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for California State University, Fresno.

Reading List

Read a Good Book

Being well-read is one of the hallmarks of an educated person. It is easy for students to become caught up in the rush of studying, classes, and work. Sometimes this means students read very little other than assigned readings for a class.

After consulting a wide range of faculty in many disciplines, the Senate Library Subcommittee and the Madden Library have created a reading list of recommended books in various subject areas.

MADDEN LIBRARY'S RECOMMENDED READING LIST

This list was compiled by the Library Subcommittee of the Academic Senate of California State University, Fresno, based on recommendations from faculty. It is hoped that students will use the list to select books for leisure reading and to supplement course reading during the school year and vacations. The books are considered suitable for reading without the guidance of an instructor. The list is not a “Greatest Books” list or a canon, but rather a list of books that will entertain, inspire, and widen horizons.

Criteria used:
Significance of the author
Representation of diversity
Appropriateness for undergraduate students
Availability in the library
Overall worth of the work
Balance among disciplines/subjects
Balance between “classic” and new titles

SCIENCE

Brody, David Eliot. The Science Class You Wish You Had , (1997). Q180. 55 D57
Dennett, Daniel. Darwin's Dangerous Idea, (1995). QH375. D45
Diamond, Jared. The Third Chimpanzee, (1992). GN281. D53 1993
Dillard, Annie. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, (1974). QH81. D56
Farmer, Paul. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues, (1999). RA418.5 P6 F37
Gardner, Martin. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, (1957). Q173. G35 1957
Greene, Brian. The Elegant Universe, (1999). QC194.6. S85 G75
Hofstadter, Douglas. Godel, Escher, Bach, (1979). QA9.8. H63
Ramachandran, V. S. Phantoms in the Brain, (1998). RC351. R24
Sacks, Oliver. An Anthropologist on Mars, (1995). RC351. S1948
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World, (1995). Q175. S215 1997
Waal, Frans de. Chimpanzee Politics, (1982). QL737. P96 W3213 1998
Walker, Jearl. The Flying Circus of Physics, (1975). QC32. W2
Watson, James D. The Double Helix, (1968). QD341. A2 W315

LITERATURE & FINE ARTS

Allende, Isabel. House of the Spirits, (1986). PQ8098.1 L54 C313
Austen, Jane. Emma, (1816). PR4043. E5 1996
Dickens, Charles. David Copperfield, (1849). PR 4558. H1 1998
Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose, (1983). PQ4865 C6 N613
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man, (1952). PS3555. L625 I5 1995
Homer. The Iliad, (1990). PA4025. A2 F33
Homer. The Odyssey, (2000). PA4025. A5 H36
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis in The Penal Colony, (1948). PT2621. A26 P4
Kushner, Tony. Angels in America, (2003). PS3561 U778 A85
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Love in the Time of Cholera, (1988). PQ8180.17 A73 A813
Morrison, Toni. Sula, (1974). PS3563. O8749 S8
Orwell, George. 1984, (1992). PR6029. R8 N49
Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor Was Divine, (2002). PS3615 T88 W48
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night's Dream, (2003). PR2827 A2 F6
Shepard, Sam. True West, (1981). PS3569 H394 A6
Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath, (1939). PS3537. T3234 G8 1993
Viramontes, Helena Maria. Under the Feet of Jesus
Voltaire. Candide (trans. Peter Constantine) (2005). PQ2082 C3 E5
Vonnegut, Kurt. Slaughterhouse Five, (1994). PS3572 O5 S6
Waters, Frank. The Woman at Otowi Crossing, (1966). PS3545. A82 W6 1987


HISTORY, POLITICS, & BIOGRAPHY

Brokaw, Tom. The Greatest Generation, (1998). D811. A2 B746
Donald, David. Lincoln, (1995). E457. D66
Gilbert, Martin. Churchill, a Life, (1991). DA5669. C5 G4435
Keegan, John. The Face of Battle, (1976). D25. K43
Machiavelli. The Prince, (1999). JC143 M38
Plutarch. Life of Pericles, PA4369. A2 1914
Reisner, Marc. Cadillac Desert, (1986). HD1739. A19 R45 1993
Runciman, Steven. The Fall of Constantinople, (1965). DF 649. R8
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America, (1835-1840). JK216. T6513 2000
Tuchman, Barbara. The Guns of August, (1962). D530. T8
Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States, (1980). E178. Z75 1999


