TOK Summer Readings
Choose a book – write a summary of the book for an in class presentation.
Natural Sciences
Bryson, Bill. (2001) A Short History of Nearly Everything.
Chalmers, A.F. (1999) What is this Thing Called Science?
Dawkins, Richard (2011), The Magic of Reality: How we know what’s really true.
Falk, Dan. (2005) Universe On A T-shirt: The Quest For The Theory Of Everything
Ferris, Timothy. (2001) Coming of Age in the Milky Way.
Fossey, Dianne.(2000) Gorillas in the Mist.
Gladwell, Malcolm. (2002) The Tipping Point.
Greene, Brian. (2005). The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, time and the texture of reality.
Hawking, Stephen. (1990). A Brief History of Time.
Suesskind, Karl. (2005) The Blackhole Wars: How I save the world from Stephen Hawking.
Dodge, Norman. M.D. (2006). The Brain that Changes Itself: stories of personal triumph from the frontiers of brain science.
Watson, James. (1980). The Double Helix.
Human Sciences
Andrews, Linda W. (2004). Emotional Intelligence.
Diamond, Jared. (2005). Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed.
Nassim, Taleb. (2006).The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable.
Goleman, D. (2004). Social Intelligence: the new science of human relationship.
Dawkins, Richard. (1976). The Selfish Gene
Dubner, Stephen and Levitt, Steven. Freakonomics: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything.
Ariely, D. (2005). Predictably Irrational: the hidden forces that shape our lives – by.
Jackson, John and Weidman, Nadine. (2005). Race racism and science: social impact and interaction.
Smith, D.L. (2005). The Most Dangerous Animal: human nature and the origins of war.
Courtenay, Bryce. (2001). The Power of One.
Flynn, James R. (2007). What is Intelligence?
Sowell, Thomas. (2008). Economic Facts and Fallacies.
Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth and Kessler, David. (2005). On Grief and Grieving.
Pinker, Stephen. (2009) How the Mind Works.
Pink, Daniel. (2005) A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age.
Sachs, Oliver. (2010) The Mind’s Eye. All books by Sachs are a great read.
History
Cropp, F., Frisby, C., Mills, D. (2005) Journalism across Cultures.
Gaddis, J.L. (2002) The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past.
Macchiavelli. (2001 ed.). The Prince.
Kershaw, Ian. (2000) The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation.
Lovelock, James. (2000) The Ages of Gaia: a biography of our living earth.
Marin, Albert. (1980) Stalin or Hitler.
Math
Doxiadis, Apostolos. (2006). Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture.
Doxiadis, Apostolos. (2009). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Dupre, 50 Philosophy (or maths or physics) Ideas You Really Ought to Know
Ferguson, Kitty. The Music of Pythagoras: How an ancient brotherhood cracked the code of the universe and lit the path from antiquity to outer space.
Seife, Charles. (1999). Zero: the biography of a dangerous idea.
Singh, Simon. (1998) Fermat's Last Theorem: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem.
Stein, James. (2008) How Math Explains The World: A Guide to the Power of Numbers from Car Repair to Modern Physics.
The Arts, Poetry, and Literature
Abbott, Edwin. (1884) Flatland.
Bryson, Bill. (2001). Shakespeare.
Guterson, Dan. (1990). Snow Falling on Cedars.
Juster, Norton. (2000). The Phantom Tollbooth.
Kafka, Franz. (1920) The Trial.
Kingston, Maxine Hong (1980) The Woman Warrior.
Levitan, Daniel. (2007) This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession.
Shihab Nye, Naomi. (2000). Words Under the Words: Selected Poems.
Quinn, Daniel. (2005). Ishmael: An adventure of the mind and spirit.
Robinson, Ken. (2011) Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative.
Robinson, Ken. (2009) The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything.
Tan, Amy. The Bonesetter’s Daughter.
Tufte, Edward. (2006). Beautiful Evidence.
Wilder, Thornton. (1990) The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
Ethics and Philosophy
Davies, Wayde. (2007) Light At The Edge Of The World: A Journey Through the Realm of Vanishing Cultures.
Doxiadis, Apostolos and Papadimitriou, Christos. (2002). Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Fearn, Nicholas. (1990). Zeno and the Tortoise: How to think like a philosopher.
Gaardner, Jostein Sophie’s World
Nietzsche, Friedrich. (2000). The Portable Nietzsche.
Pirsig, Robert. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values
Rand, Ayn. (1970) Atlas Shrugged.
Solomon, Robert C. and Higgins, Kathleen M. editors. (2001). From Africa to Zen: an invitation to world philosophy.
Thompson, Mel. (2005). Ethics.
Van Lente, Fred and Dunlavey, Ryan. (2004). Action philosophers! : The lives and thoughts of history's A-list brain trust told in a hip and humorous fashion.