Comments on: Summer Reading Suggestions

By: California Academy of Sciences

California Academy of Sciences — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:01:07 +0000

Here are some additional recommendations:

Acting for Nature: What Young People Around the World Are Doing to Protect the Environment
By Sneed B. Collard and Action for Nature

Ryan and Jimmy: And the Well in Africa that Brought Them Together
By Herb Shoveller

Planting the Trees of Kenya: The Story of Wangari Maathai
By Claire A. Nivola

Women of Discovery: A Celebration of Intrepid Women Who Explored the World
By Milbry Polk and Mary Tiegreen

Scientists in the Field series
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company (for young readers)

By: alice friedemann

alice friedemann — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:30:04 +0000

Some of my favorite books (a longer, but old list is at http://www.energyskeptic.com/ReadingList.nxg)

Susan McCarthy Becoming a Tiger: How baby animals learn to live in the wild
Carl Safina Eye of the Albatross: Visions of Hope and Survival
Robert Sapolsky A Primate’s Memoir: A Neuroscientist’s Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
Steven Vogel Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle
Joanna Stratton Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier
Ann Greene Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America
Michael Shermer The Science of Good & Evil : Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, & Follow the Golden Rule

Jack Weatherford Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World

Simon Singh Trick or Treatment. The undeniable facts about alternative medicine.
Steven A. LeBlanc Constant Battles: The Myth of the Peaceful, Noble Savage
Azar Gat War in Human Civilization.
Lawrence Keeley War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage
Carl Sagan The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Gregory Cochran The 10,000 Year Explosion. How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution
Claude Combes The Art of Being a Parasite
Michael Maren The Road to Hell The ravaging effects of foreign aid and international charity
Steven Stoll The Fruits of Natural Advantage: Making the Industrial Countryside in California
Richard Street Beasts of the Field. A Narrative History of California Farmworkers, 1769-1913.
Richard Walker The Conquest of Bread. 150 years of Agribusiness in California.
Julie Guthman Agrarian dreams. The paradox of organic farming in California

R. Barker Bausell Snake Oil Science: The Truth About Complementary & Alternative Medicine
Ray Moynihan Selling Sickness: How the World’s Biggest Pharmaceutical Companies Are Turning Us All Into Patients
Steve Salerno Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless

John Perlin A Forest Journey: The Role of Wood in the Development of Civilization
Ward & Brownllee Rare Earth Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe
Judith Harris No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality
Judith Harris The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do

Laurie Garrett Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health
Chalmers Johnson The Sorrows Of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
Spencer R. Weart The Discovery of Global Warming

Peter Turchin War and Peace and War. The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations.
David Berreby Us and Them. Understanding Your Tribal Mind.
Howard Hayden The Solar Fraud: Why Solar Energy Won’t Run the World
Ted Trainer Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society
John Opie Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land
Peter Ward The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive?
Peter Ward Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future
Peter Ward, et. al. Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, And Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere

By: hoodedzippy

hoodedzippy — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:29:11 +0000

these are good recs, i plan to check out The Victorian Internet – sounds fascinating! i’d like to plug any one of Rachel Carson’s books — all classic yet very timely.

By: Debbie Sorondo

Debbie Sorondo — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 14:52:19 +0000

If you don’t mind some fiction mixed with the science, I suggest any of several books by Andrea Barrett – “The Voyage of the Narwhal”, “Servants of the Map” or “Ship’s Fever”. All deal with scientists and explorers, some actual people like Linneaus (fictionalized accounts), some just based on the generalized situations and types of people. “Voyage of the Narwhal” is about an expedition to the Arctic in the mid-19th century which goes awry, the other two are collections of short stories, each focussing on a different individual.

By: Roger Polk

Roger Polk — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 00:48:23 +0000

Brunelleschi’s Dome : How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture by Ross King

This book tells the story of how one man in 15th century invented the technology that enabled construction of one of the largest domes ever created.

By: Ray Taylor

Ray Taylor — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:39:13 +0000

The tenacity shown by explorer Percy Fawcett in “The Lost City of Z” is almost unbelievable. He returned several times in search of this fabled city, despite near fatal encounters with insects, wild animals and native tribes. The author was almost as diligent in trying to retrace Fawcett’s steps to determine exactly what happened to the explorer and where. A terrific read.

By: sheldon severinghaus

sheldon severinghaus — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:58:31 +0000

As a companion to the Lost City of Z, try the River of Doubt by Candice Millard, the incredible story of Teddy Roosevelt’s 1914, 2-month descent of the Rio da Duvida (now the Rio Roosevelt) in the southern Amazon with Brazilian explorer Candida Rondon.

By: Stacie Walton

Stacie Walton — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:53:12 +0000

Do you have a recommedation for a book that features an inventor/explorer that is either a young person and/or female and/or person of color?