Extra Credit Reading and Reporting

Read one of the following books and discuss it with the instructor, and you earn up to 5 points of extra credit. The maximum number of extra points you can earn is 20 (at least 4 books). The books will be on reserve in the Geology Library (in the basement of Bessey Hall); books can be checked out for 7 days. The last day to discuss books is April 16; one book per discussion; time between successive discussions is at least 7 days.

“What we become depends on what we read after all the professors are finished with us.

The greatest university is a collection of good books.” Thomas Carlyle

The Two-Mile Time Machine (2000) by Richard Alley –ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future [QC884.A55]

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin (2006) by David Quammen – historical background on one of science’s biggest achievements [QH31.D2 Q35]

Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations (2007) by David Montgomery – why we need soil and how we have used and abused it [S590.77 .M66]

The Discovery of Global Warming (2004) by Spencer Weart – history of the realization of climate change [QC981.8.G56 W43]

The Map that Changed the World (2001) by Simon Winchester--the life of William Smith, the father of Stratigraphy and maker of the first geologic map [QE22.S6 W55]

Walking on Eggs (2001) by Luis Chiappe and Lowell Dingus --discovery of a dinosaur nesting ground in Argentina [QE861.6.E35 C48]

Coal: A Human History (2003) by Barbara Freese – history of coal’s use and of its environmental impacts [TN805.A5 F852]

The Secret Life of Dust (2001) by Hannah Holmes –from the cosmos to the kitchen counter [Q173.H733]

No Apparent Danger: The True Story of Volcanic Disaster at Galeras and Nevado del Ruiz by Victoria Bruce – death and destruction in South America [QE523.N48 B78]

Rising from the Plains (1986) by John McPhee—high-country geology and the life of a Rocky Mountain geologist [QE 79. M29]

Control of Nature (1990) by John McPhee—engineers wrestling with rivers, lava flows, and debris avalanches.

Noah’s Flood (1998) by William Ryan and Walter Pitman --new scientific discoveries about the event that changed history [BS658 R93]

T. rex and the Crater of Doom (1997) by Walter Alvarez –the story that waited 65 million years to be told [QE 506 A48]

Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters (2002) by Robert Glennon [TD 223 G58]

Ogallala Blue: Water and Life on the High Plains (2007) by William Ashcroft – the aquifer and its future [S616.U6 A78]

The Demon-Haunted World (1994) by Carl Sagan and Ann Duryan -- combating the siren call of unreason [Q175 .S215]

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Rare in the Universe (2000) by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee—other places are very dangerous in the long term [QB 54 W336]

Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery (1979) by John Imbrie and Katherine Palmer Imbrie—the what, when, and where of Earth’s last big glacial epoch [QE697 .I45]

Uncertain Science, Uncertain World (2003) by Henry Pollack—how scientists reach conclusions in the face of uncertainty; uses global warming as its main example [Q175 .P835]

Basin and Range (1980) by John McPhee—geology and geologists in the wide-open spaces of Nevada [QE79 .M28] 1

Cadillac Desert (1993) by Marc Reisner—the American West and its disappearing water [HD1739.A17 R45]

Devil in the Mountain (2004) by Simon Lamb—deciphering the origin of the Andes  [QE230 .L36]

The Dating Game (2000) by Cherry Lewis—one man’s search for the age of the Earth [QE508.L48]

Twilight of the Mammoths (2005) by Paul Martin—mass extinction in Near Time [QE741.2. M368]

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (2006) by Timothy Egan – life on the Great Plains during its worst historic drought [F595.E38]

Remarkable Creatures (2009) by Sean Carroll – epic adventures in the search for the origins of species