The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004

Brief Description: Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more. Review Quotes: "Provocative and thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish."Brief Description: Vols. for - edited by Elizabeth Kolbert. Publisher Marketing: Bestselling author and staff writer for The New Yorker Groopman edits this year's volume of the finest science and nature writing. Contributors include Walter Kirn, Ron Rosenbaum, Jeffrey Toobin, and Oliver Sacks. Review Citations:

Booklist 10/01/2004 pg. 289 (EAN 9780618246984, Paperback)

Publishers Weekly 08/30/2004 pg. 41 (EAN 9780618246984, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:  Pinker, Steven One of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World Today," Steven Pinker is the author of seven books, including How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate--both Pulitzer Prize finalists and winners of the William James Book Award. He is an award-winning researcher and teacher, and a frequent contributor to Time and the New York Times. Contributor Bio:  Folger, Tim TIM FOLGER is a contributing editor at "Discover" and writes about science for several magazines.