Susan's Picks

Neal Stephenson is probably one of the best science fiction authors writing today. Anathem is Stephenson at his best: sweeping, ambitious, challenging, provocative. This book will cause you to think about time in a new (or a very old) way. Once you have entered the world of Anathem, you will want to read the true account set out in The Clock of the Long Now, which we also carry at Otowi Station. These are two excellent companion books.

After many years of writing humorous travel-type books, Bill Bryson began writing encyclopedic books of facts, including his award-winning A Short History of Nearly Everything. That book was almost too much of a good thing, and his newest book At Home is more focused because his ramblings stick pretty close to home...his home in England, that is. And yet this is Bill Bryson: a writer full of questions who is never afraid to search out the answers. While he travels from room to room in his home, the reader can wander with him as Bryson uncovers and explains home life--from the history of the spice trade (his salt shakers in his kitchen), to mousetraps, to a study of electricity and the fuse box. This is a whirlwind tour of all things ordinary made extraordinary in Bryson's capable hands.

Theodore Gray's books The Elements and Mad Science are two of the most amazing books in the store right now. Mad Science is not what you remember from Chemistry 101, but what that class should have been. Here's a book that allows you to continue to explore the world of science at home, either in your kitchen, your workshop, or just relaxing in your favorite reading chair. With stunning photographs, Gray grabs you by the (imaginary) lab-coat collar and pulls you in to the exciting world of science – making things happen, watching things happen, and finding out why things happen. I can't imagine anyone looking through this book and not thinking “I want to do science, too.” This book is perfect for teachers and learners, thinkers and tinkerers, lab rats and armchair scientists alike. I just don't want to read in the newspaper that you blew up your garage!