Some books that people who are interested in science and geology might find particularly interesting and enjoyable

Note: Some of these books are available in the Science section of the "general reading" area (i.e., not in the textbook section) of the Baylor Bookstore.

General Geoscience

• Alvarez, W., 2009, The mountains of Saint Francis -- Discovering the geologic events that shaped our Earth: New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 304 p., ISBN 978-0-393-06185-7.
• Mathez, E.A., and Webster, J.D., 2004, The Earth machine -- the science of a dynamic planet: New York, Columbia University Press, 335 p., ISBN 0-231-12578-X.
• Powell, J.L., 2005, Grand Canyon -- Solving Earth's grandest puzzle: New York, Pi Press, 309 p., ISBN 0-13-147989-X.

General Science

• Angier, N., 2007, The canon -- A whirligig tour of the beautiful basics of science: Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 293 p., ISBN-13: 978-0-618-24295-5.
• Atkins, P.W., 1995, The periodic kingdom -- A journey into the land of the chemical elements: New York, Basic Books, 161 p., ISBN 0-465-07265-8.
• Ball, P., 2002, The elements -- A very short introduction: Oxford University Press, 179 p., ISBN 0-19-284099-1.
• Ben-Ari, Moti, 2005, Just a theory -- exploring the nature of science: Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books, 237 p., ISBN 1-59102-285-1.
• Laughlin, R.B., 2005, A different universe -- reinventing physics from the bottom down: New York, Basic Books, 254 p., ISBN 0-465-03828-X.
• Lederman, L.M., and Hill, C.T., 2004, Symmetry and the beautiful universe: Amherst, New York, Prometheus Books, 363 p., ISBN 1-59102-242-8.
• Lee, J.A., 2000, The scientific endeavor -- a primer on scientific principles and practice: San Francisco, California, Benjamin Cummings, 186 p., ISBN 0-8053-4596-5.
• Segre, G., 2002, A matter of degrees -- what temperature reveals about the past and future of our species, planet and universe: New York, Viking, 300 p., ISBN 0-670-03101-1.
• Shubin, N., 2013, The universe within -- Discovering the common history of rocks, planets, and people: New York, Pantheon, 240 p., ISBN-10 0307378438, ISBN-13 978-0307378439.

Science, Philosophy, Religion, History

• Artigas, M., Glick, T.F., and Martinez, R.A., 2006, Negotiating Darwin -- the Vatican confronts evolution 1877-1902: Baltimore, Maryland, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 326 p., ISBN 0-8018-8389-X,
• Bronowski, J., 1965, Science and human values: New York, Harper and Row, 119 p., ISBN 0-06-097281-5.
• Bronowski, J., 1978, The common sense of science: Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 154 p., ISBN 0-674-14651-4.
• Chopra, D., and Mlodinow, L, 2011, War of the worldviews -- Where science and spirituality meet and do not: Harmony, 315 p., ISBN-10 0307886883, ISBN-13 978-0307886883.
• Collins, F.S., 2006, The language of God -- A scientist presents evidence for belief: New York, Free Press, 305 p., ISBN 978-1-4165-4274-2
• Goodall, J., 1990, Through a window -- my thirty years with the chimpanzees of Gombe: Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 268 p., ISBN 0-395-50081-8.
• Goodall, J., with Berman, P., 1999, Reason for hope -- a spiritual journey: New York, Warner Books, 282 p., ISBN 0-446-52225-2.
• Gould, S.J., 1999, Rocks of ages -- science and religion in the fullness of life: New York, Ballantine Publishing Group, 242 p., ISBN 0-345-43009-3.
• Hannam, J., 2011, The genesis of science -- how the Christian middle ages launched the scientific revolution: Washington, D.C., Regnery Publishing, 454 p., ISBN 978-1-59698-155-3.
• Haught, J.F., 2000, God after Darwin -- A theology of evolution: Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 244 p., ISBN 0813343704, 9780813343709
• Haught, J.F., 2001, Responses to 101 questions on God and evolution: New York, Paulist Press, 143 p., ISBN 0-8091-3989-8
• Haught, J.F., 2004, Deeper than Darwin -- The prospect for religion in the age of evolution: Boulder, Colorado, Westview Press, 214 p., ISBN 081334199X, 9780813341996
• Haught, J.F., 2006, Is nature enough -- meaning and truth in the age of science: Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 223 p., ISBN 978-0-521-60993-7.
• Haught, J.F., 2010, Making sense of evolution -- Darwin, God and the drama of life: Westminster John Knox Press, 163 p., ISBN 066423285X, 9780664232856
• Mlodinow, L., 2003, Feynman's rainbow -- A search for beauty in physics and in life: New York, Warner Books, 171 p., ISBN 0-446-69251-4.
• O'Leary, D., 2006, Roman Catholicism and modern science -- a history: New York, Continuum, 356 p., ISB 0-8264-1868-6.
• Pigliucci, M., 2002, Denying evolution -- Creationism, scientism and the nature of science: Massachusetts, Sunderland, Sinauer Associates Publishers, 338 p., ISBN 0-87893-659-9.
• Ruse, M., 2003, Darwin and Design -- Does evolution have a purpose? Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 371 p., ISBN 0-674-01023-X.
• Ryan, W., and Pitman, W, 1998, Noah's flood -- the new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history: New York, Simon and Schuster, 319 p., ISBN 0-684-81052-2.
• Schneiderman, J.S., and Allmon, W.D., 2009, For the rock record -- Geologists on intelligent design: Berkeley, University of California Press, 261 p., ISBN 978-0-520-25759-7.
• Snow, C.P., 1934, The search: New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 343 p.,
• Snow, C.P., 1959, The two cultures: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 107 p., ISBN 0-521-45730-0 (Canto edition, 1993).

