Books for 2014 and Beyond

At end of year the papers publish their lists of Books of the Year and highlights from the forthcoming year’s catalogues. There is a wood-for-the trees problem here. A single year often contains no truly great books. But the last few years have seen some truly mind-expanding popular science books. Our knowledge of life on earth is growing so rapidly and the picture that is emerging is so at odds with our lazy received viewpoints, it’s not going too far to claim that these books are essential reading if there is to be a future not entirely horrific.  This is the raw list. Over the next few weeks I’ll post commentaries on each book.

David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity (Penguin)

Nick Lane, Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution (Profile)

Sean B. Carroll, Endless Forms Most Beautiful (Quercus)

Philip Ball, Shapes (OUP)

Richard Wrangham, Catching Fire (Profile)

Steven Mithen, After the Ice, Phoenix

Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, the 10,000 Year Explosion (Basic Books)

Guy Deutscher, the Unfolding of Language (Arrow)

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel (Vintage

Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail (Profile)

Ian Morris, Why the West Rules – For Now (Profile)

Wolfgang Behringer, a Cultural History of Climate (Polity Press)

Bill McGuire, Waking the Giant: How a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes (OUP)