As featured on the Skeptic Zone podcast – this year has been an excellent one for new books – some of my favorites published this year include:
SuperSense: Why We Believe in the Unbelievable
by Bruce M Hood. The Skeptic Zone interview is on episode thirty and you can also read the interview in the next UK Skeptic magazine!
Beyond Belief: Skepticism, Science and the Paranormal
by Dr Martin Bridgstock, launched at the recent Australian Skeptics National Conference to great acclaim!
59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
by Richard Wiseman, who is about to tour the USA… so keep an eye out for him state-side!
There’s the very thought provoking and debate-inspiring Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future
by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum.
Dr Karl’s Get Fact is a definite for young and the young at heart – an excellent discussion of a range of scientific questions.
Of course, no one would have missed The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution
– by Richard Dawkins.
Ones that you may have missed – Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia
by Brian Regal. It spans the full spectrum of scientific and nonscientific pursuits, from chemistry, biology, psychology, and medicine to eugenics, religion, cryptozoology, the occult, and paranormal activities.
Don’t Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style
- by Randy Olson PhD, whose documentary ‘A Flock of Dodos’ was screened at the Australian Skeptic’s national Convention in Adelaide.
Denying AIDS: Conspiracy Theories, Pseudoscience, and Human Tragedy
is by Seth C. Kalichman and you should also check out Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives by Michael Specter.
Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History
by David Aaronovitch is a great overview of many popular conspiracy claims – and don’t forget to subscribe to skeptical magazines such as Skeptical Inquirer, the UK Skeptic, The US Skeptic at skeptic.com and Australian Skeptic’s Skeptic Magazine – found at www.skeptics.com.au.
Finally, the popular science and skepticism poetry blog called The Digital Cuttlefish - they also have a Volume Two out – and they’re giving away both volumes for free as a pdf. They can be downloaded thanks to www.digitalcuttlefish.blogspot.com.
On the blog Podblack Cat you can find a post called – Skeptic’s Guide To Getting Good Stuff This Holiday Season – there you should check out the efforts to get Tim Minchin’s single for ‘White Wine in the Sun into the top forty. There’s also the Here Comes Science
album by They Might Be Giants, which I got as a present for a friend’s new baby this year. There’s the Macbeth: The DVD Edition (Folger Shakespeare Library)
of Penn and Teller fame… and much more!
Here’s to a well-read holiday and keep checking out my library at Skeptic Reading, Resources and More.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Currently I’m more than half way through reading Seth Shostak’s _Confessions of an Alien Hunter_, and simultaneously reading another recently-published book by a science blogger, _The Great Dinosaur Discoveries_ by Darren Naish.
Seth’s book is better. Darren’s isn’t bad, but not great either; being mercilessly trimmed to fit in less than 200 pages is probably the root of many of its problems.
Yes! You can hear an interview with Seth on the Skeptic Zone, episode #48! I wrote some qu for Richard when we were at Dragon*Con.
Sadly, I must have overlooked it – I did worry that my list would be far too long for listening on the podcast! :/
Boohoo. There are a few of these we can’t yet get in the US or they are prohibitively expensive. Waiting for them…
I’ll second Supersense. It was extremely interesting. There were two fine, new Bigfoot books this year as well – Anatomy of a Beast by M. MacLeod and Bigfoot: The Life and Times of a Legend by J. Blu Buhs. Good histories of the topic with reasonable foundations.
This is rather odd to me – because the book has been out for months and months in the UK? And it’s here in Australia. The publishing times must be all staggered to allow for touring or something. And Wiseman was touting the book at the NECSS convention. I’d suggest going through UK Amazon, really?
I’ve ordered Anatomy of a Beast and Confessions of an Alien Hunter, among others, and a replacement copy of Flim-Flam (I loaned mine to a family member and getting it back would be rather complicated).
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