Marie
Balaban's suggestions:
Books to read
These are not for any particular class - just some general
suggestions
Balaban Home
Some books are
to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not
curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Sir Francis
Bacon
The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Tewntieth
Century by David Salsburg ISBN
0-80507-134-2
This book contains 29 short chapters with stories about
the people who made advances in statistics. This book is descriptive and written
for a general audience - an understanding of mathematical statistics is not
required. In the telling of these tales, the author conveys the excitement
of scientific discovery, discusses key statistical concepts, and raises questions
about the statistical revolution, which, he concludes, "stands triumphant
on feet of clay" (Salzburg, 2001, p. 309).
Confessing
a Murder by Nicholas Drayson ISBN
0-39305-129-3
This is an intriguing fictional account of who was responsible
for Darwin's and Wallace's proposals of the theory of evolution. It switches
between a retrospective account of the narrator's life and a description of
the natural history of species on a remote island. The title, as it becomes
evident, is a double entendre.
Descartes'
Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human
by Paul Bloom ISBN
046500783X
This is an overview of how humans develop with abilities to decipher reality.
Bloom focuses on the theme of dualism and considers topics such as moral and
emotional development and how we think about art, the mind-body issue, etc.
Turning Numbers
into Knowledge: Mastering the Art of Problem Solving
by Jonathan Koomey ISBN
0970601905
This is an interesting discussion of critically thinking about data and evidence.