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ANNUAL LIST OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS - FALL 2002

Science and Technology

Crosby, Andrew W. (1997). The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Gleick, James. (2000). Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything. New York: Vintage Books.

Hughes, Thomas P. (1989). American Genius: A History of the American Genius for Invention. New York: Penguin Books.

Kidder, Tracy. (2000). The Soul of a New Machine. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.

Kurzweil, Ray. (1999). The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. New York: Penguin Books.

Lewis, Tom. (1991). Empire of the Air: The Creation of Radio. New York: HarperCollins.

McCartney, Scott. (1999). Eniac: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer. New York: Walker and Co.

McCullough, David G. (1983). The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Miller, George A. (1996). The Science of Words. New York: Scientific American Library.

Negroponte, Nicholas. (1995). Being Digital. Alfred A. Knopf.

Petroski, Henry. (1992). The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts - from Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers - Came to be as They Are. New York: Random House, Inc.

Petroski, Henry. (1996). Invention by Design: How Engineers Get from Thought to Thing. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Petroski, Henry. (1989). The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Petroski, Henry. (1997). Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering. New York: Random House, Inc.

Petroski, Henry. (1999). The Book on the Book Shelf. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Rhodes, Richard. (1995). The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Standage, Tom. (1998). The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers. New York: Berkley Books.

Shurkkin, Joel. (1985). Engines of the Mind: A History of the Computer. New York: Pocket Books.

Wright, Michael and Patel, Mukul. (2000). Scientific American: How Things Work Today. New York: Crown Publishers.

Biographies and Memoirs of Great Scientists, Mathematicians and Inventors

Baldwin, Neil. (1995). Edison: Inventing the Century. New York: Hyperion.

Brown, Janet. (1995). Charles Darwin: Voyaging, Volume I of a Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Cheney, Margaret. (1993). Tesla: Man Out of Time. New York: Barnes & Noble Books.

Clark, Ronald William. (1984). Survival of Charles Darwin: A Biography of a Man and an Idea. New York: Random House, Inc.

Curie, Eve. (1937). Madame Curie. New York: Da Capo Press.

De Kruif, Paul. (1954). Microbe Hunters. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Dubos, René. (1960). Louis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.

Duncan, M. Porter and Graham, Peter W. (1993). The Portable Darwin. New York: Penguin Books.

Feynman, Richard P. (1985). "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Adventures of a Curious Character. New York: W. W. Norton & Co.

Feynman, Richard P. (1999). The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Short Works of Richard P. Feynman. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.

Folsing, Albrecht. (1997). Albert Einstein. New York: Penguin Books.

Gleick, James. (1993). Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. New York: Vintage Books.

Heims, Steve J. John Von Neumann and Norbert Wiener: From Mathematics to the Technologies of Life and Death. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Henig, Robin Marantz. (2000). The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics. New York: Houghton Mifflin Co.

Hoffman, Paul. (1998). The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erds and the Search for Mathematical Truth. New York: Hyperion.

Johanson, Donald and Edey, Maitland. (1981). Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind. New York: Warner Books.

Kanigel, Robert. (1991). The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan. New York: Washington Square Press.

Lorenz, Konrad (1990). On Life and Living. New York: St. Martin's Press.

McGrayne, Sharon B. (1993). Nobel Prize Women in Science:

Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries. New York: Carol Publishing Group.

Nasar, Sylvia. (1998). A Beautiful Mind. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Pais, Abraham. (1982). Subtle Is the Lord: The Science and Life of Albert Einstein. New York: Oxford University Press.

Pais, Abraham. (1991). Niels Bohr's Times, In Physics, Philosophy, and Polity. New York: Oxford University Press.

Quinn, Susan. (1995). Marie Curie: A Life. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Schechter, Bruce. (1998). My Brain Is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erds. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Stern, Fritz. (1999). Einstein's German World. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press

Weiner, Jonathan. (1999). Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

White, Michael. (1997). Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Wilson, Edward O. (1994). Naturalist. Washington, D.C.: Island Press.

The Soul Mate of Gifted Sensibility: G.K. Chesterton by Michael E. Walters

Center for the Study of the Humanities in the Schools

"The way to be really a fool is to try to be practical about unpractical things." p. 130. "Only Shakespeare has been optimistic when he felt pessimistic. This is the definition of a faith. A faith is that which survives a mood." p. 122. Both statements are from The Quotable Chesterton by Marlin, Rabatin and Swan (Ignatius Press, 1987).

G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) represents a life spent in the pursuit of his sensibility. He wrote all the time and his intellectual range was incredible - novels, essays, criticism of Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson, plays, philosophical treatises, and journalism. Yet, when he was a child and an adolescent, his talents were totally ignored by his teachers. He was held back twice in school and was considered to be a slow learner. This neglect of his gifted sensibility was a constant occurrence in the British private schools. Individuals such as Rudyard Kipling (Nobel Prize in Literature), the great political theorist and satirist George Orwell, the statesman Sir Winston Churchill, and the outstanding medical writer Oliver Sacks, were all tormented by their private school teachers who failed to come to terms with these individuals' unique sensibilities.

Chesterton wrote some of the finest mystery stories in the English language. His detective was a Catholic priest named Father Brown. These detective stories are suspenseful and entertaining, and involve examinations of moral issues. Chesterton also wrote essays about the significance of the role of fantasy in literature which stimulated a later generation of British writers such as C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia, 1955) and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, 1965) who created masterpieces of literary fantasy.

The hallmark of Chesterton is his supreme control of wit. There are books that specialize in Chesterton's quotes which are perfect for helping teachers to understand the sensibility of giftedness. His quotes are not just clever - they provide a profound insight into the mystery of being human. This is why individuals such as George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells appreciated the writings of religious conservatives such as Chesterton. What they cherished were his style and sensibility. It would be stimulating for gifted students to study Chesterton's writings because they will find a soul mate in gifted sensibility.

Maurice D. Fisher, Publisher, Copyright © by Gifted Education Press, October-November 2002