* Burnham, Terry, & Jay Phelan Mean Genes
(Perseus Publishing 0-7382-0230-4, $24, 263pp, hc, August 2000)
Subtitled "From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts". Popular treatment of evolutionary psychology cast in the form of a self-help book: how to recognize primal instincts for overeating or cheating on your spouse and using this knowledge to improve your life. Endorsed by E.O. Wilson; Amazon has review by Patrick Jennings, and a remarkable number of positive reader reviews. (Wed 11 Oct 2000)
* Fenner, Cathy, & Arnie Fenner, eds Spectrum 7: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art
(Underwood Books 1-887424-55-5, $27.5, 195pp, tpb, October 2000, jacket art Cliff Nielsen)
Seventh annual collection of artworks, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures from advertising, book jackets, comics, and unpublished. Artists include Michael Whelan, Dave McKean, Donato Giancola, Rick Berry, Syd Mead, John Berkey. The book's Grand Master Award goes to Alan Lee. Also in hardcover. Note the cover image on Amazon is not the cover of the actual book; the Amazon version cover art appears on the back cover of the finished volume. (Fri 13 Oct 2000)
* Gardner, Martin Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?
(W.W. Norton 0-393-04963-9, $26.95, 333pp, hc, October 2000, jacket design Chin-Yee Lai)
Collection of essays, mostly from Skeptical Inquirer magazine, debunking various fraudulent scientific topics from (as in the subtitle) reflexology, numerology, and urine therapy; to intelligent design, near-earth objects, zero-point energy, Heaven's Gate, and the Internet as world brain. (Fri 6 Oct 2000)
Gleick, James, ed The Best American Science Writing
(HarperCollins/Ecco 0-06-095736-0, $14, 10+258pp, tpb, September 2000, cover design Marc Cohen)
Reprint (HarperCollins/Ecco January 2000). One of two rival anthologies (see Quammen below) of science essays, this one features reprints from magazines, books, and websites (Salon; The Onion), with contributions by George Johnson, Timothy Ferris, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Oliver Sacks, Stephen Jay Gould, Steven Weinberg. (Fri 6 Oct 2000)
* King, Stephen On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
(Simon & Schuster/Scribner 0-684-85352-3, $25, 288pp, hc, October 2000, jacket design John Fontana)
King's advice to writers was begun before his mid-1999 accident that left him hospitalized; a postscript describes the accident and its aftermath. There are also two interesting "And Furthermore" sections: one presents a first draft short story and compares it to a copyedited revision; the second is a list of the 100 or so best books King has read in the past 3 or 4 years, including titles by Jack McDevitt, Frank M. Robinson, Walter M. Miller Jr., and J.K. Rowling. (Tue 3 Oct 2000)
* Quammen, David, ed The Best American Science and Nature Writing
(Houghton Mifflin 0-618-08295-6, $13, 21+265pp, tpb, October 2000)
See Gleick volume above; this volume has a nominally greater scope (nature), though its purview is more traditional -- all essays are reprinted from magazines. There's one duplicate between the two books, Oliver Sacks's "Brilliant Light" from The New Yorker; Natalie Angier and Atul Gawande are also in both books, but with different essays. Other contributors here include Wendell Berry, Edward Hoagland, Peter Matthiessen, Richard Preston. (Fri 6 Oct 2000)
* Roberts, Adam Science Fiction
(Routledge 0-415-19205-6, $14.99, 204pp, tpb, July 2000, cover art Leigh Hurlock)
Brief overview of the SF 'phenomenon' with definitions, history, and case studies of [usual suspects] Herbert, Le Guin, Gibson, and of Star Wars and Men in Black; includes glossary, bibliography, index. Roberts is the author of SF novel Salt (UK: Gollancz, July 2000). (Tue 10 Oct 2000)
* Weinberg, Robert Horror of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History
(Collectors Press 1-888054-42-5, $60, 256pp, hc, October 2000)
Coffee-table history of the horror genre with lots of color reproductions of magazine and book covers, movie posters, etc. The format matches that of Frank M. Robinson's Science Fiction of the 20th Century published last year. Reviewed by Karen Haber in the December 2000 Locus. (Sat 28 Oct 2000)
