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Recommendations based on Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do and What It Says About Usby Tom Vanderbilt
* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
by Charles C. Mann
Re-examination of the pre-Columbian Americas, uncovering new evidence of its history.
In this groundbreaking work of science, history, and archaeology, Charles C. Mann radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of Columbus in 1492.,Contrary to what so many ... (Goodreads)
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
by Daniel J. Levitin
A neuroscientist explores the relationship between music and the brain, revealing how music affects our emotions, memories, and overall well-being.
Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming ... (Goodreads)
A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
A captivating overview of the natural sciences, spanning the history of the universe.
In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory ... (Goodreads)
A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
Exploring the depths of time and space and the emergence of the universe.
In the ten years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's classic work has become a landmark volume in scientific writing, with more than nine million copies in forty languages sold ... (Goodreads)
Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance
by Atul Gawande
A surgeon's exploration of medical excellence, uncovering the highest standards of care.
The struggle to perform well is universal: each one of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in ... (Goodreads)
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science
by Atul Gawande
Exploration of the human costs and consequences of medical care, highlighting our imperfections and vulnerabilities.
In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge. Complications lays bare a science not in ... (Goodreads)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
by Lynne Truss
A humorous look at the importance of punctuation and its effect on language.
In Eats, Shoots & Leaves , former editor Lynne Truss, gravely concerned about our current grammatical state, boldly defends proper punctuation. She proclaims, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and ... (Goodreads)
Cash
by Johnny Cash
Autobiography of Johnny Cash, detailing his life as a musician, struggles with addiction, and personal relationships.
He was the "Man in Black," a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. ... (Goodreads)
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
by Mary Roach
A humorous exploration of the science and research behind sex and human sexuality.
In Bonk, the best-selling author of Stiff turns her outrageous curiosity and insight on the most alluring scientific subject of all: sex. Can a person think herself to orgasm? Why doesn't Viagra help ... (Goodreads)
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
by Lawrence Wright
A comprehensive study of the rise of Al-Qaeda and its role in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on ... (Goodreads)
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
by Charles Duhigg
Uncovering the science of habit formation and how to use it to achieve success.
A young woman walks into a laboratory. Over the past two years, she has transformed almost every aspect of her life. She has quit smoking, run a marathon, and been promoted at work. The patterns ... (Goodreads)
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
by Christopher McDougall
A thrilling exploration of the Tarahumara tribe and their superhuman running abilities.
Full of incredible characters, amazing athletic achievements, cutting-edge science, and, most of all, pure inspiration, Born to Run is an epic adventure that began with one simple question: Why does ... (Goodreads)
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
Exploration of the modern food chain, examining the impact of food choices on our health and the environment.
What should we have for dinner? The question has confronted us since man discovered fire, but according to Michael Pollan, the bestselling author of The Botany of Desire , how we answer it today, at ... (Goodreads)
In a Sunburned Country
by Bill Bryson
Exploration of the unique and diverse land, people and animals of Australia.
A CLASSIC FROM THE, NEW YORK TIMES, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF, ONE SUMMER , Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the ... (Goodreads)
Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman
An exploration of the two systems of the mind, and how they influence decision-making.
In the highly anticipated Thinking, Fast and Slow , Kahneman takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and ... (Goodreads)
The World Without Us
by Alan Weisman
A thought experiment exploring how the Earth and its species would fare without the presence of humans.
A penetrating, page-turning tour of a post-human Earth In The World Without Us , Alan Weisman offers an utterly original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet: he asks us to ... (Goodreads)
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
by Dan Ariely
An exploration of why humans make irrational decisions, and how to overcome them.
Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Why does recalling the Ten Commandments reduce our tendency to lie, even when we couldn't ... (Goodreads)
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
Exploration of the lives of North Koreans during the famine and repression of the 1990s.
Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the ... (Goodreads)
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
An exploration of how disorder and chaos can lead to strength and resilience.
From the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost philosophers of our time, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a book on how some systems actually benefit from disorder. In The Black Swan ... (Goodreads)
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
by Candice Millard
The riveting story of the assassination of President Garfield, a tragedy of medical science and mistake.
James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired ... (Goodreads)
Chaos: Making a New Science
by James Gleick
Investigation of complex systems and the impact of chaos on scientific understanding.
A work of popular science in the tradition of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan, this 20th-anniversary edition of James Gleick’s groundbreaking bestseller Chaos introduces a whole new readership to ... (Goodreads)
Possible Side Effects
by Augusten Burroughs
A humorous, darkly satirical look at the pharmaceutical industry and its effects on individuals.
National Bestseller From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Running with Scissors comes Augusten Burroughs's most provocative collection of true stories yet. From nicotine gum addiction to ... (Goodreads)
The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in the Equatorial Pacific
by J. Maarten Troost
A humorous memoir of a couple's misadventures while living on a remote island in the Pacific.
In the book Troost described how he and his girlfriend Sylvia adjusted to life on the remote small island in the South Pacific, and built a life for themselves there. Troost described the unusual ... (Wikipedia)
The Post-American World
by Fareed Zakaria
Exploring the changing global order, and the implications for America's future.
"This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." So begins Fareed Zakaria's important new work on the era we are now entering. Following on the success ... (Goodreads)
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
An exploration of the industrial food system and its effects on U.S. society.
Fast food has hastened the malling of our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, fueled an epidemic of obesity, and propelled American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list ... (Goodreads)
The Problems of Philosophy
by Bertrand Russell
A concise introduction to philosophy, exploring the nature of knowledge, reality, and existence.
A lively and still one of the best introductions to philosophy, this book pays off both a closer reading for students and specialists, and a casual reading for the general public. ... (Goodreads)
The God Delusion
by Richard Dawkins
Scientific exploration of the evidence for and against religious belief.
A preeminent scientist - and the world's most prominent atheist - asserts the irrationality of belief in God, and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11. With ... (Goodreads)
No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
by Glenn Greenwald
Exposé of the US government's massive surveillance system, detailing the dangers of pervasive state power.
By Glenn Greenwald, star of, Citizenfour, the Academy Award-winning documentary on Edward Snowden In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet an anonymous source who claimed to have ... (Goodreads)
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time
by Greg Mortenson
A man's mission to build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote peace.
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Taliban’s backyard Anyone who despairs of the individual’s ... (Goodreads)
I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away
by Bill Bryson
A humorous and insightful collection of essays about Bryson's experiences returning to America after living in England for two decades.
After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly 3 million Americans believed ... (Goodreads)
