Cabot High School
Science Reading List
Updated 10-05

Note: * signifies a less challenging book.
The call number following the title signifies that our library owns it. Remember we may always borrow titles from other libraries for you.

Abbey, Edward.  Desert Solitaire.   
Abbey, Edward.  Down the River.  
Abbey, Edward.   The Journey Home.
Abbott, Edwin A.  Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.   530.1 ABB
Ackerman, Diane.  The Moon by Whale Light.
Ackerman, Diane.  A Natural History of the Senses.
Albom, Mitch.  Tuesdays with Morrie.   92 SCH
* Alexander, Caroline.   The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition.   919.804 ALE
* Armstrong, Jennifer.   Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The Extraordinary True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance.   
919.804 ARM
Describes the events of the 1914 Shackleton Antarctic expedition when, after being trapped in a frozen sea for nine months, their ship, Endurance, was finally crushed, forcing Shackleton and his men to make a very long and perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land.
* Arnosky, Jim.  Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher.   596 ARN
Explains the techniques used in finding wild animals such as owls, turtles, squirrels, foxes, beavers, and deer, and in getting close enough to study their behavior.
Asimov, Isaac.  Exploding Suns: The Secrets of the Supernovas.
Asimov, Isaac.  The Secret of the Universe.
Atkins, P.W.  Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements.
AtKisson, Alan.  Believing Cassandra: An Optimist Looks at a Pessimist's World.
Attenborough, David.  Life on Earth: A Natural History.   575 ATT
Auel, Jean.  Clan of the Cave Bear.   FIC AUE
Ballard, Robert D.  Adventures in Ocean Exploration: From the Discovery of the Titanic to the Search for Noah's Flood.
* Ballard, Robert D.  Exploring the Titanic.    363.1 BAL
Describes the large luxury liner which sank in 1912 and the discovery and exploration of its underwater wreckage.
Ballard, Robert D.  The Lost Ships of Robert Ballard: An Unforgettable Underwater Tour.
Barker, Rodney.  And the Waters Turned to Blood: The Ultimate Biological Threat.
Barrett, Andrea.  Voyage of the Narwhal.   FIC BAR
"Capturing a crucial moment in the history of exploration - the mid-nineteenth-century romance with the Arctic - Andrea Barrett's compelling novel tells the story of a fateful expedition." (quoted from book cover)
Bass, Rick.  The Watch.
Bear, Greg.  Darwin’s Radio.
Berry, Wendell.  Collected Poems.
Berry, Wendell.  The Unsettling of America.
* Bishop, Nic.  The Secrets of Animal Flight.   591.1 BIS
Blum, Deborah.  Love at Goon Park: Harry Harlow and the Science of Affection.
Bodanis, David.  The Secret House: 24 Hours in the Strange and Unexpected World in Which We Spend Our Nights and Days.   500 BOD
Bohjalian, Chris.  Midwives.   FIC BOH
Bohjalian, Chris.  Water Witches.   FIC BOH
Bradbury, Ray.  Short Stories.   
Briggs, John & Pete F.  Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory…
Bronowski, Jacob.  The Ascent of Man.
Brooks, Bruce.  On the Wing: The Life of Birds from Feathers to Flight.
Brower, Kenneth.  Starship & The Canoe.   155.2 BRO
Brower, Michael.  The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists.   363.7 BRO
Brown, Lester R.  Plan B: Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.   333.7 BRO
Brown, Tom, Jr.  The Tracker.
Bryson, Bill.  In a Sunburned Country.   919.404 BRY
Bryson, Bill.  A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Bryson, Bill.  A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail.   917.404 BRY
Buderi, Robert.  The Invention that Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technical Revolution.
Burger, Dionys.  Sphereland: A Fantasy About Curved Spaces and an Expanding Universe.
Cahill, Tim.  Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.   910.4 CAH
Humorous, extreme adventure travel writing by this contributing author of Outside magazine.
Cahill, Tim.  A Wolverine Is Eating My Leg.   910.4 CAH
More fun and excitement by this author of Jaguars Ripped My Flesh.
Capra, Fritjof.  The Tao of Physics.   530.01 CAP
Capra, Fritjof.  The Turning Point: Science, Society, and the Rising Culture.
Carroll, David M.  Swampwalker’s Journal: A Wetlands Year.   
Carson, Rachel.  The Sea Around Us.   551.4 CAR
Carson, Rachel.  Silent Spring.   632 CAR
Case, John.  The First Horseman.
Case, John.  The Genesis Code.
* Collard, Sneed B.  The Prairie Builders: Reconstructing America's Lost Grasslands.   635.9 COL
* Collard, Sneed B.  Monteverde: Science and Scientists in a Costa Rican Cloud Forest.   577.3 COL

Comins, Neil F.  What If the Moon Didn’t Exist?

