Here at JMP, we love a good nonfiction book. And if it involves data, numbers, statistics or science, then all the better.
I asked my colleagues to share the names of nonfiction books that are quantitative, analytical or scientific that they have enjoyed. Perhaps their ideas will help you find a gift for a friend, co-worker or family member. Or maybe you can add some of these suggestions to your own reading list. And please share, in comments, your favorite nonfiction books of this kind.
Here's our collective list (presented alphabetically by author's last name):
Against The Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Peter L. Bernstein
An Accidental Statistician: The Life and Memories of George E.P. Box by George E.P. Box
Thinking: The New Science of Decision-Making, Problem-Solving, and Prediction by John Brockman
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction by Frank Close
Ginkgo: The Tree That Time Forgot by Peter Crane
Numbersense: How to Use Big Data to Your Advantage by Kaiser Fung
Optimal Design of Experiments by Peter Goos and Bradley Jones
The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day by David Hand (to be published in February 2014; a colleague got an advance copy)
The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction by Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani and Jerome Friedman
The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson
The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology by Horace Freeland Judson
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Stephen Levy
The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines & Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies? The Surprising Science of Pregnancy by Jena Pincott
Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Weird Life: The Search for Life That Is Very, Very Different from Our Own by David Toomey
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by David Foster Wallace
