"Broken Genius: the Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age," by Joel Shurkin, is an important biography about a central figure in the history of 20th-century technology.

William Shockley (1910-1989) shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the point-contact transistor, and was the "father" of Silicon Valley.

In his later years, Shockley became a fierce and uncompromising advocate for eugenics and scientific racialism. He thought that people with low IQs, whatever their race, should be paid to undergo sterilization. He contributed to a "Nobel Sperm Bank."

A man of relentless energy and unconventional thinking, William Shockley never apologized for his inflammatory public views.

He seemed to revel in controversy and alienation, and the limelight that came with them.

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For her suggestion, Angela Watkins will receive "Strom" by Jack Bass and Marilyn W. Thompson.