Readings

The mathematics literature is vast, and with the Internet, so much is accessible to the public at large. But how does one choose?  Below are some mathematical books and articles that our members have been recently reading / delving into.  Some of these offerings may contain sophisticated mathematics, but please don't let that deter you!  Our mission is to promote an appreciation of mathematics, so glossing over the hard parts when necessary is acceptable--something a working mathematician / academician would be loath to do.

Oliver's List:

• Tom M. Apostol and Mamikon A. Mnatsakanian, New Horizons in Geometry.  MAA Press, Providence, RI, 2012.  

• Elena Bannikova, Massimo Capaccioli.  Foundations of Celestial Mechanics.  Springer Nature, 2022

• Arieh Ben-Naim and Claude Dufour. Information Theory: An Exploration Across Disciplines With Contributions by Robert Forchhiemer. Springer Nature, 2024. 

• Marina Cook. Mathematicians: An Outer View of the Inner World. American Mathematical Society, 2009. 

• Persi Diaconis. The Markov Chain Monte Carlo Revolution.  Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society, 46: 179-205, 2009.  Also here.

• Moon Duchin and Olivia Walch (eds). Political Geometry. Springer Nature, 2022. 

• Frank Harary.  Graph Theory.  Addison-Wesley Series in Mathematics, Third printing, October 1972.  

• Norbert Henze. Very First Steps in Random Walks: The Power of Combinatorial Methods and Generating Functions.  Springer Nature, 2025.

• Mark Levi, The Mathematical Mechanic: Using Physical Reasoning to Solve Probelms.  Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2023.

• Liz McMahon, Gary Gordon., Hannah Gordon, and Ruth Gordon. The Joy of Set: The Many Mathematical Dimensions of a Seemingly Simple Card Game. Princeton University Press, 2017.

• Alfred S. Posamentier, The Pythagorean Theorem: The Story of Its Power and Beauty.  Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2010. 

• Richard J. Trudeau, Introduction to Graph Theory.  Dover Publications, 1993. 

• Mauri Valtonen, Joanna Anosova, Konstantin Kholshevnikov, Aleksandr Myllari, Victor Orlov, Kiyotaka Tanikawa. The Three-body Problem from Pythagoras to Hawking.  Springer International, 2016. 

• Robin Wilson, Four Colors Suffice.  Princeton Science Library, 2014. 

• https://www.cantorsparadise.org/a-fascinating-prisoners-puzzle-be874032f43e/