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The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives by William A. Stixrud, Ph.D. and Ned Johnson. As an author of science books for adolescent and young adult readers as well as a grandparent of newly minted adults, I am acutely aware of the constant struggle to guide our offspring to take control of their own lives amidst societal pressures (and sometimes in spite of our protective parental instincts). As the subtitle suggests, understanding the science of the adolescent brain and mind is useful, especially when combined with the sense gained from our own life experiences.
Swearing is Good for You, subtitled The Amazing Science of Bad Language. Looking through my advance reading copy, it's the kind of book that I would have been eager to pitch to my favorite book review editors who share my appreciation of puns and author Mary Roach. (A favorite example, where the headline writers had as much fun as I did, is Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.)
Turning Points: How Critical Events Have Driven Human Evolution, Life, and Development by Kostas Kampourakis. Kampourakis, a researcher in science education at the University of Geneva, makes an argument that unpredictable events have led to decisive changes in the development of our species. It reminds me of a famous question from Stephen Jay Gould. How different would life on Earth be if we restarted from the conditions under which it first arose?
Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World by Joshua B. Freeman, Distinguished Professor of History at Queens College and CUNY. The publisher describes it as "the story of the factory and ... how it has reflected both our dreams and our nightmares."
Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World. Graphene, a material based on one-dimensional structures of carbon atoms joined in a chicken wire pattern has remarkable electrical and mechanical properties that are only now being exploited in technology.
