Learn how humans have managed water throughout history and how shortages have driven conflict and social change. Harvard Univ., 2012, 347 p., $25.95 (p. 30)

This abridged version of the human search for knowledge covers major discoveries in medicine, astronomy and other fields. Yale Univ., 2012, 263 p., $25 (p. 30)

The head of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office describes the planet’s risk of being smacked by a comet or asteroid and what can be done to prevent such a fate. Prince­ton Univ., 2012, 172 p., $24.95 (p. 30)

Review key inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries, from bicycles to the Underwood typewriter. Firefly, 2012, 224 p., $29.95 (p. 30)

There’s a war on in America’s neighborhoods. In the past few decades, a confluence of three trends has brought man and beast into increasing conflict: the rebound of wildlife populations from near-historic lows, human populations’ growing sprawl and the regrowth of forests on abandoned farmlands, especially in the Northeast. In Nature Wars, longtime reporter Sterba chronicles how the proliferation of trees and greenbelts has turned back­yards into battle­grounds, boosting the landscape’s ability to support adaptable wildlife at the same time that tolerance of critters such as coyote... (p. 30)