Science and Society

• Barry, J.M., 1998, Rising tide -- The great Mississippi flood of 1927 and how it changed America: Simon & Schuster, 528 p., ISBN 0684840022 (paperback edition).
• Horne, J., 2006, Breach of faith -- Hurricane Katrina and the near death of a great American city: New York, Random House, 412 p., ISBN 1-4000-6552-6.
• McPhee, J., 1989, The control of Nature: New York, The Noonday Press, 272 p., ISBN 0-374-52259-6.
• Mooney, C., and Kirshenbaum, S., 2009, Unscientific America -- How scientific illiteracy threatens our future: New York, Basic Books, 209 p., ISBN 978-0-465-01917-5.
• Oreskes, N., and Conway, E.M., 2014, The collapse of western civilization -- A view from the future: New York, Columbia University Press, 89 p., ISBN 978-0-231-16954-7.
• Oreskes, N., and Conway, E.M., 2010, Merchants of doubt -- How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming: Bloomsbury Press, 368 p., ISBN-10: 1596916109, ISBN-13: 978-1596916104.
• Sass, S.L., 1998, The substance of civilization -- materials and human history from the Stone Age to the Age of Silicon: New York, Arcade Publishing, 291 p., ISBN 1-55970-371-7.
• Weisman, A., 2007, The world without us: New York, Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin's Press, 324 p., ISBN-13: 978-0-312-34729-1.

Kitzmiller v. Dover Board of Education case that defined "intelligent design" as a religious (not scientific) idea

• Chapman, M., 2008, 40 days and 40 nights -- Darwin, intelligent design, God, oxycontin and other oddities on trial in Pennsylvania: New York, Collins, 271 p., ISBN 978-0-06-117946-4.
• Humes, E., 2008, Monkey girl -- evolution, education, religion, and the batle for America's soul: New York, Harper Perennial, 380 p., ISBN 978-0-06-088549-6.
• Lebo, L., 2008, The devil in Dover -- an insider's story of dogma v. Darwin in small-town America: New York, The New Press, 238 p., ISBN 978-1-59558-208-9.

