Also, for the super geeky, you will want to know about this forthcoming book by my friend Kevin Trenberth, The Changing Flow of Energy Through the Climate System.

I’ve seen some of the information and graphics going into this book. Let me tell you: If you are an erg, Kevin knows where you are, where you came from, and where you are going. Indispensable for those interested in climate systems. This is an academic book, so get serious with it.

Everything here is a book, because books are what gets us through a pandemic. Except this: Pandemic, the Board Game

New and Amazing Science Books

Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins: A Trip Through the World of Animal Intoxication by One Pagan.

From parrots to primates, consuming medicinal chemicals is an instinctive behavior that helps countless organisms fight infection and treat disease. But the similarities don’t end there: Like us, many creatures also consume substances that have no apparent benefit . . . except for inducing intoxication. In fact, animals have been using drugs for recreational purposes since prehistoric times. We may even have animals to thank for the idea—legend says that coffee was discovered by observing the behavior of goats that had eaten it.

Combining fascinating science with humor and enthusiasm, Pagán’s latest is full of the kind of unforgettable stories and odd facts that you’ll find yourself repeating to everyone you meet. From fruit fly happy hour to the evolutionary reasons behind nature’s drugs, Drunk Flies and Stoned Dolphins takes you on a trip through the colorful world of animal intoxication—and along the way, explores what this science reveals about the surprising connections between all the world’s creatures.

Pump: A Natural History of the Heart by Bill Schutt.

In this lively, unexpected look at the hearts of animals—from fish to bats to humans—American Museum of Natural History zoologist Bill Schutt tells an incredible story of evolution and scientific progress.

Written with verve and authority, weaving evolutionary perspectives with cultural history, Pump shows us this mysterious organ in a completely new light.

I’ve gotten great value out of these next two books. I used Inkscape and Gimp for years before sitting down to learn how to actually get the most out of them. Then, I read and used these books and everything is different! (In a good way). Admittedly, these and many of the items listed here are probably more for you than anyone you know, but feel free to stuff your own stockings, as it were.

–The Book of Inkscape, 2nd Edition: The Definitive Guide to the Graphics Editor

–The Book of GIMP: A Complete Guide to Nearly Everything

Scenic Science of the National Parks: An Explorer’s Guide to Wildlife, Geology, and Botany by Emily Hoff and Maygen Keller

The national parks are some of the most beloved, visited, and biodiverse places on Earth. They’re also scientific playgrounds where you can learn about plants, animals, and our planet’s coolest geological features firsthand. Scenic Science of the National Parks curates and breaks down the compelling and offbeat natural science highlights of each park, from volcanic activity, glaciers, and coral reefs to ancient redwood groves, herds of bison, giant bats, and beyond. Featuring full-color illustrations, information on the history and notable features of each park, and insider tips on how to get the most out of your visit, this delightful book is the perfect addition to any park lover’s collection.

Why Trust Science? by Naomi Oreskes.

Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don’t? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength?and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World by Rachel Ignotofsky

A charmingly illustrated and educational book, New York Times best seller Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world. Full of striking, singular art, this fascinating collection also contains infographics about relevant topics such as lab equipment, rates of women currently working in STEM fields, and an illustrated scientific glossary. The trailblazing women profiled include well-known figures like primatologist Jane Goodall, as well as lesser-known pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, the African-American physicist and mathematician who calculated the trajectory of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Women in Science celebrates the achievements of the intrepid women who have paved the way for the next generation of female engineers, biologists, mathematicians, doctors, astronauts, physicists, and more!

Data your thing? New edition:

Practical SQL, 2nd Edition: A Beginner’s Guide to Storytelling with Data

You’ll learn how to:
• Create databases and related tables using your own data

This updated second edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect the latest in SQL features, including additional advanced query techniques for wrangling data. This edition also has two new chapters: an expanded set of instructions on for setting up your system plus a chapter on using PostgreSQL with the popular JSON data interchange format.

For the adult interested in programming: Learning Python, These books:

Preorder Object-Oriented Python: Master OOP by Building Games and GUIs by Irv Kalb.
Object-Oriented Python is an intuitive and thorough guide to mastering object-oriented programming from the ground up. You’ll cover the basics of building classes and creating objects, and put theory into practice using the pygame package with clear examples that help visualize the object-oriented style. You’ll explore the key concepts of object-oriented programming — encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance — and learn not just how to code with objects, but the absolute best practices for doing so. Finally, you’ll bring it all together by building a complex video game, complete with full animations and sounds. The book covers two fully functional Python code packages that will speed up development of graphical user interface (GUI) programs in Python

And these:

–Learning Python, 5th Edition

–Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming

–Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners

For kids, Scratch programming

Scratch 3 Programming Playground: Learn to Program by Making Cool Games by Al Sweigart.

