If you’re like me, you’re probably always looking for something new to read, so here’s a quick roundup of sci-fi and science titles that have caught my eye this month.
Fiction
Lost and wanted by Nell Freudenberger
Not being packaged as sci-fi, but its main character is a physicist working on five-dimensional spacetime. Looks at relationships, loss, and grief as well as gender and race issues.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
Creepy cover and a great tagline: “The cave will swallow them whole.” Surely that needs an exclamation mark! I wonder if anyone’s grabbed the movie rights yet for this debut sci-fi horror.
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
This reimagines a 1980s London where Alan Turing is still alive (if only) and his work on AI has led to the creation of synthetic humans. Sure to be a challenging and thought-provoking read. (But my god it needs a better cover!)
Non fiction
Infinite Powers: how calculus reveals the secrets of the universe by Steven H. Strogatz
If anyone can make calculus accessible, Cornell University prof. and eminent mathematician Strogatz could be the one to do it. Calculus from Ancient Greece to the present day and why we depend on it.
Wayfinding: the science and mystery of how humans navigate the world by M. R. O’Connor
How did we exist before GPS? This sounds like an intriguing read, looking at spatial orientation and links between atrophy of the hippocampus and diseases such as Alzheimer’s and depression.
Why you like it: the science and culture of musical taste by Nolan Gasser
It’s music + science! The author is a composer, pianist, and musicologist, and involved with the Music Genome Project, which apparently powers Pandora Radio. Maybe I’ll find out why I don’t like country music 🙂
Let me know if you try any of these. Happy reading!
