Biology books

All books can be found in our 6th Form Library. Thinking of reading around our beautiful subject? Take a look for some inspiration

Important Reads

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks - Skloot, Rebecca
How to Argue with a Racist - Rutherford, A
The Delusion of Gender - Fine, C
Testosterone Rex - Fine, C
The XX Brain - Mosconi, L
Vaxxers - Gilbert, S & Green, C
Superior, The Return of Race Science - Saini, A
Inferior - Saini, A
Pathfinders - Al-Khalili, J
Bitch - Cooke, L
Control - Rutherford, A

Biology based fiction

Where the Crawdads Sing - Owens, D
Jurassic Park - Crichton, M
Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro, K

Classic Biology

Gaia: A New Look At Life On Earth - Lovelock, James
The God Delusion - Dawkins, Richard
In The Blood - Jones, Steve
Serpent's Promise - Jones, Steve
Y: The Descent Of Men - Jones, Steve
The Origin Of Species - Darwin, Charles
Homo Deus: A Brief History Of Tomorrow - Harari, Yuval Noah
What Is Life? - Nurse, Paul
A short History of Nearly Everything - Bryson, B
The Story of Life - Carrol, S
Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything * Abridged- Rutherford & Fry

Medicine

Dear Life - Clarke, Rachel
A Child Against All Odds - Winston, Robert
Shapeshifters: On Medicine & Human Change - Francis, Gavin
This is going to hurt - Kay, Adam
The secret diary of a student nurse - Button, C
The Butchering Art - Fitzharris, L
Human Errors - Lents, N
War Doctor - Nott, D
Your life in my Hands - Clarke, Rachel
Being Mortal - Gawande, A
Unwell Women - Cleghorn, E

The Human Body

Remarkable Life Of The Skin - Lyman, Monty
Heart: A History - Jauhar, Sandeep
The Eye - Ings, S
The Body : A Guide For Occupants - Bryson, Bill
Nine Pints: A Journey Through The Mysterious Of Blood - George, Rose

Evolution

Almost Like A Whale: The 'Origin Of Species' - Jones, Steve
Blind Watchmaker - Dawkins, Richard
Creation: The Origin Of Life / The Future Of Life - Rutherford, Adam
Diversity Of Life - Wilson, Edward
Evolution Of Everything - Ridley, Matt
Incredible Unlikeliness Of Being - Roberts, Dr. Alice
Life Ascending - Lane. N
The Vital Question - Lane, N
Otherlands - Halliday, T

Anthropology

Ancestors - Roberts, Dr. Alice
The Book of Humans - Rutherford, A
The Age of Empathy - Frans de Waal

Genetics

Mutants - Leroi, Armand Marie
Rough Guide To Genes And Cloning - Buxton, J
Junk Dna: A Journey Through The Dark Matter Of The Genome - Carey, Nessa
Gene, The: An Intimate History - Mukherjee, Siddhartha
Genome: The Autobiography Of A Species In 23 Chapters - Ridley, Matt
Epigenetics Revolution - Carey, Nessa
Hacking the Code of Life - Carey, Nessa
She Has Her Mother's Laugh - Zimmer, C
A Crack in Creation - Doudna, J & Sternberg, S
The Telomere Effect - Blackburn, E & Epel, E
The Selfish Gene - Dawkins, Richard

Forensic Science

Unnatural Causes - Shepherd, Dr Richard
When The Dogs Don't Bark - Gallop, Professor Angela
All that Remains - Black, S

Neuroscience & Psychology

The Octopus, The Sea, The Deep Origins Of Consciousness - Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Behave: The Biology Of Humans At Our Best And Worst - Sapolsky, Robert M.
The Brain: The Story Of You - Eagleman, David
Blank Slate, The: The Modern Denial Of Human Nature - Pinker, Steven
Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body - Marchant, Jo
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life Of The Teenage Brain - Blakemore, Sarah-Jayne
Magic Of Reality: How We Know What's Really True - Dawkins, R
Human Mind, The: And How To Make The Most Of It - Winston, Robert
The Decisive Moment - Lehrer, J
Explaining Humans - Pang, C
Demystifying the Female Brain - McKay, S

Cell Biology

How We Live And Why We Die: A Short History Of The Cell - Wolpert, Lewis
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria And The Meaning Of Life - Lane, Nick
The Dance of Life - Zernicka-Goetz, M
Mitochondria and the Future of Medicine - Know, L
The Song of the Cell - Mukherjee, S

