What Danny's Been Reading

Mapping Mars by Oliver Morton: A look at how our understanding of Mars has changed through the changing of our maps of Mars. Includes a fascinating look at the scientists involved, as well as the fiction contemporary to those scientists, from the 19th century through the Pathfinder mission. The fun part is the time he spends on the relevant science fiction. Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars sequence gets a chapter. Even cooler, he gives some background on the origin and meaning of Moore's Mars sequence in Watchmen (which I loved)
The Particle Explosion: by Frank Close, Michael Martin, Christine Sutton and Michael Marten
Calendrical Calculations: by Nachum Dershowitz and Edward Reingold
Visual Complex Analysis: by Tristan Needham
Structures: Or, Why Things Don't Fall Down: by J. E. Gordon

I picked up Frontiers of Jewish Thought at the Judaica store, thinking the essays on Nuclear Destruction and AIDS might be interesting. I've been proved wrong.
: The pieces on Jewish education and Assimilation/Demography were particularly tired retreads.
Political Science Quarterly: They just ran a fine Sep11 geo-political issue that I found fascinating.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: "Ah, it's funny 'cause it's true." Great stuff. Speaking as someone who lost a parent as a child, and who just lost a Father-in-Law recently, this book does the trick.