The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
Chapters on Pseudoscience vs Science, critical/skeptical thinking, science education and public policy. Hasn’t aged too badly and well written. 4/5
Don’t Fall For It: A Short History of Financial Scams by Ben Carlson
Real-life Stories of financial scams and scammers (some I’ve heard, some new) and then some lessons people can draw from them. Nice quick read. 3/5
The Bomb and America’s Missile Age by Christopher Gainor
A history of the forces that led to the Atlas program from the end of the War to 1954. Covers a wide range of led-up rocket programs, technical advances and political, cold-war and inter-service rivalries. 3/5
Girl on the Block: A True Story of Coming of Age Behind the Counter by Jessica Wragg
A memoir of the author’s life and career from 16 to her mid 20s. Mixture of story, information about meat (including recipes), the butchery trade and meat industry. 3/5
The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant
A history of the iPhone and various technologies that went into it. Plus some tours of components and manufacturing. No cooperation from Apple so some big gaps but does okay. 4/5
Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker
Lots of examples of where Maths went wrong. From Financial errors and misbuilt bridges to failed game shows. Mix of well-known and some more obscure stories. Well told. 4/5
My Scoring System
- 5/5 = Brilliant, top 5 book of the year
- 4/5 = Above average, strongly recommend
- 3/5 = Average. in the middle 70% of books I read
- 2/5 = Disappointing
- 1/5 = Did not like at all