Microbiology

Good Germs, Bad Germs - Sachs, Jessica Snyder
I Contain Multitudes - Yong, Ed

Marine Biology

The Deep - Rogers, Alex
Four Fish, The Future of the Last Wild Food - Greenberg, P
The Ocean of Life - Roberts, C

Maths and Quantum Biology

Mathematics Of Life - Stewart, Ian
Life On The Edge: The Coming Of Age Of Quantum Biology - Al-Khalili, Jim
Quantum Evolution - Mcfadden. J
The Maths of Life and Death - Yates, K

Palaeontology

Rise And Fall Of The Dinosaurs - Brusatte, S
Life: An Unauthorised Biography - Fortey, R
Survivors: The Animals And Plants That Time Has Left Behind - Fortey, R

Disease and Epidemiology

Immune - Dettmer, P
Plague Wars - Mangold, Tom
Plagues - Wills, Christopher
Vaccine Race - Wadman, Meredith
Virus Hunters - Mccormick, Joseph B.
Virus X - Ryan, Frank
The Beautiful Cure - Davis, Daniel M
Outbreaks and Epidemics - Senthilingam, M

Botany & Fungi

Light to Life - Jovine, R
What A Plant Knows - Chamovitz, Daniel
The Secret Life of Trees - Wohlleben, P
Entangled Life - Sheldrake, M
Lessons from Plants - Montgomery, B
This is Your Brain on Plants - Pollan, M
Plant Words - Richomme, J & Townsend, E
Planta Sapiens - Calvo, P & Lawrence, N
Tree Spotting - Bennett, R

Natural History & Ecology

Life On Our Planet - Attenborough, David
Little Book Of Bees - Kearney, Hilary
Natural History Of Selborne - White, G
The Wasp That Brainwashed The Caterpillar - Simon, Matt
The Serengeti Rules - Carroll, S
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating - Tova Bailey, E
Where do Camels Belong? - Thompson, K
Wilding - Tree, I
The Forest Unseen - Haskell, D
A Curious Boy - Fortey, R
Diary of a Young Naturalist - McAnulty, D
Braiding Sweetgrass - Wall Kimmerer, R
The Lost Rainforests of Britian - Shrubsole, G

Animal behaviour and Veterinary Science

Wild Health: How Animals Keep Themselves Well - Engel, Cindy
The Inner Life Of Animals - Wohlleben, Peter
Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - De Waal, F
An Immense World - Young, E

The Biology of Music

This is your Brain on Music - Levitin, D

Biochemistry

The Chemistry Of Life - Rose, Steven
The Biography of H20 - Ball, P
Symphony in C - Hazen, R

Book Reviews

We would love you to leave a book review. We can only take reviews from students and staff.

Book Reviews

War Doctor (Nott, D)

Medicine and the work of a doctor is often focused around that of a highly sterile, immaculate hospital located in the hustle and bustle of a great city where specialists reside. Nott's memoir takes you to a place where any preconceptions of typical medicine are obliterated and one realises what medicine really is. Medicine isn't the building or the access to incredible equipment, it is the knowledge and the doctor- medicine can be anywhere. Upon reading, this book will stick with you for weeks, for months, there is no doubt about. It is harrowing. It is distressing. It is thought provoking. But it is a necessary book, and you may well fall in love with it as I did. E. Chapman

Entangled Life - Sheldrake, M

Thought Fungi were boring? Think again. Fungi are the sex, drugs, rock and roll of biology. Every page of this book offers up a fact that you simply need to tell anyone that gets close enough! Factually interesting but also highly thought provoking. It is a book that is beautiful from its cover to the final page. T. Ayres

Bitch - Cooke, L

Bitch is a wonderful and witty tale of the natural world through the lens of ‘Girl Power’. Cooke takes us through unusual and fascinating stories which challenge biological myths and firmly plant ‘female’ at the centre of nature’s societies. Cooke descriptions of unusual sexual characteristics, sex lives, and behaviours of non-human animals makes it a fascinating read, not only for the science but for Cooke’s writing style and humour. T. Ayres

How to Argue with a Racist - Rutherford, A

Science literature sometimes throws up unique and ground-breaking gems – this is one! and, in my opinion, Rutherford’s tour de force. Rutherford dismantles pseudo-science, debunks myths and destroys race science. Rutherford, a geneticist at UCL, tells an unsettling account of how science has at times made troubling wrong turns, and how the human race should learn from these mistakes “This book is a weapon. It is written to equip you with the scientific tools necessary to tackle questions on race, genes, and ancestry. It is a tool kit to help separate fact from myth in understanding how we are similar and how we are different.”

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