Branner Blog

First published more than fifty years ago, Rachel Carson’s 1951 best-seller, The Sea around Us, recently reappeared in a handsomely-illustrated commemorative edition by Oxford University Press, 2003.

With an Introduction by oceanographer/explorer Robert Ballard, an Afterward by geologist Brian J. Skinner, and an eloquent Preface by Carl Safina of the Blue Ocean Institute, the new edition contextualizes Carson’s classic work, and brings it up-to-date. Rarely are such informative books so delightful to read. Before Carson became a marine biologist, she studied English literature. Her biographer, Linda Lear, has described Carson’s method of reading aloud her works-in-progress, to assess the flow and euphony of her prose!

Branner Library owns both the 2003 edition, and a 1991 paperback edition with an introduction by the naturalist and artist/writer Ann Zwinger.

This is a tough question, but a list I’ve been meaning to compile for a while.

This particular patron walked away with Assembling California by John McPhee and Roadside geology of northern California by David Alt. Other recommendations follow (the books themselves will be on display in Branner for browsing and borrowing). This list is intended as a starting point, by no means exhaustive.

General interest earth science-themed reading:
• The Age of the Earth by Dalrymple; QE508 .D28 1991
• Annals of the Former World by McPhee; QE77 .M38 1998 which includes:
• Basin and Range; QE79 .M28 1981
• In Suspect Terrain; QE78.3 .M36 1983
• Rising from the Plains; QE79 .M29 1986
• Assembling California; QE89 .M37 1993
• Beyond Oil: the View from Hubbert’s Peak by Deffeyes; TP318 .D44 2005
• Cataclysms on the Columbia by Allen; QE581 .A43 1991
• Collapse by Diamond; HN13 .D5 2005
• Field notes from a Catastrophe by Kolbert; QC981.8 .G56 K655 2006
• Krakatoa by Winchester; QE523 .K73 W56 2003B
• Life: a natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth by Fortey; QH366.2 .F69 1997
• The Map that Changed the World by Winchester; QE22 .S6 W55 2001
• Plate Tectonics by Oreskes; QE511.4 .P53 2001
• The Rejection of Continental Drift by Oreskes; QE511.4 .O74 1999
• Something New Under the Sun by McNeill; GF13 .M39 2000
• T-Rex and the Crater of Doom by Alvarez; QE506 .A48 1997
• Volcano Cowboys by Thompson; QE521 .T48 2000

Other lists from the blogogeosphere (or is it the geoblogosphere?):
Apparent Dip’s Great Science Book Challenge
Geology Home Companion’s Geology Reading List
California Council of Geoscience Organization’s Armchair Geologist Reading List

Stay tuned for future lists, and updates to the aforementioned. Anticipated themes include: environmental classics, geobiographies, geology of California, fuel for thought. Please send suggested titles or potential themes our way.

Do you use Google Scholar to look for research papers, conference proceedings, and other scholarly works? You can now adjust the preferences to link directly to the library’s full text content and download the citations into EndNote or RefWorks. From the main Google Scholar page, click on Scholar Preferences. Type Stanford into the Library Links and then click the box to choose “Stanford University (Find it @ Stanford).” Scroll down to the Bibliography Manager and choose your favorite citation manager program. Save your preferences. Next time you search, you’ll see the Find it @ Stanford link next to the title of article if the full text is available online through the Library. This should work on campus or off.

a few items of note from today’s headlines.