I admit it, I failed the “Presidential Physics Quiz.” Too bad, since I obviously need the contest’s prize, a copy of Physics for Future Presidents by Richard Muller.

The quiz, featured on the NYT science blog, TierneyLab, was created by Dr. Muller, author of the book and teacher of a popular course with the same title at the U. of Cal., Berkley. The book is described in the blog as,

a marvelously readable and level-headed explanation of basic science principles and how they relate to issues like terrorism, energy policy, global warming, nuclear weapons and the space program.

There’s a wide range of ordering for this book; some have it on order in relatively large quantities (one large midwest library has 26 copies on order), others in small quantities, with holds, while a few others haven’t ordered it.

Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines  

Richard A. Muller

• Hardcover: $26.95
• Publisher: W. W. Norton (August 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0393066274
• ISBN-13: 978-0393066272

The Sunday NYT BR reviewed Drunkard’s Walk and it shot to #12 on Amazon’s Best Seller list, (it’s also at #24 on the NYT extended nonfiction list).

The reviewer calls it “a readable crash course in randomness and statistics…[the author] writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists” and goes on to make it sound fascinating, even fun.

The libraries that bought did so lightly and holds to copy ratios are high.

The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

by Leonard Mlodinow

• Hardcover: $25.00
• Publisher: Pantheon (May, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0375424040
• ISBN-13: 9780375424045

Today’s Salon features a fascinating interview with Elizabeth Hess, the author of Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human. As Salon describes it, the book is about a chimp who was “raised like a son by a New York City family as part of a language experiment, [but] Nim Chimpsky was shipped away when funds ran out.”

The book was selected recently by USA Today in a roundup of animal titles. It was also reviewed in the Seattle Times (”a story every bit as stirring and elaborate as that of a famous person”) and the Christian Science Monitor (”about as poignant an animal story as you can get. The neglect Nim suffered… is heartbreaking. And yet in many ways reading about him remains a joyous experience.”)

Significant holds are building in some areas.

• Hardcover: $23.00
• Publisher: Bantam (February 26, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0553803832
• ISBN-13: 978-0553803839

• Hardcover: $24.00
• Publisher: Pantheon (January 15, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0375424474
• ISBN-13: 978-0375424472

One of the most unusual titles currently on the Amazon Bestseller List (in the #60’s) is Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin.

The major library pre-pub review media seem to be late on this one, so many libraries may not have it yet. It was just reviewed (scroll down, almost to the end) in the January 15th issue of Library Journal. It was also covered in Booklist on January 1st (right now, it’s the “review of the day” on the site) where it received a star.

The review in today’s New York Observer gives helpful background, “When the renowned paleontologist Neil Shubin announced in 2006 that he’d discovered an ancient fossil with an uncanny resemblance to a ‘missing link’ between fish and land-dwellers, creationists responded with all the fury of pissed off-apes.” So, of course, given the “pissed off apes” response, he has also received the Colbert Report treatment. If you ever wondered how it would feel to face Stephen Colbert, Neil Shubin writes about it on the science blog “Pharyngula.”

The book is also available in audio from Books on Tape.