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Science and Skeptics Book Club

The following is a list of books that the Science and Skeptics Book Club has discussed:
(click on the year to expand the list)

2019
  • September: Enlightment Now and the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. Steven Pinker.
  • July: Caesar's Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us. Sam Kean.
  • February: Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore.
  • January: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.
2018
  • December: Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions by Richard Harris.
  • October: Breaking the Spell. Daniel C. Dennett.
  • September: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World. Michael Pollan.
  • August: How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression and Transcendance. Michael Pollan.
  • June: In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's. Joseph Jebelli.
  • May: Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve or Ruin Everything. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith.
  • April: The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Carl Sagan. (Repeat of March 2011!)
  • February: Origin: a Novel. Dan Brown
  • January: The Hidden Life of Trees. What They Feel, How They Communicate – Secrets from a Hidden World. Peter Wohlleben.
2017
  • November / December: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature. Steven Pinker.
  • October: Einstein's Heros: Imagining the World Through the Language of Mathematics. Robyn Arianrhod.
  • September: Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine. Edzard Ernst and Simon Singh. (Also suggested: Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary and Alternative Medicine. R. Barker Bausell.)
  • August: Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers. Mary Roach.
  • July: The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. Siddhartha Mukherjee.
  • June: The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg. Tim Birkhead.
  • May: The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World. Andrea Wolf.
  • April: Five Equations that Changed the World: The Power and Poetry of Mathematics. Michael Guillen.
  • March: I Contain Multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of life. Ed Yong.
  • February: The Age of Wonder: The Romantic Generation and the Discovery of the Beauty and Terror of Science. Richard Holmes.
  • January: The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and Our Energy Future. Gretchen Bakke.
2016
  • December: Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? Frans De Waal.
  • November: Free Will. Sam Harris.
  • October: Guns, Germs, and Steel. Jared Diamond.
  • September: Stumbling on Happiness. Daniel Gilbert.
  • August: Thinking, Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman.
  • July: The Upright Thinkers. The Human Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos. Leonard Mlodinow.
  • June: The Social Conquest of Earth. Edward O. Wilson.
  • May: Why Evolution is True. Jerry Coyne. 
  • April: Five Billion Years of Solitude. The Search for Life Among the Stars. Lee Billings.
  • March: The Wright Brothers. David McCullough.
  • February: Storms of My Grandchildren. The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity. James Hansen.
  • January: Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World. Mark Mlodownik.
2015
  • December: The Drunkard's Walk. How Randomness Rules our Lives. Leonard Mlodinow.
  • November: How We Got To Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World. Steven Johnson.
  • October: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Yuval Noah Harari. Parts III and IV.
  • September: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. Yuval Noah Harari. Parts I and II.
  • August: Weed the People. The Future of Legal Marijuana in America. Bruce Barcott.
  • July: Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You. A Lively Tour Through the Dark Side of the Natural World. Dan Riskin.
  • June: Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution. Nick Lane.
  • May: Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History. Florence Williams.
  • April: The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. David George Haskell.
  • March: Supersense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable. Bruce M. Hood.
  • February: The Planets. Dana Sobel.
  • January: Longitude: The Story of a True Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Times. Dana Sobel.
2014
  • November: How Not to Be Wrong: the Power of Mathematical Thinking. Jordan Ellenberg.
  • October: The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. Simon Winchester.
  • September: The First Americans: ... Archaeology's Greatest Mystery. (The story of Meadowcroft Shelter in Avella, PA.) James Adovasio.
  • August: Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife. Mary Roach.
  • July: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts. Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson.
  • June: Do You Believe in Magic: The Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. Paul Offit, MD
  • May: The Atheist and the Bonobo: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates. Frans de Waal.
  • April: The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Elizabeth Kolbert.
  • March: Sweet Heaven When I Die. Jeff Sharlett.
  • February: Origins. Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
  • January: Attack of the Theocrats. Sean Faircloth.
2013
  • December: Abominable Science, Daniel Loxton
  • November: Better Angels of Our Nature, Steven Pinker
  • October: 1) Masters of the Planet, Ian Tattersall and 2) Last Ape Standing, Chip Walter
  • September: Origins of the Modern World, Robert B Marks
  • August: Last Chance to See, Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
  • July: A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
  • June: Letter to a Christian Nation and Lying, Sam Harris.
  • May: Portable Atheist, Christopher Hitchens.
  • April: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. Stephen Greenblatt.
  • March: The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson
  • February: The Information, James Gleike
  • January: Why Are You Atheists So Angry? 99 Things That Piss Off the Godless, Greta Christina.
2012
  • November: American Genesis: Evolution Controversies from Scopes to Creation Science, Jeffrey P Moran
  • October: Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes
  • September: Perfect Soldiers, Terry McDermott
  • August: Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin
  • July: The Righteous Mind, Jonathon Haidt
  • June: A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss
  • May: Genius in All of Us, David Shenk
  • April: What Is This Thing Called Science, A.F. Chalmers
  • March: Plastic Ocean, Cpt. Charles Moore and Cassandra Phillips
  • February: Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi
  • January: Seven Daughters of Eve, Bryan Sykes
2011
  • December: The Age of American Unreason, Susan Jacoby
  • November: Monkey Girl, Edward Humes
  • October: The Year of Living Biblically, A. J. Jacobs
  • September: Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine
  • August: Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
  • July: The Science of Fear, Daniel Gardner
  • June: The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris
  • May: Six Easy Pieces and Six Not So Easy Pieces, Richard Feynman
  • April: The Ancestors Tale, Richard Dawkins
  • March: The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan

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