Welcoming January 2013 with Science and Historical Fiction

On July 4, the real fireworks came in Geneva, Switzerland, when CERN researchers announced that they had likely discovered the long-sought Higgs boson. Even if you’re not a science type, you know this is important news, so I was especially thrilled to discover Sean Carroll’s forthcoming book on the subject, featured here. As I began reporting for this newsletter, which breaks into 2013, more big science books surfaced, so this is a partly science-themed edition‚ especially apt as my coverage of ALTAFF’s “Geek Alert!” panel at ALA was the big winner in Prepub traffic two weeks back. Science is hot! Look also for focused historical fiction coverage, inspired by Tracy Chevalier’s new novel (see “Picks”).