SOCIAL SCIENCE & EDUCATION

Aronson, Elliot. The Social Animal, (1991). HM251. A79
Bandura, Albert. Social Learning and Personality Development, (1963). LB1117. B34
Brown-Miller, Susan. Against Our Will, HV6558 B76
Bruner, Jerome. The Process of Education, (1960). LB885. B78
Damon, William. Greater Expectations, (1995). HQ769. D225
Elkind, David. The Hurried Child, (1988). BF723. S75 E44
Elliott, Delbert S. (editor) Violence in American Schools, (1998). LB3013.3. V583
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, (1998). RA418.5 T73 F33
Friedman, Thomas L. The Lexus and the Olive Tree, (1999). HF1359. F74
Gardner, Howard. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, (1983). BF431. G244
Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence, (1995). BF561. G65
Hall, Edward. Beyond Culture, (1976). HM258. H29
Hillman, James. The Force of Character and the Lasting Life, (1999). BF724.85. S45 H535 1999b
Jamison, Kay R. An Unquiet Mind, (1995). RC516. J363
Jones, Ann R. When Love Goes Wrong, (1992). HV1445. J67
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities, (1991). LC4091. K69
Lickona, Thomas. Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility, (1991). LC268. L475
Mead, Margaret. Culture and Commitment, (1970). HM101. M38
Mills, C. Wright. White Collar, (1951). HT690. U6 M5
Ravitch, Diane. Left Back, (2000). LA216. R28
Sacks, Oliver. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, (1986). RC351. S195
Walker, Lenore. The Battered Woman, (1979). HV6626. W34

BUSINESS

Beckwith, Harry. Selling the Invisible, (1997). HD9980.5. B425
Collins, James C. and Jerry I. Porras. Built to Last, (1994). HF5386. C735
Fisher, Roger. Getting to Yes, (1991). BF637. N4 F57
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science, (1987). Q172.5. C45 G54
Goleman, Daniel. Working with Emotional Intelligence, (1998). HD38.2. G647
Ohmae, Kenichi. Triad Power, (1985). HD 62.47. O36
Reich, Robert. The Work of Nations, (1991). HB501. R36
Thurow, Lester. Head-to-Head, (1992). HC59. T5157

RECOMMENDED BOOKS WRITTEN BY FRESNO STATE FACULTY

Echeverria, Jeronima. Home Away from Home: A History of Basque Boardinghouses, (1999). TX909. E28
Faderman, Lillian. Naked in the Promised Land: A Memoir, (2003). CT3990. F33 A3
Gruenbaum, Ellen. The Female Circumcision Controversy: An Anthropological Perspective, (2001). GN484. G78
Hanson, Victor Davis and John Heath. Who Killed Homer?: The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, (1998). PA78. U6 H36
Herrera, Juan Felipe. Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler, (2002). PS3558. E74 Z4695
Levine, Robert V. A Geography of Time: The Temporal Misadventures of a Social Psychologist, or How Every Culture Keeps Time Just a Little Bit Differently, (1997). HM291. L44 1997
Ogden, Paul. W. The Silent Garden: Raising Your Deaf Child, (1996). HV2392.2 O34
Owen, Barbara. “In the Mix”: Struggle and Survival in a Women’s Prison, (1998). HV9475. C3 C876
Thornton, Bruce. Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta, and History in California, (2003). F865. M96 T48
Yarbrough, Steve. The Oxygen Man, (1999). PS3575. A717 O95

Compiled by the Academic Senate Library Subcommittee in 2001; revised in 2006.

Send comments and inquiries to:
Dave Tyckoson
Henry Madden Library
California State University, Fresno

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