An Eclectic Mix: Reading List 2002
We present a diverse assortment of nonfiction titles to whet your
appetite for reading. Ranging from science to religion, humor to
mathematics, the titles are a blend of the strange, the outrageous
and the unusual. We have intentionally not categorized the books
into subject matter or topics, so that the reader can simply browse
through the list and find those titles that may catch the eye.
50 greatest love letters of all time
/ selected by David H. Lowenherz.
(2002)
PN6140 Lov.Fi (CL Main Shelves)
The 50 greatest movies never made
/ by Chris Gore. (1999)
PN1995 Gor (CL Main Shelves)
The fifty films featured
here have never made it to the big screen; they are the gems that
got lost in the Hollywood shuffle. Titles include “Aliens vs. Predator”,
“Casablanca 2” and “Dean Martin”.
Acid tongues and tranquil dreamers: tales of bitter rivalry
that fueled the advancement of science and technology
/ by Michael White. (2001)
Q125 Whi (CL Main Shelves)
The age of Shanghainese pops, 1930-1970 / by Wong Kee Chee. (2001)
ML3502 Chi.Wo (CL
Main Shelves) (with audio CD in CL Media
Resource)
Amazing, surprising, weird & wonderful: myths and
facts of Singapore / by Thomas Toh. (1995)
DS599.2 Toh ( CL Main Shelves & CL Sing/Mal Coll)
American roots music / edited by Robert Santelli,
Holly George-Warren, and Jim Brown; foreword by Bonnie Raitt. (2001)
ML3551 Ame (CL Main Shelves)
American roots music -
encompassing blues, country & western, gospel, Cajun, zydeco,
Tejano, Native American, …- originated and was nurtured in small
communities and spread across the nation.
Bad science: the short life and weird times of cold fusion / by Gary Taubes. (1993)
QC791.775 Col.T (SC
Main Shelves)
Unveils the darker side
of science, where politics, ambition, and misguided obsession can
corrupt ethics and purpose.
Big hair: a journey into the transformation of self
/ by Grant McCracken. (1996)
GT2290 Mccr (CL Main Shelves)
An insightful study of
how Westerners redefine themselves by defining and redefining their
hair, and the fetishistic fascination with hairstyles of the rich
and famous.
Burnished beauty:
the art of stone in early Southeast Asia
/ edited by Christopher J. Frape. (2000)
NK5750.2
Asi.Bu (CL Main Shelves)
Capture the moment:
the Pulitzer prize photographs / edited by Cyma Rubin and Eric Newton. (2001)
TR820 Cap
(CL Main Shelves)
Carried
away: the invention of modern shopping
/ by Rachel Bowlby. (2001)
HC79 Con.Bo
(CL Main Shelves)
Chinese tea culture: the origin of tea drinking
/ by Wang Ling. (2001)
TX415 Wan (CL Main Shelves)
Clones and clones: facts and fantasies about human cloning / edited by Martha C. Nussbaum and Cass R. Sunstein. (1998)
QH442.2 Clo (CL Main Shelves)
The concise book of lying
/ by Evelin Sullivan. (2001)
BF637 Dec.Su (CL Main Shelves)
Sullivan asks what motivates
people to lie, what mechanisms are involved in creating an effective
lie, and what the costs are once we've decided to commit one.
The conscious mind: in search of a fundamental theory
/
by David J. Chalmers. (1996)
BD418.3 Cha (CL Main Shelves)
What is consciousness?
How do physical processes in the brain give rise to the subjective
life of a conscious mind? These questions are among the most debated
issues in science and philosophy today.
The conscious universe: parts and wholes in physical
reality / by Menas Kaftos & Robert Nadeau. (1999)
QC6.4 Rea.K (SC Main Shelves)
Explores the implications
for physics and philosophy of a strange new fact of nature: particles
can be "entangled" over enormous distances, and measurements
made on such particles in one place can have an instantaneous effect
in another.
