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1. The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian Fagan, Basic Books

2. Living with the Genie edited by Alan Lightman, Daniel Sarewitz and Christina Desser, Island Press

3. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Broadway Books/Random House

4. Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer, The Free Press/Simon and Schuster

5. Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley, HarperCollins

6. Isaac Newton by James Gleick, Pantheon

7. Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps: Empires of Time by Peter Galison, W. W. Norton

8. Mutants by Armand Marie Leroi, Viking Press

9. The Doctors’ Plague by Sherwin B. Nuland, W. W. Norton

10. Whose Water Is It? edited by Bernadette McDonald and Douglas Jehl, National Geographic Society

Information supplied by Cody’s, Berkeley, California (fax 001 510 559 4015) for bestsellers in popular science first published in hardback or paperback in the US within the past year.

Determinism is a contentious topic. It can be a get-out-of-jail-free card for responsibility when applied to the environment. But it’s also a rich explanation for some of the peculiarities of our history. Archaeologist Brian Fagan’s intelligent take in The Long Summer avoids the pitfalls and heightens the riches. Mind you, today’s problem is the reverse – not how climate shapes civilisation but how civilisation is changing the climate.