Recommended; December 2009; Scientific American Magazine; by Kate Wong; 1 Page(s)

Feast your eyes and feed your brain with our favorite science books worthy of the coffee table. Topping our list are volumes commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope.

Galápagos: Preserving Darwin’s Legacy
edited by Tui de Roy. Firefly Books, 2009
Editor and principal photographer Tui de Roy documents life on the islands that helped inspire Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Essays by 30 experts cover such topics as the social behavior of the Galápagos hawk (above) and efforts to restore tortoise populations.