Steven Weinberg’s excellent book + essay “A Designer Universe?”

Weinberg writes fascinating stuff because he’s a very bright guy who is now wandering into areas far from his home turf; and he’s looking at the new territory with all the wide-eyed wonder (and insight) of a newcomer who hasn’t yet learned the received wisdom. A great example is his recent NYRB essay on weapons and glory, in which he turns upside down the insight we all grew up with, that the stirrup was a great technological advance in the conduct of warfare.