Consuming
desires: consumption, culture, and the pursuit of happiness
/ edited by Roger Rosenblatt. (1999)
HC110 Con.Co (CL
Main Shelves)
Culture of death:
the assault on medical ethics in America /
by Wesley J. Smith. (2000)
R724
Smi (MD Main Shelves)
[From the BOOK JACKET]: [Smith] goes
behind the scenes of [the US] health care system to show how a new,
self-proclaimed elite of "bioethicists" threaten patient
welfare by undermining the Hippocratic Oath.”
The culture of flowers
/ by Jack Goody. (1993)
GN476.73 Goo (CL Main Shelves)
Goody is a former professor
of social anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Includes
chapters on garlands in India, the 'four gentlemen of flowers' in
China and flowers without representation in Islam.
Cute,
quaint, hungry, and romantic: the aesthetics of consumerism
/ by Daniel Harris. (2000)
BH301 Con.H
(CL Main Shelves)
In this encyclopaedia of
low-brow aesthetics, Harris concentrates on the contagious appeal
of that which is not art, on the uses of the useless, the politics
of product design and advertising.
Dancing with the devil: information technology and the
new competition in higher education / by Richard N. Katz and associates.
(1999)
LB2341 Kat (CL Main Shelves)
The demon-haunted world: science as a candle in the dark / by Carl Sagan. (1997)
Q175 Sag (CL Main Shelves)
Disney:
the mouse betrayed: greed, corruption, and children at risk
/ by Peter Schweizer and Rochelle Schweizer. (1998)
PN1999
Wal.S (CL
Main Shelves)
The Walt Disney Company
has long been an icon of wholesome family entertainment. Now it
is under attack by family and religious organizations. Are the complaints
hysterical censorship, or has Disney really lost its way?
Dogs never lie about love: reflections on the emotional
world of dogs / by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.
(1997)
SF433 Mas (CL Main Shelves)
Dust: a history of the small and the invisible
/ by Joseph A. Amato. (2000)
RA577 Dus.A (SC Main Shelves)
While the story of the
big has often been told, the story of the small has not even been
outlined. The author enthrals the reader with the first history
of the small and the invisible.
Families, crime and juvenile justice
/ by Richard Hil & Anthony McMahon. (2001)
HV9069 Hil (CL Main Shelves)
Highlights the varied attempts
by parents and others to grapple with their children’s’ offending,
demonstrates the effects of such offending on the family and the
often less-than-positive outcomes of state intervention.
Firecrackers: the art and history
/ by Warren Dotz, Jack Mingo and George Moyer. (2000)
TP300 Dot (CL Main Shelves)
Got
money? : enjoy it! manage it! even save some of it! : financial
advice for your twenties and thirties
/ by Jeff Wuorio. (1999)
HG179 Wuo (CL
Main Shelves)
Guns, germs and steel: the fates of human societies
/ by Jared Diamond. (1997)
HM206 Dia (CL Main Shelves)
Diamond dismantles racially
based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors
actually responsible for history's broadest patterns of conquest
and progress.
Heretics in the temple: Americans who reject the Nation's
legal faith / by David Ray Papke. (1998)
KA33 Soc.Pa (LW Main Shelves)
Americans seem increasingly
dissatisfied with their legal system. In the wake of many high-profile
trials, America's faith in legal authority appears profoundly shaken.
How come every time I get stabbed in the back, my fingerprints
are on the knife? and other meditations on management /
by Jerry B. Harvey. (1999)
HD58.7 Hav (HL Main Shelves)
How to live forever: science
fiction and philosophy / by Stephen
R. L. Clark. (1995)
PN3433.6 Cla (CL Main Shelves)
Immortality is a subject
that has long been explored by science fiction writers. Explores
the ways writers have imagined it, and what these suggest about
our present lives and natures.
