general, this book is well worth its steep price tag.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
The lover of science (especially botany) won't find a better read than Lab Girl. Although it's an engrossing memoir in its own right, the volume explores the world of plants along with the author's own discovery of falling in love with this area of science. A professor of geobiology at the University of Hawaii, Jahren weaves interesting plant facts with her own exploration of science. It's a fascinating juxtaposition of science and personal essay, and The New York Times says the book achieves "for botany what Oliver Sacks's essays did for neurology." Those are some big shoes to fill.
The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Siddhartha Mukherjee is quickly becoming a medical history must-read. Coming six years after the author won the Pulitzer Prize for The Emperor of Maladies, a detailed history of cancer, The Gene (a more directly named book) takes the same meticulous approach through its 592 pages. Of course, the subject matter deserves this breadth, considering its long history, the mind-bending advancements of modern genetics, and the fact that genes are the building blocks of us. It's a subject worthy of a lengthy read in the hands of a talented author.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
It takes a lot of people to expand humanity's reach into the stars. Some, like astronauts and top notch-astronomers, become science rockstars. Others are unjustly forgotten. Hidden Figures is a look at the lives of African Americans who worked at NASA's Langley Research Center and were instrumental in winning the space race. The author, Margot Lee Shetterly, is also the daughter of one these women. It's a remarkable story touching on not only the fascinating work these women achieved but also how it happened during a time of even greater segregation and sexism than women face today.
Zero K by Don DeLillo
One of Delillo's most lasting works, White Noise, details the life of a typical midwestern family with striking realism. For the famous author's 17th novel, he goes for something a little different. A billionaire-faced with being alone because of the impending death of his second wife-makes a rash decision to try cryo-freezing at a facility called "Convergence." It's science fiction from one of the world's most beloved authors, yet it tackles the question that many people wrestle with-what it means to be human in a world full of so much technological wonder.
Sun Moon Earth by Tyler Nordgren
Tyler Nordgren's book takes you on a journey of discovery by telling the tales of astronomers who sailed the world to witness and measure eclipses-and the fierce arguments that shaped scientific theory. Nordgren, an astronomer himself, carefully explains some of the most awesome astronomical discoveries with a clarity that anyone can understand. It covers everything from Christopher Columbus to modern-day methods of measuring transit stars. With a huge solar eclipse set to cover the U.S. in 2017, now would be a good time to bone up on your space knowledge.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Every list needs a tear-jerker and Kalanithi's chronicle of his life, along with his terminal illness in his mid-30s, is a book that leaves an indelible mark. Although we see Kalanithi's life through the reflective context of a fatal illness, we also see another side of medicine-and the sacrifices one makes to become a prominent doctor. It's moving, heartbreaking, inspiring, and thought-proving, and it's all contained within 208 pages.
The Caped Crusade by Glen Weldon
What is it about Batman, and why are we so obsessed with him? Sure, he's dark, brooding, and playboy billionaire, but what has allowed the caped crusader to surpass all his peers in terms of geek popularity? This book is for the ultimate Batman fan, not someone only passingly interested in the Dark Knight (and all the various ways that he "rises"). For that comic book fan in your life, this one is a must read.
Grunt by Mary Roach
Mary Roach takes a look at the science and scientists who develop ways to keep soldiers healthy on the front lines under less-than-healthy conditions. Roach talks with scientists who try to overcome the common enemies of the battlefield, like panic, exhaustion, and noise. It's a side of war you've never seen, and perhaps never really thought about.
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