The Time Traveller

My Brief History

Stephen Hawking · 127 pages

Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant cosmologists of our time, and author of the 10 million copy bestselling A Brief History of Time, one of the iconic books of its generation. Now, for the first time, he tells the story of his life in his own words, in a book expanded from a lecture of the same name.

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

James Gleick · 532 pages

A gem of a book, about the life and mind of one of the most influential and iconoclastic characters in 20th century physics. Really a pleasure to read.

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson · 704 pages

The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom an

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes · 886 pages

Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the brig

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Skloot · 381 pages

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman

Richard Feynman · 270 pages

"Richard Feynman was one of the greatest physicists of the 20th century - from his work on the atomic bomb to his solution to the puzzle of the Challenger disaster. Feynman helped to shape the world as we know it. Nobel laureate, iconoclastic icon, caring family man, amateur artist, and professional musician (in a Rio de Janeiro samba band), Feynman was a man of many dimensions.". "The Pleasure o

Disturbing the Universe

Freeman Dyson · 304 pages

The classic intellectual autobiography of a great theoretical physicist Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has compos

Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything

Amanda Gefter · 418 pages

"Opening with the author's attempt to sneak herself and her father into a conference attended by the planet's great scientific thinkers (including Brian Greene, Max Tegmark, and coiner of the term "black hole" John Wheeler), Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn takes readers on an exhilarating and memorable journey to the mysterious heart of the universe"--

My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was one of the most brilliant and daring inventors and visionaries of his time. My Inventions is Tesla's autobiography, with focus on his major discoveries and innovations, including the rotating magnetic field, the magnifying transmitter, and the Tesla coil. His research laid much of the groundwork for modern electrical and communication systems, and his impressive accomplishments in

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Jill Bolte Taylor · 188 pages

Ordinary Light

Tracy K. Smith · 349 pages

"A memoir about the author's coming of age as she grapples with her identity as an artist, her family's racial history, and her mother's death from cancer"-- "From the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: a deeply moving memoir that explores coming-of-age and the meaning of home against a complex backdrop of race, faith, and the unbreakable bond between a mother and daughter. Tracy K. Smith had a fairly

My Struggle: Book 1

Karl Ove Knausgard

Toast: The Story of a Boy's Hunger

Nigel Slater · 247 pages

Wrinkles in Time

George Smoot, Keay Davidson · 342 pages

Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark

Sarafina El-Badry Nance · 336 pages

High Price: A Neuroscientist's Journey of Self-Discovery That Challenges Everything You Know About Drugs and Society

Carl Hart · 346 pages

"As a youth, Carl Hart didn't realize the value of school; he studied just enough to stay on the basketball team. At the same time, he was immersed in street life. Today he is a cutting-edge neuroscientist--Columbia University's first tenured African American professor in the sciences--whose landmark, controversial research is redefining our understanding of addiction. In this provocative and eye-

And When Did You Last See Your Father?

Blake Morrison

First published in 1993, Blake Morrison's "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" is an extraordinary portrait of family life, father-son relationships and bereavement. It became a bestseller, and inspired a whole genre of confessional memoirs. This new edition includes a new afterword by the author."And When Did You Last See Your Father?" won the Waterstone's/Volvo/Esquire Award for Non-Fiction

The Devil That Danced on the Water: A Daughter's Quest

Aminatta Forna · 403 pages

"Aminatta Forna's intensely personal history is a passionate and vivid account of an African childhood, an idyll that became the stuff of nightmare. As a child she witnessed the upheavals of post-colonial Africa, danger, flight, the bitterness of exile in Britain, and the terrible consequences of her dissident father's stand against tyranny.". "Mohamed Forna was a man of unimpeachable integrity a

Alex & Me: How a Scientist and a Parrot Discovered a Hidden World of Animal Intelligence—and Formed a Deep Bond in the Process

Irene M. Pepperberg · 232 pages

On September 6, 2007, an African Grey parrot named Alex died prematurely at age thirty-one. His last words to his owner, Irene Pepperberg, were "You be good. I love you."What would normally be a quiet, very private event was, in Alex's case, headline news. Over the thirty years they had worked together, Alex and Irene had become famous — two pioneers who opened an unprecedented window into the hid

Patrimony

Philip Roth · 240 pages

In a moving elegy, one of America's most powerful writers recreates his father's ordeal as, suffering from a brain tumor, he battles with the ignominy and helplessness of old age.

Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History

Art Spiegelman · 296 pages

A story of a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's story and history itself.

They Left Us Everything: A Memoir

Plum Johnson · 279 pages

"A warm, heartfelt memoir of family, loss, and a house jam-packed with decades of goods and memories. After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parents--first for their senile father, and then for their cantankerous ninety-three-year old mother--author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now

I'm Glad My Mom Died

Jennette McCurdy · 320 pages

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a

Uncle Tungsten

Oliver Sacks · 337 pages

"From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks - the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time - was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth b