With seven newly published titles and deals penned for translations into 13 languages, 2023 has been Wolfram Media’s most productive year yet. As our list continues to grow, we are proud to cover more and more Wolfram Language functionality in conceptual and practical ways for our readers. As we near the end of the year, we’d like to sum up our publishing accomplishments and maybe even give you a few holiday gift ideas for any readers on your list.

What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? »

Published early this year on March 9, 2023, What Is ChatGPT Doing … and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram answered the questions we were all asking when ChatGPT burst onto the scene. “This is the best explanation of what ChatGPT is doing that I’ve seen,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (creator of ChatGPT), and our readers seemed to agree. The timeliness of the topic combined with Stephen Wolfram’s unique and clear explanation quickly elevated this book to the position of Wolfram Media’s best seller since A New Kind of Science in 2002. We have also partnered with foreign rights agent DropCap to license translations into 13 different languages. You can find the translations listed on our website, where we will add more as they are released.

With ChatGPT and other LLMs quickly becoming part of everyday life and business, we highly suggest you check out this concise explanation if you haven’t already. You can grab a copy of the English version on Amazon.

Query: Getting Information from Data with the Wolfram Language »

Our newest book, published October 3, 2023, comes from expert Wolfram Language user Seth J. Chandler. If you’ve been a Wolfram user for a while, chances are you’ve already seen some of his work on the Wolfram Demonstrations Project and Wolfram Community, or maybe you recognize the name from his Wolfram Innovator Award win in 2011. In Query: Getting Information from Data with the Wolfram Language, Chandler uses all that experience to show readers how to organize and analyze data. It is a book that transcends field of study: no matter what scientific discipline, area of the humanities or hobby you find yourself using Wolfram for, chances are you need to start with data. And data in the wild can be messy; maybe you’re discovering just how important clean data is as you begin working with LLMs. Chandler provides easy-to-follow “recipes” and examples for straightening up your data and putting it to work for you.

This is also a great book for anyone coming to Wolfram from another programming language. Chandler draws comparisons and then shows how Wolfram exceeds other options in terms of power and ease of use when it comes to data processing. He also includes a full chapter on importing and exporting data from the most common file types. To read more or buy your copy, check out the book’s page on Amazon.

The Second Law: Resolving the Mystery of the Second Law of Thermodynamics »

Those who follow Stephen Wolfram and his work are familiar with his passion for diving into scientific topics, taking a deep look at the history and existing research and then pushing beyond with new breakthroughs of his own. That’s what he’s done here for the longstanding but perhaps never fully settled second law of thermodynamics. This is a must-read for physicists wishing to get the full story on this foundational principle, but it’s also an enjoyable choice for anyone interested in scientific history, as it is richly illustrated with historical documents and colored with the author’s 50-year history with the topic, beginning when he was just 12 years old.

Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science »

First released in 2022 as part of the A New Kind of Science 20th Anniversary Limited Edition Boxed Set, Twenty Years of A New Kind of Science made its debut as an individually sold item on March 15, 2023. Whether you’ve been following Stephen Wolfram’s work since the release of A New Kind of Science or you’re just dipping into his content now, this book will provide you with the backstory of the science, the writing process and the publication of Wolfram’s magnum opus 20 years down the road. It also goes on to explore what’s been done with the science since then, and it concludes with a beautiful gallery of art inspired by NKS and Wolfram’s work with cellular automata.

An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language, Third Edition »

This year also saw the release of the third edition of Wolfram’s popular An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language. As it always has been, this is THE book for anyone just getting started with Wolfram Language—and, yes, that includes kids. Wolfram intentionally wrote the book at a level suitable for middle-school kids through adults. New in this edition is a section on audio and video processing. Aside from that, the majority of the existing sections have been updated and appended with new examples to bring the text in line with Version 13 of Wolfram Language.

A Field Theory of Games: Introduction to Decision Process Engineering, Volume 2 »

This second installment of Gerald H. Thomas’s A Field Theory of Games was published on March 22, 2023. It picks up where volume 1 left off, providing a new take on game theory and using Wolfram Language to automate the tedious process of solving linear programming problems and partial differential equations. Volume 2 also builds on the extensive online toolkit of Wolfram Language code first established in volume 1. Readers can experience both volumes in Kindle format.

Creative Data Analytics: Computational Recipes to Gain Insights into Businesses »

Wolfram Media partnered with authors Fei Du, Davis Mo and Kelvin Mischo this past June to publish their new work in notebook format on the Wolfram Store. It not only teaches readers how to apply modern computation to business analytics, it also lets readers actually do just that within the framework of the interactive notebooks. Readers can expect short “computational recipes” with Wolfram Language code and graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for real-time, live computation in each chapter. If you’re looking for more info on this book, check out this blog by one of its authors.

Getting Involved

The year 2023 has been exciting for the Wolfram Media team, and we look forward to bringing you more new titles next year. We love meeting innovative Wolfram Language users who are looking to share their expertise with the wider community by authoring a book. If that sounds like you or someone you know, contact us at publishing@wolfram.com. While we may not be able to publish every submission, we are also happy to work with authors to find homes for their high-quality Wolfram Language book concepts with other publishers. You can also check out the Author Resources tab on our website to find a downloadable palette of tools for authoring a book in Wolfram Notebooks and more. In the meantime, if you’re thinking of doing some holiday shopping, check out our website to see our entire backlist with links to purchase.