Cook, Ann Mariah.  Running North: A Yukon Adventure.   920 COO
"Ann Cook's spirited account of how she, her husband, George, and their young daughter moved to Alaska to run the Yukon Quest, the toughest sled dog race in the world." (from book jacket)
Crichton, Michael.  Andromeda Strain.   FIC CRI
Crichton, Michael.  Jurassic Park.   FIC CRI
Crichton, Michael.  Prey.   FIC CRI
Dash, Joan.  The Longitude Prize.   92 HAR
The story of John Harrison, inventor of watches and clocks, who spent forty years working on a time-machine which could be used to accurately determine longitude at sea.
Davidson, Keay.  Twister: The Science of Tornadoes and the Making of an Adventure Movie.   551.55 DAV
* Dendy, Leslie and Mel Boring.  Guinea Pig Scientists: Bold Self-Experimenters in Science and Medicine.   616 DEN
Dennis, Jerry.  The Bird in the Waterfall: A Natural History…
Desowitz, Robert.  The Malaria Capers: More Tales of Parasites and People…
Desowitz, Robert.  A Thorn in the Starfish: How the Human Immune System…
Dillard, Annie.  Pilgrim at Tinker Creek.   512.975 DIL
Records the seasons as they come and go at Tinker Creek in Virginia.
Dominick, Andie.  Needles: A Memoir of Growing up with Diabetes.   92 DOM
Earle, Sylvia A., et al.  Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans.
Eiseley, Loren.  Dragons of Eden.   
Eiseley, Loren.  The Firmament of Time.   
Eiseley, Loren.  The Immense Journey.   575 EIS
The long journey man has made since the beginning of time is the subject of this book that reveals the mysteries of man and the secrets of nature.
Eiseley, Loren.  The Star Thrower.   818 EIS
Evans, Nicholas.  Horse Whisperer.   FIC EVA  
Feldman, David.  How Does Aspirin Find a Headache?
Feldman, David.  When Did Wild Poodles Roam the Earth?
Feynman, Richard P.  Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time.   530.11 FEY
Feynman, Richard P.  “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”
* Fleischman, John.   Phineas Gage: A Gruesome But True Story About Brain Science.   362.1 FLE
Fletcher, Colin.  The Man Who Walked Through Time.
Fossey, Dian.  Gorillas in the Mist.   599.88 FOS
Fouts, Roger.  Next of Kin; What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Who We Are.   92 FOU
"No scientist, except perhaps Jane Goodall, has done as much to alert us to the deep community that exists between chimpanzees and humans, in the way we communicate, in the way we feel, and in our cultural lives." Jeffrey M. Masson, co-author of When Elephants Weep.
Gerritsen, Tess.      Bloodstream.
* Giblin, James Cross.      When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS.   614.4 GIB
This book tells the stories of three of the most serious and damaging plagues.
Goldwyn, Martin M.      How a Fly Walks Upside Down…And Other Curious Facts.
Gonzales, Laurence.      Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why.   613.6 GON
True stories of miraculous endurance and sudden death.
Gottlieb, Lori.     Stick Figure: A Diary of My Former Self.   92 GOT
Gould, Stephen Jay.      Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History.   575.001 GOU
Gould, Stephen Jay.       The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History.   508 GOU
Gould, Stephen Jay.      Time’s Arrow/Time’s Cycle.
Gowdy, Barbara.      The White Bone.
Grandin, Temple.      Thinking in Pictures.   616.89 GRA
"Writing from the dual perspectives of a scientist and an autistic person, she tells us how that country [of autism] is experienced by its inhabitants and how she managed to breach its boundaries to function in the outside world." (quoted from book cover)
Greenberg, Joanne.       I Never Promised You a Rose Garden.   
Greenlaw, Linda.      The Hungry Ocean: A Swordboat Captain’s Journey.   639.2 GRE  
Haddon, Mark.     The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.   FIC HAD
"Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted, autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's dog and uncovers secret information about his mother." Also one of this year's Green Mountain Award books.
Haines, Gail Kay.      Micromysteries: Stories of Scientific Detection.   500 HAI
Hawking, Stephen.      A Brief History of Time.   523.1 HAW
Hazen, Robert M. & J. Trefil.      Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy.   500 HAZ
Heinrich, Bernd.       Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds.   598.8 HEI
Heinrich, Bernd.       Ravens in Winter.   598.8 HEI
Heinrich, Bernd.       Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival.
Hemingway, Ernest.       The Old Man and the Sea.   FIC HEM
Hillenbrand, Laura.       Seabiscuit: An American Legend.
Hornbacher, Marya.     Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia.   92 HOR
* Hoose, Phillip M.     The Race to Save the Lord God Bird.   598.7 HOO
Tells the story of the ivory-billed woodpecker's extinction in the United States, describing the encounters between this species and humans, and discussing what these encounters have taught us about preserving endangered creatures.
Huxley, Elspeth Josceline.      Scott of the Antarctic.
Johnson, Charles.      The Nature of Vermont: Introduction and Guide to a New England Environment.   508.743 JOH
Joseph, Lawrence E.      Gaia: The Growth of an Idea.
Judson, Olivia.       Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation.
Junger, Sebastian.      The Perfect Storm.   974.4 JUN
Jungk, Robert.      Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists.   539.7 JUN
Kaysen, Susanna.      Girl, Interrupted.   616.89 KAY
Kidd, Sue Monk.       The Secret Life of Bees.   FIC KID
Kidder, Tracy.     Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World.   
Kingsolver, Barbara.     High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never.   814 KIN
Kingsolver, Barbara.      The Poisonwood Bible.   FIC KIN
Kingsolver, Barbara.      Prodigal Summer.   FIC KIN
Krakauer, Jon.      Into the Wild.   92 MCC
Krakauer, Jon.      Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster.   796.509 KRA
Krauss, Lawrence M.      Physics of Star Trek.   791.45 KRA
Lansing, Alfred.      Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.
Larson, Erik.       Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.
Lavers, Chris.     Why Elephants Have Big Ears: Understanding Patterns of Life on Earth.   590 LAV
Lawrence, Jerome.       Inherit the Wind.   812 LAW
Leopold, Aldo.       A Sand County Almanac.   508.73 LEO
Explores the diversity of the American landscape, ever mindful of ecology and environmental preservation.
Levi, Primo.      Periodic Table.   
Linden, Eugene.     The Parrot's Lament: And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity.   591.5 LIN
London, Jack.      Call of the Wild.   FIC LON
London, Jack.     Great Short Works. (includes "To Build a Fire")   FIC LON
London, Jack.     White Fang.   FIC LON
Classic tale of a savage dog's transformation through love.
Lovelock, James.      Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth.
Mackay, Nicci.      Spoken in Whispers: The Autobiography of a Horse Whisperer.
MacLean, John.     Fire on the Mountain: The True Story of the South Canyon Fire.   363.37 MAC
MacVey, John W.      Time Travel: A Guide to Journeys in the Fourth Dimension.   
March, Robert H.      Physics for Poets.
Marchand, Peter.       The North Woods: An Inside Look at the Nature of Forests in the Northeast.
Marshall, James Vance.     Walkabout.   FIC MAR
Martel, Yann.       Life of Pi.   FIC MAR  
"After a shipwreck, Pi finds himself alone on a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450 pound Bengal tiger." Also one of this year's Green Mountain Award books.
Masson, Jeffrey M.      When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals.   591.51 MAS
Matthiessen, Peter.      The Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes.   598.3 MAT
Matthiessen, Peter.      Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness.
Matthiessen, Peter.      The Snow Leopard.
McKibben, Bill.      The End of Nature.
McKibben, Bill.      Hope, Human and Wild: True Stories of Living Lightly on Earth.
McPhee, John.      Basin and Range.
McPhee, John.      The Control of Nature.
McPhee, John.      Encounters with the Archdruid.

