Will's review
The Best American Science Writing 2007 (Best American Science Writing)
by Gina Kolata, Jesse Cohen
Will's review
The Best American Science Writing 2007 (Best American Science Writing) by Gina Kolata, Jesse Cohen
Will's review
rating:
bookshelves:
science-and-its-discontents
With the recent profusion of Best American collections, the series is at risk of becoming diluted. To make matters worse, there are now separate collections for "Science and Nature Writing" and "Science Writing" (even though the former includes essays that are NOT nature-related, and the latter includes essays that ARE). Is there enough quality American writing to go around?
Apparently, yes. But the New Yorker is definitely carrying the load -- no less than seven pieces in this collection come from that magazine. This isn't a case of editorial bias -- the New Yorker is simply home to the most knowledgeable and incisive science writers on the planet -- people like Oliver Sacks, Elizabeth Kolbert, Atul Gawande, and on and on... Each of the New Yorker essays was a pleasure to reread, but Gawande's outstanding article on obstetrics steals the show -- worth the four-star review all by itself.
The New York Times is a close second in terms of articles included (...more
Apparently, yes. But the New Yorker is definitely carrying the load -- no less than seven pieces in this collection come from that magazine. This isn't a case of editorial bias -- the New Yorker is simply home to the most knowledgeable and incisive science writers on the planet -- people like Oliver Sacks, Elizabeth Kolbert, Atul Gawande, and on and on... Each of the New Yorker essays was a pleasure to reread, but Gawande's outstanding article on obstetrics steals the show -- worth the four-star review all by itself.
The New York Times is a close second in terms of articles included (...more
