legend for books
1000 Playthinks – Puzzles, Paradoxes, Illusions & Games
A fantastic compendium of puzzles and games for solo or group use. Some are mind puzzles, some require pencil and paper, and some involve tracing/copying and cutting. Each is rated in difficulty fro…
author: Ivan Moscovich
A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change
Clavin takes the reader back in time and around the world travelogue fashion to explore the progress of evolution and its historic and on-going impact on the development of the human brain.
author: William H. Calvin
A Brief History of the Future: From Radio Days to Internet Years in a Lifetime
A history and celebration of the scientists and engineers whose vision and determination led to the Internet.
author: John Naughton
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Philip Morrison: 100-plus list
A Brief History of Time – From the Big Bang to Black Holes
The story of the ongoing search for the secrets at the heart of time and space. Written for those who prefer words to equations.
author: Stephen W. Hawking
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by CML Staff
A Briefer History of Time
Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time addressed such subjects as the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, the history and future of the universe, but it did so in a way that was dif…
author: Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow
A Coastal Companion – A Year in the Gulf of Maine, From Cape Cod to Canada
Catherine Schmitt chronicles a year spent in the Gulf of Maine and its watershed, noting the change of seasons both above and within the sea. Poems by twelve contemporary poets open each chapter, and …
author: Catherine Schmitt

A Dazzle of Dragonflies
A large-format book with stunning photographs and electronic images. Explains the natural history and folklore of dragonflies. One chapter devoted to their photograpic techniques: film, digital, and e…
author: Forrest L. Mitchell and James L. Lasswell
A Devil’s Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love
A collection of essays written over the last 25 years by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. The essays are grouped into seven sections, each section with an explanation by the author of why the …
author: Richard Dawkins
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Lee Grodzins
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McClintock
“A brilliant and convincing book” Science 83
author: Evelyn Fox Keller
A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America.For Teachers!
A wealth of information written in a compact format by one of America’s premier tracking experts; includes tracking techniques, a guide to mammal classification, a anatomical guide to the major foot t…
author: James Halfpenny
A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth
The tale of the coelacanth, an ancient fish thought to be the direct ancestor of reptiles, its presumed extinction and resurrection.
Includes black & white photographs and illustrations.
author: Samantha Weinberg

A Natural History of the Senses
A look at the scientific, emotional and cultural aspects of each of the five senses. Includes also a chapter on synesthesia. Index, list for further reading.

author: Diane Ackerman

A New Kind of Science
The culmination of nearly 20 years of work by the author, touching on almost every existing area of science. Chapter Headings:The Foundations for a New Kind of Science; The Crucial Experiment; The Wor…
author: Stephen Wolfram
A Rum Affair: A True Story of Botanical Fraud
Investigates the suspect botanical research of British botanist, John Heslop Harrison, on the Isle of Rum, Scotland and the 1940 hoax – his claim to have found a rare plant on the island. Includes se…
author: Karl Sabbagh
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Morrison 100-plus list
A Sand County Almanac
A natural history classic by the great naturalist, Aldo Leopold, documenting his observations at his weekend refuge, a Wisconsin farm.
author: Aldo Leopold
A Sense of Wonder – Rachel Carson’s Love for the Natural World and Her Fight to Defend It
Meet Rachel Carson through the superb acting of Kaiulani Lee, whose one-woman stage production inspired this documentary-style movie set at Rachel’s seaside cottage in Maine. The film is both inspirat…
author: Sense of Wonder Productions

Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Aventis Prize for Science Writing
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Bryson takes subjects like geology, chemistry, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and makes them comprehensible to the average person. Interested not only in finding out what we know, but …
author: Bill Bryson
A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table
A powerful biography of the creator of the periodic table of elements and journey into the world of Imperial Russia. Includes black & white photos and illustrations.
author: Michael D. Gordin
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by American Book Award, Science 1981
Abyss of Time: Changing Conceptions of the Earth’s Antiquity after the Sixteenth Century
Beginning in the mid 1600’s, the author traces the successive changes in the perception of the earth’s age. He concentrates on the events foreshadowing or signaling changes, and on the prominent peopl…
author: Claude C. Albritton, Jr.
Advent of the Algorithm: The Idea That Rules the World
The story of the search for and discovery of the algorithm… the language that drives computers.
author: David Berlinski
Africa in My Blood: An Autobiography in Letters: The Early Years
A moving self-portrait of Jane Goodall from her impressionable years as an animal-loving girl to her coming of age as a scientist studying chimpanzee behavior in the Gombe Reserve , Africa. Beyond Inn…
author: Jane Goodall