* Montgomery, Sy.     Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon.   599.53 MON
Introduces the world of the freshwater dolphins called Encantados, or Enchanted, by the people who live near them in the region of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers in South America.

* Montgomery, Sy.     The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans.   599.756 MON
Describes the man-eating tigers of Sundarbans Reserve, their unusual behavior, and the stories of the villagers who revere the very animals that hunt them.
* Montgomery, Sy.     Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in the Asian Tropics.   599.78 MON
Discusses the unusual animals found in Southeast Asia with the golden moon bear being the priority for everyone to see.
* Montgomery, Sy.    The Snake Scientist.   597.96 MON
Discusses the work of Bob Mason and his efforts to study and protect snakes, particularly red-sided garter snakes.
* Montgomery, Sy.     The Tarantula Scientist.   595.4 MON
Describes the research that Samuel Marshall and his students are doing on tarantulas, including the largest spider on earth, the Goliath birdeating tarantula.   
National Geographic Society.      The Emerald Realm: Earth’s Precious Rain Forests.   
Negroponte, Nicholas.      Being Digital.   303.48 NEG
Nielsen, Jerri.     Ice Bound: A Doctor's Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole.   362.1 NIE
Patterson, J.H.     The Man-Eaters of Tsavo: The True Story Behind the Movie Ghost and the Darkness.
Paulsen, Gary.     Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods.   799.097 PAU
* Paulsen, Gary.     Guts, Or, How I Lived the Same as Brian Robeson.   92 PAU
The author relates incidents in his life and how they inspired parts of his books about the character, Brian Robeson.