Extinction, Evolution, DNA, Origin of Life on Earth

• Benton, M.J., 2003, When life nearly died -- The greatest mass extinction of all time: London, Thames & Hudson Ltd., 336 p., ISBN 0-500-05116-X.
• Cairns-Smith, A.G., 1985, Seven clues to the origin of life: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press (Canto edition, 1990), 131 p., ISBN 0-521-39828-2.
• Carroll, Sean B., 2005, Endless forms most beautiful -- The new science of evo devo and the making of the animal kingdom: New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 350 p., ISBN 0-393-06016-0.
• Carroll, Sean B., 2006, The making of the fittest -- DNA and the ultimate forensic record of evolution: New York, W. W. Norton & Co., 301 p., ISBN-13: 978-0-393-06163-5 or ISBN-10: 0-393-06163-9.
• Carroll, Sean B., 2009, Remarkable creatures -- Epic adventures in the search for the origins of species: New York, Houghton Mifflin, 384 p., ISBN 015101485X, 9780151014859
• Collins, F.S., 2006, The language of God -- A scientist presents evidence for belief: New York, Free Press, 305 p., ISBN 978-1-4165-4274-2
• Courtillot, V., 1999, Evolutionary catastrophes -- the science of mass extinction: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 173 p., ISBN 0-521-58392-6.
• Coyne, J.A., 2009, Why evolution is true: New York, Viking, 282 p., ISBN 978-0-670-02053-9.
• Dyson, F., 1999, Origins of life [2nd edition]: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 100 p., ISBN 0-521-62668-4.
• Eldredge, N., 2000, The pattern of evolution: New York, W.H. Freeman and Company, 219 p., ISBN 0-7167-3963-1.
• Erwin, D.H., 2006, Extinction -- How life on Earth nearly ended 250 million years ago: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 306 p., ISBN 0-691-00524-9.
• Gould, S.J., 1989, Wonderful life -- the Burgess shale and the nature of history: New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 347 p., ISBN 0-393-02705-8.
• Hallam, A., and Wignall, P.B., 1997, Mass extinctions and their aftermath: Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 328 p., ISBN 0-198549164.
• Hazen, R.M., 2005, Genesis -- The scientific quest for life's origin: Washington, D.C., Joseph Henry Press, 339 p., ISBN 0-309-09432-1.
• Leakey, R., 1994, The origin of humankind: New York, Basic Books, 171 p., ISBN 0-465-03135-8.
• Miller, K.R., 2008, Only a theory -- evolution and the battle for America's soul: New York, Viking Books, 244 p., ISBN 978-0-670-01883-3.
• Miller, K., 2000, Finding Darwin's God: Harper Collins Publishers, 352 p., ISBN 0060930497
• Officer, C., and Page, J., 1996, The great dinosaur extinction controversy: Reading, Massachusetts, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 209 p., ISBN 0-201-48384-X.
• Prothero, D.R., 2007, Evolution -- What the fossils say and why it matters: New York, Columbia University Press, 381 p., ISBN 978-0-231-13962-5.
• Raup, D., 1991, Extinction -- bad luck or bad genes: New York, W.W. Norton & Company, 210 p., ISBN 0-393-03008-3.
• Roughgarden, J., 2006, Evolution and Christian faith, reflections of an evolutionary biologist: Washington, D.C., Island Press, 155 p., ISBN 1-59726-098-3.
• Schwartz, J.H., 1999, Sudden origins -- fossils, genes, and the emergence of species: New York, John Wiley & Sons, 420 p., ISBN 0-471-37912-3.
• Scott, E.C., 2004, Evolution vs. creationism -- An introduction: Berkeley, University of California Press, 272 p., ISBN 0-520-24650-0.
• Shubin, Neil, 2008, Your inner fish -- a journey into the 3.5 -billion-year history of the human body: Pantheon Books, 240 p., ISBN-10: 0375424474, ISBN-13: 978-0375424472.
• Ward, P.D., 1992, On Methuselah's trail -- living fossils and the great extinctions: New York, W.H. Freeman & Company, 212 p., ISBN 0-7167-2203-8.
• Weiner, J., 1994, The beak of the finch: New York, Vintage Books, 332 p., ISBN 0-679-73337-X. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

Human Evolution

• Gibbons, A., 2006, The first humans -- the race to discover our earliest ancestors: New York, Doubleday, 306 p., ISBN 0-385-51226-0.
• Johanson, D.C., and Wong, K., 2009, Lucy's legacy -- The quest for Human origins: New York, Harmony Books, 309 p., ISBN 978-0-307-39639-6.
• Olson, S., 2002, Mapping human history -- genes, race, and our common origins: Boston, Mariner Books, 292 p., ISBN 0-618-35210-4.
• Shubin, N., 2008, Your inner fish -- a journey into the 3.5 -billion-year history of the human body: Pantheon Books, 240 p., ISBN-10: 0375424474, ISBN-13: 978-0375424472.
• Shubin, N., 2013, The universe within -- Discovering the common history of rocks, planets, and people: New York, Pantheon, 240 p., ISBN-10 0307378438, ISBN-13 978-0307378439.
• Tudge, C., 2009, The link -- Uncovering our earliest ancestor: New York, Little, Brown and Company, 262 p., ISBN 978-0-316-07009-6.
• Wade, N., 2006, Before the dawn -- recovering the lost history of our ancestors: New York, Penguin Books, 314 p., ISBN 978-0-14-303832-0.
• Wells, S., 2002, The journey of man -- a genetic odyssey: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 224 p., ISBN 0-691-11532-X.
• Wells, S., 2006, Deep ancestry, inside the genographic project: Washington, D.C., National Geographic Society, 247 p., ISBN 0-7922-6215-8.
• Wood, B., 2005, Human evolution -- A very short introduction: Oxford University Press, 131 p., ISBN 0-19-280360-3.

