Recommended Reading for Biologists!

The following reading list was developed from suggestions from the Biology/Toxicology faculty, and contains not only classic works such as Voyage of the Beagle or Silent Spring, but also current books written by contemporary biologists.

Atoms, molecules, and cells

  • The Double Helix  by James Watson (1968)
  • Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas (1974)

Genetics and evolution

  • Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin (1845)
  • The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
  • The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
  • The Flamingo’s Smile by Stephen J. Gould (1985)
  • The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (1986)
  • Darwin’s Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett (1995)
  • Endless Forms Most Beautiful by Sean B. Carroll (2005)

History of life on the planet

  • The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker 1986)
  • Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould (1989)
  • Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs by Michael Novacek (1996)
  • T. rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez (1998)

Biodiversity and natural history

  • My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir (1911)
  • The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson (1950)
  • King Solomon’s Ring by Conrad Lorenz (1961)
  • Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (1968)
  • Reflections from the North Country (1976)
  • Beyond the Hundredth Meridian by Wallace Stegner (1982)
  • Biophilia by E.O. Wilson (1984)
  • Cry of the Kalahari by Mark and Delia Owens (1984)
  • The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan (2001)
  • The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson (1992)

Human evolution

  • The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley (1959)
  • The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond (1992)

Physiology

  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985)
  • The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan (2006)
  • Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (2007)

Microbes and disease

  • The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett (1994)
  • The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (1994)
  • And the Waters Turned to Blood by Rodney Barker (1997)

Human impact on the environment

  • Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
  • Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
  • One With Ninevah by Paul Ehrlich and Anne Ehrlich (2004)
  • Collapse by Jared Diamond (2004)
  • The Great Lakes Water Wars by Peter Annin (2006)

Environmental ethics and education

  • A Sand County Almanac  by Aldo Leopold (1949)
  • The Last Child in the Woods  by Richard Louv (2005)