<p>D has been looking at applications for some summer science programs she would like to do 2 summers from now, and said she wants to do some more science non-fiction reading during the next year as the apps ask about what she has read. I thought I would help her generate a list of possible books, and I knew you guys would have good ideas! Here are some suggestions she has already received. Her interest runs strongly to Biology, and maybe some Chemistry. Not so much physics or engineering or geology. Here is what she has identified so far:</p>
<p>The Secret Life of Henrietta Lacks
The Microbe Hunters
The Ghost Map
Body By Design (Gillen)
The Geneisis of Germs (Gillen)
Miss Leavitt's Stars
Mountains Beyond Mountains (she is interested in public health)
A Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives</p>
<p>I just read The Universe in Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope. I really liked it, but she pooh-poohed it (not so interested in astronomy, I guess). I will see what she thinks about The Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan.</p>
<p>Obsessive Genius: The Inner World Of Madame Curie by Barbara Goldsmith –
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman --especially if she’s interested in public health</p>
<p>Oliver Sacks - I’d start with The Man who mistook his Wife for a Hat and work on from there.</p>
<p>Henry Thomas - Lives of the Cell</p>
<p>Stephen J. Gould - The Panda’s Thumb and Ever Since Darwin</p>
<p>Feynman - Surely You are Joking Mr. Feynman</p>
<p>Perri Klass - A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student, Baby Doctor: A Pediatrician’s Training and The Real Life of a Pediatrician</p>
<p>Richard Preston The Hot Zone</p>
<p>Jarred Diamond Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.</p>
<p>The Double Helix, by either Watson or Crick, I forget which, is a very entertaining account of the discovery of that molecule. It’s old, but very good.</p>
<p>Leaving off any astronomy books,
*Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff With Animals by Richard Conniff
*Confessions of an Eco-Sinner: Tracking Down the Sources of My Stuff by Fred Pearce
*any book written by Mary Roach
*any book written by Robert Sapolsky
*Earth: An Intimate History by Richard Fortey
*The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A Story of Science, Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of the Earth by Alan Cutler
*Exploring Consciousness by Rita Carter
*Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature’s Most Dangerous Creatures</p>
<p>I’ll second Guns, Germs and Steel, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Mountains Beyond Mountains, The Hot Zone, anything by Thomas Friedman. Henrietta Lacks is nearing the top of my list.</p>