Geologic Time

• Cutler, A., 2003, The seashell on the mountaintop -- a story of science, sainthood, and the humble genius who discovered a new history of the Earth: New York, Dutton, 228 p., ISBN 0-525-94708-6.
• Dalrymple, G.B., 2004, Ancient Earth, ancient skies -- the age of Earth and its cosmic surroundings: Stanford, California, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-4933-7.
• Lewis, C., 2000, The dating game -- One man's search for the age of the Earth: Cambridge, UK, Cambridge University Press, 253 p., ISBN 0-521-79051-4.
• Repcheck, Jack, 2003, The man who found time -- James Hutton and the discovery of Earth's antiquity: New York, Basic Books, ISBN: 9780738206929 or ISBN-10: 073820692X.

Astronomy and Cosmology

• Gleiser, M., 2005, The dancing universe -- from creation myths to the Big Bang: Lebanon, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College Press, 338 p., ISBN 1-58465-466-X.
• Gribbin, J., and Gribbin, M., 2000, Stardust -- supernovae and life, the cosmic connection: New Haven, Connecticut, Yale Nota Bene, 238 p., ISBN 0-300-09097-8
• Mather, J.C., and Boslough, J., 2008, The very first light -- The true inside story of the scientific journey back to the dawn of the universe: New York, Basic Books, 353 p., ISBN 978-0-465-00529-1.
• Raymo, Chet, 2001, An intimate look at the night sky: New York, Walker and Company, 242 p., ISBN 0-8027-7670-1.
• Weinberg, S., 1988, The first three minutes -- a modern view of the origin of the universe [updated edition]: New York, Basic Books, 198 p., ISBN 0-465-02436-X.

Resources

• Deffeyes, K.S., 2003, Hubbert's peak -- the impending world oil shortage: Princeton University Press, 224 p., ISBN 0-691-11625-3 (revised paperback edition).
• Deffeyes, K.S., 2005, Beyond oil -- the view from Hubbert's peak: New York, Hill and Wang, 224 p., ISBN 0-8090-2956-1.

Climate Change

• Archer, D., 2007, Global warming -- understanding the forecast: Blackwell Publishing, 194 p., ISBN 978-1-4051-4039-3.
• Dessler, A.E., and Parson, E.A., 2006, The science and politics of global climate change -- a guide to the debate: Cambridge University Press, 190 p., ISBN 0-521-53941-2.
• Fagan, B., 2000, The little ice age -- how climate made history 1300-1850: New York, Basic Books, 246 p., ISBN 0-465-02271-5.
• Fagan, B., 2004, The long summer -- how climate changed civilization: New York, Basic Books, 284 p., ISBN 0-465-02282-0.
• Fagan, B., 2008, The great warming -- climate change and the rise and fall of civilization: Bloomsbury Press, 304 p., ISBN-10: 1596913924, ISBM-13: 978-1596913929
• Macdougall, D., 2004, Frozen Earth -- The once and future story of ice ages: Berkeley, University of California Press, 256 p., ISBN 0-520-24824-4.
• Oreskes, N., and Conway, E.M., 2014, The collapse of western civilization -- A view from the future: New York, Columbia University Press, 89 p., ISBN 978-0-231-16954-7.
• Ruddiman, W.F., 2005, Plows, plagues & petroleum: Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 202 p., ISBN 0-691-12164-8.

Volcanoes

• Thompson, D., 2000, Volcano cowboys -- the rocky evolution of a dangerous science: New York, Thomas Dunne Books, 326 p., ISBN 0-312-28668-6
• Williams, S., and Montaigne, F., 2001, Surviving Galeras: Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 270 p., ISBN 0-618-03168-5.

The suggestions on this page are based on the personal opinion of Vince Cronin, and do not constitute official recommendations or endorsements by Baylor University or its Geology Department.

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