Inconspicuous
consumption: an obsessive look at the stuff we take for granted,
from the everyday to the obscure
/ by Paul Lukas. (1997)
HM211 Luk (CL
Main Shelves)
Inside terrorist organizations
/ edited by David C. Rapoport. (2001)
HV6431 Ins (CL Main Shelves)
The invisible computer: why good products can fail, the
personal computer is so complex, and information appliances are
the solution / by Donald A. Norman. (1998)
QA76.5 Nor (SC Main Shelves)
Islam: a short history
/ by Karen
Armstrong. (2000)
BP50
Arm (CL Main Shelves)
[From the BOOK JACKET]:"
Karen Armstrong's short history offers a vital corrective to the
narrow view of Islam... it demonstrates that the world's fastest-growing
faith is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than its modern
fundamentalist strain might suggest."
The Judas economy: the triumph of capital and the betrayal
of work / by William Wolman and Anne Colamosca. (1997)
HD4851 Wol (Cl Main Shelves & CL RBR)
In the new global economies,
workers – white or blue collar – are ever more expendable. An analysis
of how big money exploits and abandons workers within and outside
America.
The killers among us: an examination of serial murder
and its investigation / by Steven A. Egger. (2002)
HV6515 Egg (CL Main Shelves)
Kites: paper wings over Japan
/ edited by Scott Skinner and Ali Fujino. (1997)
TL759.4 Jap.Ki (CL Main Shelves)
The language of mathematics: making the invisible visible / by Keith Devlin. (1998)
QA93 Dev (SC Main Shelves)
Reveals the vital role
mathematics plays in our eternal quest to understand who we are
and the world we live in.
Lead us into temptation: the triumph of American materialism / by James
B. Twitchell. (1999)
HC110 Con.T (CL Main Shelves)
A look into how consumption
and possession have become self-identifying acts of modern life.
The life and work of Benito Mussolini
/ by Alan Axelrod. (2002)
DG575 Mus.Ax (CL Main Shelves)
The limits of idealism: when good intentions go bad
/ by Melvyn L. Fein. (1999)
HN17.5 Fei (CL Main Shelves)
An examination on how good intentions go awry; how unrealistic
idealism can do more harm than good, and how to circumvent such
predicaments.
Magi: the quest for the secret tradition
/ by Adrian G. Gilbert. (1996)
BT315 Gil (CL Main Shelves)
A search for the Biblical Magi and the rumor of a brotherhood
that has secretly guided mankind’s destiny for centuries.
The masterpiece: Jorn Utzon, a secret life
/ by Philip Drew. (2001)
NA1223 Utz.Dr (CL Main Shelves)
Designer of the Sydney Opera House, Utzon left the project
in the midst of a raging artistic and political scandal, never to
see his masterpiece. A biography of his life, his roots and his
designs.
Mammon, inc.
/ by Tan Hwee Hwee. (2001)
PL5149 Thh.M (CL Main Shelves & CL Sing/Mal Coll)
[From the BOOK JACKET]:
"Would you sell your soul for the dream job? That's the question
that confronts Chiah Deng when she's offered the chance to join
the twenty-something jet-setting elite... the world of Hollywood
stars, rock idols and fashion mavens."
Mathematical puzzle tales / by Martin Gardner. (2000)
QA95 Gar (SC Main Shelves)
Marvel: the characters and their universe
/ by Michael Mallory. (2001)
PN6725 Mal (CL Main Shelves)
Comic book superheroes
are the mythological giants of 20th-century pop culture. Features
Marvel characters such as the X-Men, Captain America and Spider-Man.
Mickey Mouse history and other essays on American memory / by Mike Wallace. (1996)
E172 Wal (CL Main Shelves)
A probe into the trivialisation
of history, and the struggles over public memory that provoke stormy
controversy. A book on why history matters.
Milton's teeth & Ovid's umbrella: curiouser and curiouser
adventures in history / by Michael Olmert. (1996)
D10 Olm (CL Main Shelves)
The mirror : a history
/ by Sabine Melchior-Bonnet. (2000)
QC385
Mel (CL Main Shelves)
More
for less: your no-nonsense guide to saving money on life's essentials
/ by Greg Smith. (1998)
HG7920
Smi (HL Main Shelves)
Mosquito: a natural
history of man's most persistent and deadly foe / by
Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio. (2001)
QL536
Spi (SC & MD Main Shelves)
A
mosquito’s-eye view of man and nature. Shows us how they breed,
live, mate and die, and introduces us to their enemies, both man-made
and natural.