Airplane: How Ideas Gave Us Wings
A former curator of the National Air and Space Museum, Spenser has written a wide-ranging history of aviation, expanding his scope beyond the Wright Brothers to include France, Germany and beyond. Ins…
author: Jay Spenser
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Morrison Long Look
Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village
An intimate look at the people and rural lives in the agricultural town of Akenfield, England.
author: Ronald Blythe
Alchemy of the Mind
Combines an artist’s eye with a scientist’s erudition to illuminate, as never before, the magic and mysteries of the human mind.
author: Diane Ackerman
Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian ChymistryClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
The authors look for the roots of modern chemistry in the alchemy lab of George Starky.
author: William R. Newman & Lawrence M. Principe
Amateur NaturalistClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Inspired by Gerald and Lee Durrell’s 1982 classic, this new edition makes nature accessible to everyone. Bishop begins with the fundamentals of nature study: basic skills, equipment, and rules of co…
author: Nick Baker

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert J. OppenheimerClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Here is the story of the “father of the atomic bomb” from his early education, to Berkeley, to Los Alamos, to the Institute for Advanced Study. Includes 32 pages of black & white photographs.
author: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
An Alchemy of the MindClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Combines an artist’s eye with a scientist’s erudition to illuminate, as never before, the magic and mysteries of the human mind.
author: Diane Ackerman
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by LA Times - Science 1995
An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical TalesClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Sacks reveals through seven anecdotes the lives of seven extraordinary people with neurological disorders. Through these stories he illlustrates how the brain works to define our individual worlds an…
author: Oliver Sacks
An Inconvenient Truth – A Global Warning (DVD)Click for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Vice President Al Gore’s eye-opening and compelling documentary that delivers the message that global warming is a real and present danger. Also encourages each individual to become part of the soluti…
author: Al Gore
Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of EvolutionClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
A novel presentation of a comprehensive look at evolution. The reader is invited to journey back through time, four billion years, with forty stops along the way at which the reader meets a common anc…
author: Richard Dawkins

Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Lee Grodzins
Ancient Light: Our Changing View of the UniverseClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
An adaptation of “Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists” by Alan Lightman and Roberta Brawer. Tells the story of cosmology, its history, the new discoveries, and the questions and contr…
author: Alan Lightman
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Morrison 100-plus list
And the Band Played On: Politics, People and the AIDS EpidemicClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Investigative journalist Randy Shilts leads the reader on a journey of discovery about the greatest health crisis of this century: how it happened, how and why it spread so far, and the individuals wh…
author: Randy Shilts
Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide to the World’s WildlifeClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
The Smithsonian Institution’s one-stop guide to the animals of the world. Over 2,000 species listed. Great photographs. Includes information about classification, evolution, and habitats.
author: Edited by David Burnie & Don E. Wilson
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by 100+ List, Pulitzer 1999
Annals of the Former WorldClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
In the late 1970’s, John McPhee began a series of journeys back and forth across the United States, traveling with prominent geologists and attempting to describe a cross-section of the continent at a…
author: John McPhee
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by LA Times - Science 1995
Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical TalesClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Sacks reveals through seven anecdotes the lives of seven extraordinary people with neurological disorders. Through these stories he illlustrates how the brain works to define our individual worlds an…
author: Oliver Sacks

Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction
AntsClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Discusses the importance of ants, their classification and origins, colony life cycle, behavior, and communication. Includes both black & white and color photographs.
author: Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Morrison 100-plus list
Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern LandscapeClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
A celebration of the Arctic, its land, wildlife, people, and light. Also a story of discovery and exploration, a history of the people who ventured there and why, and of present-day scientists who stu…
author: Barry Lopez
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by LA Times: Science 1992
Artificial Life: The Quest for New CreationClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
An account of the development of artificial intelligence, artificial life, the resulting impact across the sciences, and the power of the computer. Includes discussion of software, robots, smart mole…
author: Steven Levy
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Lee Grodzins
Assembling CaliforniaClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Over a span of 15 years, John McPhee made many geological field trips with tectonicist Eldridge Moores, and this book is the result. A cross-section in human and geologic time, this fourth volume in …
author: John McPhee
Atom: An Odyssey from the Big Bang to Life on Earth…and BeyondClick for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
A cosmic tale from the Big Bang, to the birth of the atom, to the emergence of life on Earth that begins and ends with water. From the author of the bestselling “The Physics of Star Trek.”
author: Lawrence Maxwell Krauss

Nominated to be a Cornerstone by American Scientist 100+ List, 1999
Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809 – 1882Click for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
The complete and unexpurgated autobiography edited by Darwin’s granddaughter provides a look into Darwin’s mind, character, a personal account of his education, explorations of the natural world, his …
author: Charles Darwin, edited by Nora Barlow
Nominated to be a Cornerstone by Rick Speer, Lewiston Public Library
Autobiography of Charles Darwin: 1809-1882Click for more of the annotation or write your own review for this book. Click on link.
Darwin’s classic autobiography, written in simple, straightforward language. Covers a range of issues not known to those who have only read his Origin of Species. Appendix containing letters adds muc…
author: Charles Darwin