Beyond Fact: Science Favorites

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks: Neurologist Sacks presents a series of clinical tales drawn from fascinating and unusual cases encountered during his years of medical practice, introducing real people who suffer from a variety of neurological syndromes which include symptoms such as amnesia, uncontrolled movements, and musical hallucinations.
The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier: Pulitzer-winning science writer Angier presents a guide for the scientifically perplexed adult who wants to understand what those guys in lab coats on the news are babbling about, in the realms of physics, chemistry, biology, geology or astronomy.
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould: The Burgess Shale, a small quarry in the mountains of British Columbia, opened a window on the first multicellular animals. Gould, eminent life-historian and author, introduces us to the creatures of Burgess Shale and to those who have painstakingly examined them.
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman": Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman: Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman recounts his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums — and much else of an eyebrow-raising and hilarious nature.