Marcus du Sautoy may have to revise his wonderful book The Music of the Primes. Purdue mathematician Louis De Branges de Bourcia thinks he may have proved the Riemann Hypothesis.
The man who wasn’t reviewed by the Times 
Sour grapes is rarely attractive, but I think Thomas PM Barnett has a point in his latest posting:
“I can’t get reviewed by the NYT. Today they immediately put out a review of Michael Mandelbaum’s new book on sports in America — he that famous sports journalist (ahem) foreign policy expert. So Mandelbaum deconstructs the sports pages and he gets a review in the Times, but I deconstruct the Bush Administration’s national security strategy in the global war on terrorism and still no review!”
The Pentagon’s New Map is fourth on the bestseller list for foreign affairs, surrounded by books that the Times has reviewed.
Jefferson’s library suggestions
Via Language Log, I came across Thomas Jefferson’s suggestions for “such a general collection as I think you would wish and might in time find convenient to procure”. It’s interesting to note how many of Jefferson’s books would still find a plausible place on a contemporary list. Many more than I would have thought.
Apparently Armand Leroi’s Mutants is the favourite to win this year’s Aventis science book prize. I’ve met Leroi a few times through uber-host John Brockman, who is also Leroi’s literary agent (and the agent for most scientist writers you’ve heard of).
Leroi told me how he became a Brockman client, even though he lacked the hefty reputation of many people on Brockman’s list. He sent a proposal for his book cold (I think I recall he may have even faxed it — remember faxes?). What did the trick, however, was the title: Mutants! with an exclamation mark. That got Brockman’s attention.
In conversation, Leroi was a bit worried about the sensationalism of the title, since he is a serious scientist and the book is serious science. But the title seems to have survived, minus (thankfully) that exclamation mark.