The most wonderful books: writers on discovering the
pleasures of reading / edited by Michael Dorris and Emilie Buchwald. (1997)
Z1039 Aut.M (CL Main Shelves)
Movie crazy: fans, stars and the cult of celebrity
/ Samantha Barbas. (2001)
PN1995.9 Aud.B (CL Main Shelves)
My brain is open: the mathematical journeys of Paul Erdos / by Bruce Schechter. (1998)
QA29 Erd.Sc (SC Main Shelves)
Paul Erdos, one of the 20th-century’s greatest
– and most eccentric – mathematicians. A strange genius, he had
no job or home, yet produced over 1500 papers with more than 450
collaborators.
The National Enquirer: thirty years of unforgettable
images / introduction by Steve Coz. (2001)
TR681 Fam.Na (CL Main Shelves)
Never enough words: how Americans invented expressions
as ingenious, ornery, and colorful as themselves
/ by Jeffrey McQuain. (1999)
PE2839 Mcq (CL Main Shelves)
News and the culture of lying
/ by Paul H. Weaver. (1994)
PN4888 Obj.W (CL Main Shelves)
Argues that news is staged by civil officials and the
press in a bid to court public favor and boost readership, causing
an ever-growing circle of fabrications and lies.
Notes from an even smaller island
/ by Neil Humphreys. (2001)
PN6175 Hum (CL Main Shelves, CL Sing/Mal Coll, & SC Gen Reading)
An Essex-born journalist-writer recounts life in Singapore
from a decidedly unusual viewpoint. From his unique position of
being both insider (he lives in a HDB flat and eats at hawker centres),
and outsider, he portrays his experiences with humor and wit.
One thousand beards: a cultural history of facial hair
/ by Allan Peterkin. (2002)
GT2320 Pet (CL Main Shelves)
Oscar fever: the history and politics of the Academy
Awards / by Emanuel Levy. (2001)
PN1993.92 Lev (CL Main Shelves)
The paradox of plenty: hunger in a bountiful world
/ edited by Douglas H. Boucher.
(1999)
HD1542 Par (CL Main Shelves)
Through its research, Food
First has shown that there is more than enough food for every man,
woman, and child on the planet, but all too often the poor do not
have access to that food.
The paradox of sleep: the story of dreaming
/ by Michael Jouvet. (1999)
QP426 Jou (CL Main Shelves)
The perfect baby: parenthood in the new world of cloning
and genetics / by Glenn McGee. (2000)
HQ751 Mcg (CL & MD Main Shelves)
Philosophy goes to the movies: an introduction to philosophy / by Christopher Falzon. (2002)
BD21 Fal 2002 (CL Main Shelves)
The pinball effect: how renaissance water gardens made
the carburetor possible, and other journeys through knowledge
/ by James Burke. (1996)
T15 Bur (SC Main Shelves)
Place
names: how they define the world--and more
/ by Richard R. Randall. (2001)
G105 Ran (CL
Main Shelves)
Randall, drawing on experience
from his career in the U.S. Board of Geographic Names, has created
a study of place names, and how they shape the way people view the
world around them.
The
power of gold: the history of an obsession
/ by Peter L. Bernstein. (2000)
GR810 Ber (CL
Main Shelves)
The rainbow bridge
: rainbows in art, myth, and science /
by Raymond L. Lee, Jr. and Alistair B. Fraser.
(2001)
QC976 Rai.L (CL Main Shelves)
Remaking Eden : cloning and
beyond in a brave new world
/ by Lee M. Silver. (1997)
RG133.5 Sil. (CL Main Shelves)
Representing women / by Linda Nochlin. (1999)
ND1460 Wom.No (CL Main Shelves)
This book brings together
the author’s writings on the subject of women in 19th
and 20th century art as she considers works by Millet,
Delacroix, Courbet, Degas, Seurat, Cassatt and Kollwitz, among others.
