Faculty Recommendations for the Research Paper
Science/Medical
Cutting for Stone...amazing. And excellent medical research can be done.
Silent Spring, Cod, Botany of Desire, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, Salt, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Gaia, The Poisoner’s Handbook, Krakatoa
Hot Zone by Richard Preston-->really interesting. Ebola is CRA-ZY! Students should love it for the gore aspect alone, plus it's well-written and a fun read.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot--great science book that everyone can enjoy with a social justice slant.
Math
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife. Some math texts are annoying and difficult to comprehend unless you have a math degree; this one is very friendly and interesting especially if you enjoy history.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott. This is a book about a square living in Flatland (a 2D space), however he is visited by a sphere (from Spaceland) that tries to convince him of seeing beyond his 2D perspective. This is a math book about the limitations of assumptions.
History
Sugar and Slaves by Richard Dunn (Caribbean slavery)
American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis (Thomas Jefferson biography)
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Historical Fiction
Q, by "Luther Blissett". A nom de plume for four Italian authors, Roberto Bui, Giovanni Cattabriga, Federico Guglielmi and Luca Di Meo, who were part of the "Luther Blissett Project", which ended in 1999.
Q is an historical thriller that takes place during the tumult of the 16th century Reformation. There is war, rape, theft, power games, and Church intrigue.
Philosophical Fiction
Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn.
This is the story of a telepathic, Socratic gorilla that is looking for a student that wants to change the world. It. Will. Blow. Your. Mind.
Non-Fiction
The World Turned Upside Down, by Christopher Hill
The story of radicals, religious and otherwise, during the English Civil War.
The Many Headed Hydra, by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Redicker
These students of Dr Hill produced the story of radical uprisings during the construction of the Atlantic World from the seventeenth through he eighteenth century. Radical class and racial analysis with plenty of blood and guts.
Form Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun.
This a culture history of the west. Dense and illuminating. Its the kind of book one ought to read if they don’t have the time to read all the recommendations Barzun offers but want to look well read and culturally adept.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand--biography that covers a great deal of WWII history. Mix of a former hellion/big personality/Olympian, war in the Pacific, SHARKS, and life in Japanese POW camp for Americans.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin--covers the story of professor turned diplomat at the turning of WWII and his family life. Follows the change in atmosphere and approval of Germans (especially in the daughter) over time.
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge--this memoir is a fantastic read! In fact, it's one of the underlying stories of HBO's THE PACIFIC miniseries. Does have the historical research element, but mostly it's a Marine in the Pacific Realm.
The End of Poverty--Jeffrey Sachs
Germs Guns and Steel--Jared Diamond
The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy--Nicholas Lemann(about the testing industry)
Iron Cages--Takaki
Anything by Richard Dawkins
Nickel & Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
Where White Men Fear to Tread--Russell Means
Democracy in America by De Tocqueville
The Education of Henry Adams
Uncle Tom's Cabin
The Last of the Mohicans/ Deerslayer The Leather Stocking Tales
Autobiography of Fredrick Douglass
Anything by Twain...
The Gilded Age
Huck Finn
W.E.B. Dubois - Souls of Black Folk
How the Other Half Lives
The Jungle
Great Gatsby
Babbitt
Catch 22
The book Unbroken is one of the best I have read in a long time. It is about a B52 bomber pilot shot down in WWII and his experiences in POW camps. etc. It is pretty intense. Also, Under the Banner of Heaven is good about the Mormon Fundamentalists movement.
Art and Performance
Art and Fear – can’t remember the authors off the top of my head (this one is more about art-making)
Six questions- Daniel Nagrin (this one is for performance)
Respect for Acting, by Uta Hagen
A Challenge for the Actor, by Uta Hagen
Heart of the Land It is a compilation of essays commissioned by the Nature Conservancy on the Last Great Places. There's a great forward by Barry Lopez (a great landscape writer) one by Carl Hiaasen, another by Linda Hogan. All in all the writers took their job seriously and wrote as if they would be the last person to see these places. I would recommend it to anyone looking to beef up their descriptive prose.
Annie Truitt's Daybook by an artist about her process and daily living in her real world. Annie LaMott's Bird by Bird about writing, getting ready to create, and good living tips...so much more than this.
Literature
Non Fiction: Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Die
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (Sandra Smith translator). Soon to be a movie. WWII, Jewish and other families from the big cities trying to come to grip with the events and the moving. Autobiographical novel released by the writer's daughter in the 1990's.
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World , by Leah Hager Cohen, is a memoir about growing up as the daughter of the superintendent of a New York school for the deaf--gives a portrait of the Deaf community and Deaf culture from a perspective of sort of half way inside the culture/community while not being Deaf herself. Many issues related to deaf education, discrimination, etc. are explored.