Here are a few good books on general topics discussed in class.  Most of them are written for the general reader interested in science, and many have made the nonfiction best seller lists.  These are books that I think really stand out as "a good read".  I will add books to the list as we go through the semester, so consider this list just a starting off point.  All these books are accessible through the KSU library or Ohiolink. 

Got a good book to recommend to me?  Let me know-I am always on the look out for a good read.  This summer, I read a couple of geology/paleontology related books that were really interesting (that is, when I wasn't reading Terry Pratchett ) -Serpentine - the Evolution and Ecology of a Model System by Susan Harrison and Nishanta Rajakaruna, Randomness in Evolution, by John Tyler Bonner, Convergent Evolution-Limited Forms Most Beautiful, by George McGhee,  Darwin's Ghosts by Rebecca Stott (on this list below), and E.O. Wilson's The Diversity of Life - the book we are using this semester as a good example of science writing. 

History of Geology
The Map That Changed the World, by Simon Winchester
Hens Teeth and Horses Toes, by Stephen Jay Gould
Dinosaurs in the Attic, by Douglas Preston

Milankovitch Cycles and Climate Change
Ice Ages - Solving the Mystery, by John Imbrie and Katherine Palmer Imbrie 

The Two Mile Time Machine, by Richard Alley
The Role of the Sun in Climate Change, by Douglas Hoyt and Kenneth Schatten
The Little Ice Age-How Climate Made History, by Brian Fagan

The Long Summer, How Climate Changed Civilization, by Brian Fagan

Heatstroke, by Anthony Barnosky

The Idea of Deep Time
Time Machines, by Peter Ward
River of Time, by Peter Ward

Strange Preservation Stories...
The Mummy Congress, by Heather Pringle
The Man in the Ice, by Konrad Spindler

Wonderful Life (the story of the Burgess Shale) by Stephen Jay Gould

The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China, the Flowering of Early Animal Life, by Hou, M-G, Aldridge, R.J., Bergstrom, J., Siveter, D.L., Siveter, D.J., and Feng, X-H.
 

The role of Oxygen in the history of life

Oxygen:  The Molecule that Made the World,  by Nick Lane

The Emerald Planet-How Plants Changed Earth's History, by D.J. Beerling

Mitochondria-what they have done, what they do

Power, Sex and Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life, by Nick Lane

Microcosmos, by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan

History of Evolutionary Theory

Darwin's Ghosts by Rebecca Stott

Apes, Angels and Victorians, by William Irvine

Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller

 Adventures & Explorations

Sailing Alone Around the World, by Joshua Slocum

Endurance, by Alfred Lansing (about the Shackleton Expedition)

Kon-Tiki, by Thor Hyerdahl

Krakatoa, by Simon Winchester

Atlantic, by Simon Winchester

Remarkable Species: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species, by Sean B. Caroll

The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Wallace

The World Was My Garden, by David Fairchild

The Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, by Charles Darwin

Genes, Genomes, and EvoDevo

Genome, by Matt Ridley

The Red Queen, by Matt Ridley

Endless Forms Most Beautiful, by Sean B. Carroll

Before the Dawn, by  Nicholas Wade

Your Inner Fish, by Neil Shubin

How to Build a Dinosaur, by Jack Horner and James Gorman

At the Water's Edge, by Carl Zimmer

Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, by Nick Lane

 Collections of Amazingly Good Short Essays on Science & Evolution Topics

The White Lantern, by Evan S. Connell

A Long Desire, by Evan S. Connell

The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan

Anything by Stephen Jay Gould written for Natural History Magazine in his column, "This View of Life".  These were gathered into books, including...

Hen's Teeth and Horses' Toes

The Flamingo's Smile

A Dinosaur in a Haystack

Ever Since Darwin

Bully for Brontosaurus