* Paulsen, Gary.     Woodsong.   796.5 PAU
For a rugged outdoor man and his family, life in northern Minnesota is a wild experience involving wolves, deer, and the sled dogs that make their way of life possible. Includes an account of the author's first Iditarod, a dogsled race across Alaska.

Perrin, Noel.      First Person Rural: Essays of a Sometimes Farmer.
Philbrick, Nathaniel.   In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex.   910.916 PHI
"In the middle of the South Pacific, the Essex was rammed by an angry sperm whale, leaving the crew to drift for more than 90 days, turning to drastic measures to survive." Also one of this year's Green Mountain Award books.
* Philbrick, Nathaniel.   Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex.   910 PHI
Recounts the 1820 sinking of the whaleship Essex by an enraged sperm whale and how the crew of young men survived against impossible odds. Based on the author's adult book, In the Heart of the Sea. (see above)
Phillips, Kathryn.  Tracking the Vanishing Frogs: An Ecological Mystery.  597.8 PHI
Plath, Sylvia.     The Bell Jar: A Novel.   FIC PLA
Platkin, Mark.      Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice.
Pollan, Michael.      The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s-Eye View of the World.   306.4 POL
Preiss, Byron, ed.      The Microverse.
Preston, Richard.      The Cobra Event.   FIC PRE
Preston, Richard.      The Demon in the Freezer: A True Story.   616.9 PRE
Preston, Richard.      The Hot Zone.   614.5 PRE
Quammen, David.      The Flight of the Iguana.
Quammen, David.      The Song of the Dodo.
Quinn, Daniel.       Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit.
Raymo, Chet.      Soul of the Night: An Astronomical Pilgrimage.
Rezendes, Paul.      Tracking and the Art of Seeing.   599 REZ
Rhodes, Richard.      Dark Sky: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb.
Roach, Mary.     Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers.   611 ROA
"From medicinal mummies to cadaver models for crash-test dummies, this is a well-researched, lively dissection of offbeat ways that the dead have served the living. It is informative and respectful as well as irreverent and witty."  Also one of this year's Green Mountain Award books.
Roberts, Monty.      The Man Who Listens to Horses.
Sacks, Oliver.     The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales.   616.8 SAC
"Recounts the case histories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders." (from book cover)
Sagan, Carl.      Broca’s Brain.
Sagan, Carl.      Contact.
Sagan, Carl.      Cosmos.   520 SAG
Sagan, Carl.      The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.   001.9 SAG
Sagan, Carl.      Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.   153 SAG
Sagan, Carl.      Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record.   001.5 SAG
Sagan, Carl.      Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are.   304.5 SAG
Schaller, George B.      The Last Panda.
Schwarcz, Joe.      Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs.
Shackleton, Ernest. Books on the exploration of the Antarctic. See also Lansing, Alfred.
Silverstein, Ken.     The Radioactive Boy Scout: The Frightening Story of a Whiz Kid and His Homemade Nuclear Reactor.   92 HAH
* Skurzynski, Gloria.     Are We Alone? Scientists Search for Life in Space.   576.8 SKU 
Smolker, Rachel.     To Touch a Wild Dolphin: A Journey of Discovery with the Sea's Most Intelligent Creatures.   92 SMO
Sobel, Dava.      Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith…
Sobel, Dava.      Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time.   
526 SOB
Stoll, Clifford.      Cuckoo’s Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage.   364.1 STO
Swain, Roger B.      Earthly Pleasures: Tales from a Biologist’s Garden.
Thomas, Lewis.      The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher.   574.01 THO
Thomas, Lewis.      The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher.   574.92 THO
Tinbergen, Niko.      Curious Naturalists.
Trefil, James S.      1001 Things Everyone Should Know About Science.
Verne, Jules.   20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
* Walker, Sally M.   Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth.   597.3 WAL
Weiner, Jonathan.      The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time.  598.8 WEI
Weiner, Jonathan.      The Next One Hundred Years: Shaping the Fate of Our Living Earth.
Weiner, Jonathan.      Planet Earth.
Weisman, Alan.     Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World.
Weissman, Gerald.      The Woods Hole Cantata: Essays on Science and Society.
Williams, Terry Tempest.      Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place.
Williams, Terry Tempest.      An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field.   081 WIL
"Williams shadows lions on the Serengeti and spots herons in the wasteland of the Bronx...Through the grace of her stories we come to see how a lack of intimacy with the natural world has initiated a lack of intimacy with each other." (from book cover)
Wilson, Edward O.      In Search of Nature.
Zukav, Gary.      The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics.