May 2017 list by Laura Berube
 
Café Neandertal: Excavating Our Past in One of Europe's Most Ancient Places
by Beebe Bahrami

Describes the research, exploration and recovery of modern humans’ ancient relatives, the Neanderthals, based on the work of archaeologists who are doing comprehensive work in the Dordogne region of France as well as elsewhere around the globe.

A Surgeon in the Village: An American Doctor Teaches Brain Surgery in Africa
by Tony Bartelme

A Surgeon in the Village tells the inspiring story of doctors who, through a “train-forward” philosophy, changed the health care of an African nation. The story exposes a major and largely neglected global-health issue—the shortage of surgeons. 

Why Time Flies: A Mostly Scientific Investigation
by Alan Burdick

The award-winning author of Out of Eden presents an intimate exploration of how life is organized around time and its conflicting perceptions, drawing on international travels and research lab visits where he witnessed fascinating time-altering phenomena.

The Genome Factor: What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future
by Dalton Conley

A revelatory volume shows how genomics is transforming the social sciences and how social scientists are integrating both nurture and nature into a unified, comprehensive understanding of human behavior at both individual and society-wide levels.

Making Sense of Science: Separating Substance from Spin
by Cornelia Dean

Cornelia Dean draws on her 30 years as a science journalist with the New York Times to expose the flawed reasoning and knowledge gaps that handicap readers when they try to make sense of science. She calls attention to conflicts of interest in research and the price society pays when science journalism declines and funding dries up.

Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life
by Matin Durrani

The animal world is full of mysteries. Why do dogs slurp from their drinking bowls while cats lap up water with a delicate flick of the tongue? How does a tiny turtle hatchling from Florida circle the entire North Atlantic before returning to the very beach where it was hatched? And how can a Komodo dragon kill a water buffalo with a bite that is only as strong as a domestic cat's? These puzzles--and many more--are all explained by physics. 

The Family Gene: A Mission to Turn My Deadly Inheritance into a Hopeful Future
by Joselin Linder

Traces the author's quest to uncover the truth about a previously undocumented genetic disorder that had ended the lives of multiple family members, a wrenching chronicle of survival that also illuminated potential breakthroughs in genomic medicine.

Chandra's Cosmos: Dark Matter, Black Holes, and Other Wonders Revealed by NASA's Premier X-Ray Observatory
by Wallace H. Tucker

Presents the scientific discoveries achieved through the Chandra X-ray Observatory, including galaxy clusters, black holes, dark matter, and dark energy.

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
by Paul Watson

A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of Where War Lives and expedition member describes how an unlikely combination of marine science and Inuit knowledge helped solve the mystery of the lost Franklin expedition of 1845.