Shadows of forgotten ancestors: a search for who we are
/ by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan. (2000)
QH325
Sag (CL Main Shelves)
An exploration of the origins
of the Solar System, life and humanity, integrating the insights
of science into a vision of where we came from, who we are, and
what our fate might be.
The sneaker book: anatomy of an industry & an icon
/ by Tom Vanderbilt. (1998)
HD9992 Van (CL Main Shelves)
Speaking with the devil: a dialogue with evil
/ by Carl Goldberg. (1995)
RC555 Gol (CL Main Shelves)
Based on thirty years of
clinical work with patients, Goldberg attempts to explain the psychological
basis of malevolent behaviour.
Stars
and planets / by
Ian Ridpath. (2001)
HQ1190
Rid (SC Main Shelves)
Basics of astronomical
observation explained and the astrophysics behind heavenly bodies
revealed, alongside full-colour photos, illustrations and maps.
Temples of gold: seven
centuries of Thai Buddhist paintings /
by Santi Leksukhum. (2000)
ND1021
San (CL Main Shelves)
They lie, we lie: getting on with anthropology
/ by Peter Metcalf. (2002)
DS595 *Ber.Me (CL Main Shelves & CL Sing/Mal Coll)
An account of his fieldwork
in Borneo, telling the story of his tortuous relationship with Kasi,
a formidable old lady who, for twenty years, tried to strictly control
what he learnt about her community.
The triumph of the embryo
/ by Lewis Wolpert. (1991)
QM603 Wol (CL, SC & MD Main Shelves)
An easy-to-understand layman’s
reference to embryology,
the complex study of
how a single cell can multiply and become an adult animal or human.
Uncommon
grounds: the history of coffee and how it transformed our world
/ by Mark Pendergrast. (2000)
HD9199
Pen (CL
Main Shelves)
Untruth: why the conventional wisdom is (almost always)
wrong / by Robert J. Samuelson. (2001)
HC106.82 Sam (CL & HL Main Shelves)
A series of columns explaining
why our political, economic and cultural debates so routinely traffic
in misinformation, oversimplifying and exaggerating problems and
misleading the public.
Voodoo science: the road from foolishness to fraud
/ by Robert L. Park. (2000)
Q175.52 Uni.P (SC Main Shelves)
To expose the forces that
sustain voodoo science, Park closely examines the role of the media,
the courts, bureaucrats, and politicians, as well as the scientific
community.
Wanderlust: a history of walking
/ by Rebecca Solnit. (2000)
GV199.5 Sol (CL Main Shelves)
What's in a word? : etymological gossip about some interesting
English words / by Robert Gorrell. (2001)
PE1574 Gor (CL Main Shelves)
When bad things happen to other people
/ by John Portmann. (2000)
BJ1409 Por (CL Main Shelves)
What is it in human nature
that makes us derive pleasure from others' - even friends' - suffering?
Portmann explores this all-too-human foible - what the Germans call
Schadenfreude - in the first book ever written about this universal
emotion.
Why
we buy: the science of shopping
/ by Paco Underhill. (1999)
HF5415.2
Und (HL Main Shelves)
Wonderful wire / by Mary Maguire. (2001)
NK2115.5 Wir.Ma (CL Main Shelves)
Simple projects to make from wire and glass, such as
mirrors, cups and decorative items.
Wonders of numbers: adventures in mathematics, mind and
meaning / Clifford A. Pickover. (2001)
QA95 Pic (SC Main Shelves)
The word museum: the most remarkable English ever forgotten / by Jeffrey Kacirk. (2000)
PE1667 Kac (CL Main Shelves)
The English language continues
to expand. But as hundreds of new words are added annually, older
ones are sacrificed. A look at some quirky obsolete words and phrases
culled from the past.
Content by: Kho Su Yian,
Reference & Information Services Dept
Last updated:
02-07-2002
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