 | Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology, 4th Edition (Biological and Medical Physics: Biomedical Engineering) by Russell K. Hobbie
Buy new: $63.87 / Used from: $59.99 It's my own book, so by default it is my favorite.
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 | A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Buy new: $6.95 / Used from: $3.25 I reread it every December.
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 | The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory by William Manchester
Buy new: $31.50 / Used from: $2.65 Great biography of Winston Churchill. I list only one of the two volumes, but both are great. I understand an author has been selected to complete the 3rd volume of the Churchill trilogy. William Manchester could make history come alive.
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 | Second Foundation (Foundation Novels) by Isaac Asimov
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.98 Isaac Asimov's books were one of the reasons I went into science. Here I list one of his most famous science fiction books. But, his science popularizations were what really influenced me in high school.
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 | Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton (Cambridge Paperback Library) by Richard S. Westfall
Buy new: $42.75 / Used from: $26.50 Excellent biography of the greatest scientist of all time.
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 | Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $0.51 All of Stephen Jay Gould's work is great. I list the first of his several essay collections, originally published in the magazine Natural History.
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 | All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Uplifting and heartwarming stories about an English vet. I recommend all four volumes.
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 | The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm by Winston S. Churchill
Buy new: $13.85 / Used from: $1.95 Churchill's classic history of World War II. After I finished my PhD dissertation, I rewarded myself by reading all six volumes.
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 | The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Buy new: $5.49 / Used from: $2.92 I love Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. My favorite of the four novels is Sign of the Four.
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 | The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
Buy new: $13.60 / Used from: $4.78 I enjoyed this book so much that I am teaching a honors college class at Oakland University based on it. Good science, but reads like the thriller.
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 | Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard P. Feynman
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $2.41 The Feynman lectures are wonderful, but a bit to much physics for this list. But his autobiographical work, such as Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!, is funny and light.
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 | The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough
Buy new: $14.40 / Used from: $3.99 David McCullough has many great histories. This one has an engineering angle to it. All his books are excellent. Besides The Path Between The Seas, I particularly liked Mornings on Horseback.
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 | The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman
Buy used from: $6.52 Thought provoking and fascinating.
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 | Undaunted Courage : Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose
Buy new: $12.96 / Used from: $0.25 I enjoy many of the late Stephen Ambrose's books. Besides Undaunted Courage, I recommend his book Nothing Like It In The World : The Men Who Built The Transcontinental Railroad.
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 | The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene) by Benjamin Franklin
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $2.41 Delightful.
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 | Great Expectations (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: $8.00 / Used from: $1.10 Charles Dickens is one of the few authors to have multiple books on my list.
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 | I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Asimov gets two books on this list.
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 | Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Buy new: $12.28 / Used from: $5.00 Great biography of Lincoln and his presidency.
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 | Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud by Robert L. Park
Buy new: $13.59 / Used from: $4.00 I find Bob Park's Voodoo Science to be refreshing and fascinating. I also like his weekly online column, "What's New".
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 | The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $3.90 Wonderful history by a excellent author.
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 | The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA by James D. Watson
Buy new: $9.50 / Used from: $3.95 A view of how science is really done. Fascinating book.
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 | Engineers of Dreams: Great Bridge Builders and the Spanning of America by Henry Petroski
Buy new: $14.49 / Used from: $0.65 Petroski is the best writer about engineering that I know. All his books are good.
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 | The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer
Buy new: $20.44 / Used from: $8.64 Great history of a terrifying time in our history.
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 | Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War by Tony Horwitz
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $4.00 For some reason, I just love Tony Horwitz's books, which are very funny. Also good is Blue Latitudes.
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 | Boojums All the Way through: Communicating Science in a Prosaic Age by N. David Mermin
Buy new: $29.03 / Used from: $10.00 David Mermin is one of the best physics writers I know. This collection of essays is not too technical, but enjoyable.
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 | Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 (P.S.) by Simon Winchester
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $0.99 Simon Winchester is a great writer about geology. Other fascinating books by him are The Map That Changed The World and the amazing The Professor And The Madman.
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 | A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) by Charles Dickens
Buy new: $8.00 / Used from: $0.01 Dickens gets three books, because he's simply the best.
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 | The Long Winter (Little House) by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $4.75 This one is a sentimental favorite. I read all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to my daughters when they were young.
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 | Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein by Abraham Pais
Buy new: $16.10 / Used from: $11.35 A Einstein biography for physicists.
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 | Robert Kennedy and His Times by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $0.97 A moving book about a fascinating American.
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 | Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
Buy new: $21.99 / Used from: $5.67 Unusual but fascinating.
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 | Waves and Grains by Mark P. Silverman
Buy new: $40.09 / Used from: $3.14 I enjoy Mark Silverman's books. A bit more technical than others on this list, but well done.
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