The Erotic Doll: A Modern Fetish, by Marquard Smith An exploration of mannequins as objects of lust makes fascinating reading for Laura Frost 13 March
The App Generation: How Today’s Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World, by Howard Gardner and Katie Davis Tara Brabazon ponders an exploration of youth and new technology 6 March
The Monkey’s Voyage: How Improbable Journeys Shaped the History of Life, by Alan de Queiroz Are tales of incredible animal excursions nonsense or did they shape our world? asks Tiffany Taylor 6 March
The Tell: The Little Clues That Reveal Big Truths About Who We Are, by Matthew Hertenstein Steven Schwartz on using physical attributes to predict people’s personalities and behaviours 27 February
Are We All Scientific Experts Now?, by Harry Collins Athene Donald agrees that scientists, although not infallible, do know better about some things 27 February
Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality, by Max Tegmark An intellectual adventure that seeks to explain everything through maths captivates John Gribbin 13 February
Wizards, Aliens and Starships: Physics and Math in Fantasy and Science Fiction, by Charles L. Adler Her Star Trek dream dashed, Noel-Ann Bradshaw is still delighted by the science of impossible tales 13 February
Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, by Matthew D. Lieberman Tristan Bekinschtein welcomes a work showing that research into who we are can be based on science 30 January
Going Beyond Google Again: Strategies for Using and Teaching the Invisible Web, by Jane Devine and Francine Egger-Sider Search differently, says Sarah Ison 23 January
The Alzheimer Conundrum: Entanglements of Dementia and Aging, by Margaret Lock When is a disease not a disease? asks Rose Anne Kenny 16 January
Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community, by Karen T. Litfin Reconnecting to the land grounds us, says Steffen Böhm 16 January
Life Beyond Earth: The Search for Habitable Worlds in the Universe, by Athena Coustenis and Thérèse Encrenaz The astrobiology is up to date but the subbing needs work, says Lewis Dartnell 16 January
Was Hitler a Darwinian? Disputed Questions in the History of Evolutionary Theory, by Robert J. Richards Nazi ideology may not have adopted evolutionary theory wholesale, but it certainly used its ideas, says Yvonne Sherratt 16 January
Sonic Wonderland: A Scientific Odyssey of Sound, by Trevor Cox David Toop is charmed by an exploration of the pains and pleasures of the noises around us 16 January
Wicked Intelligence: Visual Art and the Science of Experiment in Restoration London, by Matthew Hunter William Poole enjoys the insights but prefers his prose less florid 9 January
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them, by Joshua Greene Is utilitarianism the best way to resolve disputes in the global village? Natalie Gold investigates 9 January
Down to the Sea in Ships: Of Ageless Oceans and Modern Men, by Horatio Clare Philip Hoare on the global market’s manifest destiny 2 January
The End of Plagues: The Global Battle against Infectious Disease, by John Rhodes Helen Bynum on the history of vaccination 12 December
The Nostalgia Factory: Memory, Time and Ageing, by Douwe Draaisma Alan Collins considers the ‘reminiscence effect’ 12 December
An American Bride in Kabul: A Memoir, by Phyllis Chesler Shahidha Bari would like more light and shade in this personal account 5 December
The Dynamics of Disaster, by Susan W. Kieffer Alison Stokes on natural catastrophes and the need to use collective wisdom to cope with them 28 November
The Hamlet Doctrine, by Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster Peter J. Smith on non-Lit Crit efforts to find the method in the Danish prince’s madness 28 November
Invisible Nature: Healing the Destructive Divide between People and the Environment, by Kenneth Worthy Laurence Coupe on a grand indictment of the ‘Western epistemological error’ 14 November
Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality, by Edward Frenkel Noel-Ann Bradshaw on a work that unlocks maths’ power and beauty by weaving it into an inspirational autobiography 7 November
The Way of Science: Finding Truth and Meaning in a Scientific Worldview, by Dennis R. Trumble Andrew Briggs on an effort to cast down faith-based reasoning 31 October
Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art, by Harry W. Greene Jules Pretty on a combined autobiography of a field biologist and celebration of nature 24 October
Delete: A Design History of Computer Vapourware, by Paul Atkinson John Gilbey is reunited with fondly remembered computer hardware that never achieved market success 17 October
Power, Powerlessness and Addiction, by Jim Orford Philip Murphy on an analysis of addictions, to both legal and illegal substances, with respect to the role of power 17 October
Churchill’s Bomb: A Hidden History of Science, War and Politics, by Graham Farmelo A. W. Purdue on the leader who saw the nuclear future but let it slip 10 October