Scratch, the colorful drag-and-drop programming language, is used by millions of first-time learners worldwide. Scratch 3 features an updated interface, new programming blocks, and the ability to run on tablets and smartphones, so you can learn how to code on the go.

Learning how to program shouldn’t be dry and dreary. With Scratch 3 Programming Playground, you’ll make a game of it!

And also, Super Scratch Programming Adventure! (Scratch 3)

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

The ever-repeating chant that was once barely audible, then louder, then deafening, is now pounding terribly in my ears and once again, I scream, but it is once again a silent scream and the cotton cloth that covers me once again grows heavy and pins me down.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum … RUM PUM

Finally, the creature’s hands come down around my neck and take hold, it’s head, faceless, now pressed against mine and I think it may be growling, but since it has finally grabbed me, and only now, because those are the rules in this particular nightmare, my scream of terror can break loose so it does breaks loose and I cry out …

THE RUM PUMS ARE HERE … THE RUM PUMS ARE GOING TO GET ME!!!!

And I sit up with a start, drenched in the sweat of night terror, panting heavily, and I can hear adults heading for my room in response to my horrific screams and uncontrolled sobbing.

DAMN YOU BING CROSBY!!!

It took years for me to figure it out. Every year at Christmas time, there were all these things we would do. We would:

• Make Christmas tree ornaments
• Go out in the woods and cut down a tree, bring it home
• Set up the train set under the tree
• Hang Santa’s boots inside the fake fire place as though he was stuck up there
• Watch as dad hangs precariously off the side of the ladder, perched on grandma’s porch’s roof (she lived upstairs) as he attaches the Life Size Santa, Sled and Reindeer ornament to the gable of the house
• Wrap the extra fruit cakes to have handy in case an unexpected or forgotten guest shows up
• Go to the Spencer Gift Store at the newly constructed mall with 12 dollars to buy one present for each person who would be coming for Christmas
• Listen to Christmas Music
• Have nightmares, several nightmares about the Rum Pums.

And in there, in that list, was a link I never understood until I was much older and thought back on it all. Only then did I understand the origin of the Rum Pums which haunted me at any time of the year they felt so moved, but always, and especially, around Christmas. I would hear them in the distance and I’d move away.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

But they always knew which way to turn to come closer, ever closer. I’d use every trick I knew, climbing over Mr. Wilson’s garage, using the alley way behind the diner, ducking into the side entrance of the apartment building, even hiding in the forbidden furnace room with the hand drawn sign on the huge metal fire door that said “Stay Out This Means You” on it.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

I’d crawl through the secret flap in the fence beneath the grape vines, climb over the maple in the corner and drop into Billy’s yard, crawl through the secret flap in his fence, work my way across the street and down the other ally behind Ye Olde Tavern which we were always told to stay away from, back around the corner and into the basement where that guy died that one time, and eventually under the hedge in Mr. Distoll’s yard even risking the thorns on the rose bushes he surrounded his property with to keep the kids off his perfect lawn.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

But no matter what tricks I used, the Rum Pums would grow steadily nearer, adjusting their course even from blocks away (I could see them doing this in my mind’s eye) as I made changes in my path that they could not possibly have seen or predicted. And the distance would close no matter how steady and plodding their pace, and no matter how swift my terror-driven stumbling run.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

The last place I would always run would be the upstairs bedroom, the bedroom in my Grandmother’s flat, where I only rarely ever slept but always had nightmares. Somehow I knew that the Rum Pums were the body of my dead Grandfather, the body that was laid out in the living room only a few feet from this bedroom, the body that I was brought to as a toddler, and shown, Irish style, during the wake.

“That’s your grandfather. Kiss Papa good bye.”

I said “Light … Light … Light ….” as a two year old does, pointing to each candle set around his corpse. Then, looking at Grandpa’s lifeless form, “Shhhhh… Papa’s sleeping”

But now his lifeless body is not sleeping. His lifeless body is relentlessly hunting me down.

rum pum … rum pum … rum pum …

It is reanimated, faceless, clothing-less yet not naked, possessed, moving ever closer to me, and as always I am in what was once his bedroom hiding under the covers in what was once his bed, and the door opens and the Rum Pum is there, and it closes in, and it takes me by the neck and once again, my scream becomes audible only because the terror pushes me into a wakeful state.

The Nightmare That Was Christmas is ever present just below the surface. And not just for me, but for you as well, my friend.

Observe, listen. Listen through to the end to understand:

Yes, the stuff of nightmares.

Perhaps if my family had this version instead, my nightmares would not have been as bad:

I don’t know. That’s kinda nightmarish but in a totally different way. No, I think there’s only one Christmas Drumming Song that I can listen to right now to wipe out the nightmares.

Whole different kind of sitting up in bed in a sweat.

Finally, having said all that, I do recognize the importance of tradition. And thus, the new tradition in our household:

What horrors have I wrought do you suppose, little one? What horrors!?!?