Subject Knowledge: Great books for biology teachers

There is only one short cut to improving subject knowledge—reading great books. In this post I compile a selection of the books that have really helped me develop as a biology teacher. Lists are never perfect, but these books helped me see things, and/or provided the concrete examples I needed to be a better teacher. I have specifically chosen more accessibly-written books (good narrative & level not too high)—avoiding more academic books or papers. As such, it isn't a complete list of my favourites, and I'm sure there are many great books I'm yet to read. Do you want to co-construct meaning without lecturing, slide decks, or leaving students to discover for themselves? Learn how and why in my books. Download the first chapters of each book here.

Great Books

Human ecophysiology & evolution

• On Fertile Ground: A Natural History of Human Reproduction

• A Story of Us: A New Look at Human Evolution

• I, Mammal: The Story of What Makes Us Mammals

Evolution

• Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction 

• Improbable Destinies: How predictable is evolution?

• Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle

• The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

• How Birds Evolve: What Science Reveals about Their Origin, Lives, and Diversity 

Ecology

• Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction

• Spillover: the powerful, prescient book that predicted the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic

• Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter

• Rebirding: Rewilding Britain and its Birds

• Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures

• Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly

• The Story of N: A Social History of the Nitrogen Cycle and the Challenge of Sustainability

Biochemistry

• The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life

• Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life

• Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World

• Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death (good if you teach Krebs cycle 16-18)

Botany

• The Life of a Leaf

• The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History

• The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World

• Woodlands

• Lives of Weeds: Opportunism, Resistance, Folly

Genetics & Inheritance

• Superior: The Return of Race Science

• She Has Her Mother's Laugh: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity

Systems theory & cybernetics

• The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future

• Runaway: Gregory Bateson, the Double Bind, and the Rise of Ecological Consciousness

Consciousness, cognition, intelligence

• Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind

• Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness

• Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence

History of Biology

• The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth

• The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science

Marine biology & Fisheries

• The Unnatural History of the Sea

More-academically written texts

Systems theory, cybernetics, and enactivism

• Thinking in Systems

• The Systems View of Life: A unifying vision

• Gaian Systems: Lynn Margulis, Neocybernetics, and the End of the Anthropocene 

• The Beginning of Heaven and Earth Has No Name: Seven Days with Second-Order Cybernetics

• Understanding Systems: Conversations on Epistemology and Ethics

• From Being to Doing: The Origins of the Biology of Cognition

• Evolution from a Thermodynamic Perspective: Implications for Species Conservation and Agricultural Sustainability

• Cybernetics for the Social Sciences 
  

My books: Difference Maker | Biology Made Real, or my other posts.

Download the first chapters of each book for free here.

Christian Moore-Anderson