Gentlemen’s Disagreement: Alfred Kinsey, Lewis Terman, and the Sexual Politics of Smart Men, by Peter Hegarty Donna Drucker on the relationship between intelligence and sex 3 October
The Future Is Not What it Used to Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity, by Jörg Friedrichs Jon Turney is dispirited by the rhetoric of collapse in a sober analysis of two global crises 26 September
Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics, by Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann Tony Mann examines the argument that miscalculations can lead to triumphs 19 September
Me Medicine vs. We Medicine: Reclaiming Biotechnology for the Common Good, by Donna Dickenson Medical advances have coincided with a decline in healthcare for all, finds Dita Wickins-Drazilova 19 September
Better Humans? Understanding the Enhancement Project, by Michael Hauskeller Andy Miah on the pros and cons of humanity 2.0 12 September
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir Victoria Bateman counts the costs when there’s not enough to go around 12 September
Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America’s First Female Rocket Scientist, by George D. Morgan Margaret Weitekamp on a woman who helped get the US space programme off the ground 12 September
Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur: Mythology and Geology of the Underworld, by Salomon Kroonenberg Alison Stokes enjoys a tour of the physical and metaphorical lands of fire and brimstone 12 September
Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, by Ethan Zuckerman Tara Brabazon on building difference online 5 September
The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes, by Steven Nadler Erik-Jan Bos finds that the mystery surrounding a famous painting opens a new window on the French philosopher’s world and life 22 August
The Milky Way: An Insider’s Guide, by William H. Waller Simon Mitton finds much to admire in a grand tour of our home galaxy 22 August
A Tale of Seven Elements, by Eric Scerri The international hunt for chemistry’s ‘missing links’ makes for an engrossing tale, finds Alan Rocke 15 August
On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth, by Toby Tyrrell Jon Turney on the latest scientific findings regarding interactions between life and our planet that do not support the Gaia theory 8 August
The Efficiency Trap: Finding a Better Way to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future, by Steve Hallett Joanna Depledge is disturbed by advice to be passive in the face of human-induced apocalypse 8 August
Fluid New York: Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination, by May Joseph Laurence Coupe celebrates efforts to rethink urban spaces to give them an ecological dimension 1 August
The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, by John Edward Huth Robert J. Mayhew on how people need to recover their ability to find their way without using technology 1 August
Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: Niels Bohr’s 1913 Trilogy Revisited, by Finn Aaserud and John L. Heilbron Graham Farmelo on a scientific giant’s debt to his wife 1 August
Novel Science: Fiction and the Invention of Nineteenth Century Geology, by Adelene Buckland Euan Clarkson discusses a scientific discipline’s literary foundations 25 July
Androids in the Enlightenment: Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self, by Adelheid Voskuhl Angela Vanhaelen on the fascination and fear aroused by 18th-century mechanical figures 25 July
Crowdsourcing, by Daren C. Brabham John Gilbey on a stimulating discussion of the definition of a widely used term 25 July
The Serpent’s Promise: The Bible Retold as Science by Steve Jones Alec Ryrie on an intriguing book that doesn’t do what it says on the tin 11 July
A Child of One’s Own: Parental Stories by Rachel Bowlby Bryony Randall lauds an insightful and overdue study of literary representations of parenting 11 July
Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio by Gareth Williams A rogue’s gallery stopped the ‘crippler’, but for how long? asks Helen Bynum 11 July
Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools by Adam R. Shapiro Simon Underdown on a key battle between science and religion 4 July
Time Reborn: From the Crisis of Physics to the Future of the Universe by Lee Smolin Michael Berry is unpersuaded by a radical theory that tries to reinstate the concept of absolute time 27 June
Permanent Present Tense: The Man with No Memory and What He Taught the World by Suzanne Corkin Patient H. M.’s personal tragedy was humanity’s gain, says Morgan Barense 27 June
Happy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton Steven Schwartz considers some sound investment decisions 20 June
G8 science ministers endorse open access Science ministers from the G8 group of the world’s richest countries have jointly endorsed the need to increase access to publicly-funded research. By Jack Grove 13 June
Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air by Richard Holmes Robert J. Mayhew lifts off with a true balloon enthusiast 13 June
