Looking for a last-minute gift or a good book to curl up with in front of a roaring fire? We’ve put together a list of the latest books by NESW members published in 2012 or soon to be available in 2013. The list is alphabetical by NESW member names. Enjoy, enjoy!

This is Improbable: Cheese String Theory, Magnetic Chickens and Other WTF Research, by Marc Abrahams, OneWorld Publishing, paperback, Sept 16, 2012, ISBN 1851689311, 316 pages. Order it on Amazon.
• The founder of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony looks at international research that makes people laugh, then think.

Spider Silk: Evolution and 400 Million Years of Spinning, Waiting, Snagging, and Mating, by Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig, now in paperback (Feb. 2012) and all ebook formats (May 2010), Yale University Press, ISBN: 9780300181463. Order it on Amazon.
• The story of the evolution of spiders and their silks, which explains natural selection from gene to organism for non-biologists. Longlisted for Royal Society Winton Prize. Suitable for gardeners and Spider-Man fans alike. Perfect for creationist relatives.

Everyone’s Universe: A Guide to Accessible Astronomy Places (second edition), by Noreen Grice, July 1, 2012, You Can Do Astronomy LLC, ISBN-978-0-9833567-3-8. Order it on Amazon.
• Learn educational strategies for making astronomy events accessible and fun for all participants, and especially people who have physical or neurological disabilities. This book includes a state-by-state travel guide to accessible planetariums and observatories, with icons, photographs and descriptive text.

The Science Writer’s Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Pitch, Publish and Prosper in the Digital Age, by the Writers of SciLance, edited by Thomas Hayden and Michelle Nijhuis, April 30, 2013, Da Capo Press, ISBN-10: 0738216569. Pre-order it on Amazon. Includes tips and suggestions from Jenny Cutraro, who will be writing for the book’s blog, as well as chapters by writers with New England connections, including Vermont-based writer Anne Sasso and former MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellows Hillary Rosner and Susan Moran.
• From structuring a story to dealing with envy, procrastination and loneliness, structuring your business to doing your taxes, 35 leading science writers go beyond the basics, sharing their hard-won wisdom and illuminating stories to help science writers of all levels survive and thrive in the new era of publishing.

Drawing the Map of Life: Inside the Human Genome Project, by Victor K. McElheny, now in paperback with a new afterword (June 2012) Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-465-02985-5, e-book, ISBN 978-0-465-03260-0. Order it on Amazon.
• The paperback edition of the history of the Human Genome Project has a 4,000-word update on the origins, accomplishments, and outcomes of biology’s entry into Big Science, carrying the story to the first uses of genomics in diagnosing and treating mystery disorders in children and advanced cancer cases.

Beach Wars; 10,000 Years on a Barrier Beach, by William Sargent. Strawberry Hill Press 2012, ISBN 9781475282634. Order it on Amazon.
• Starting when wooly mammoth and mastodon roamed New England’s shores and ending with the Cape Cod National Seashore’s demolition of houses endangered by sea level rise in 2012, this is the story how coastal erosion continues to shape our coasts. It tells the colorful story of rumrunners, mooncussers and pirates on Cape Cod’s everchanging outer beach. 150 pages with photographs and maps $15.95.

Fast Minds: How to Thrive If You Have ADHD (Or Think You Might), by Craig Surman, MD, and Tim Bilkey, MD, with Karen Weintraub, Feb 5, 2013, Berkley Hardcover, ISBN-10: 0425252833. Pre-order it on Amazon.
• Experts on adult ADHD blend their findings in neuroscience with real-life stories, bridging the gap between the clinical diagnosis and the actual experience of ADHD.

Sneak previews: Some other books by NESW members are in the production stages and not available yet, but here are the tantalizing descriptions by the authors.

The Skeleton Crew, by Deborah Halber, coming from Simon & Schuster in 2013, tells the story of a young Tennessee man whose obsession with a murder victim who died two years before he was born helps spawn an Internet subculture in which amateur sleuths defy the odds to match unidentified human remains with missing persons.

Light Work: Odd Excursions in Optics, by Stephen R. Wilk. To be published by Oxford University Press. A collection of Stephen R. Wilk’s strange and weird essays on optics and optics history, including such esoterica as Edible Lasers, Claudius Ptolemy’s Law of Refraction, The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Starbow, Where is that Tractor Beam, Zap! (A history of ray guns), and The Magic Lantern of Omar Khayyam.

Did we miss any? Add your suggestions below.

— Karen Weintraub & Carol Cruzan Morton