Browse or jump to the faculty member’s last name:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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The Strengths Model: Case Management with People Suffering from Severe and Persistent
Mental Illness
Charles A. Rapp
I spent 20 years working with clients with severe mental illness prior to my academic career. I
came to understand the vital importance of working with cleients’ strengths and fostering their
resilience. Rapp’s theoretical model resonates with my own experience and provides a foundation for
social work practice and research.
Social Work
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Silent Spring
Rachel Carson
Silent Spring inspired me not only to seek ways to live more harmoniously with nature; it
also provided impetus for several grassroots environmental activities, activities that led me to my
career in librarianship. Rachel Carson’s exceptional courage and conviction, despite controversy
and attacks from entrenched interests, give us all an exemplary model for dealing with critical
challenges in our lives, environmental and otherwise.
Melody Allison
University Library
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Contexts for Frank McGuinness’s Drama
Helen Heusner Lojek
This is one of the only comprehensive studies of the works of Irish playwright, Frank
McGuinniss. I choose this book not only in acknowledgment of the playwright and his contribution to
the theatre but also in honor of the author, Helen Lojek, who has been my academic and intellectual
mentor and close friend for over 20 years .
Robert G.
Anderson
Theater
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The Story of Mankind
Hendrik Willem Van Loon
Written for children, “the story of mankind” examines history in an adult way: an investigation
of cause and effect over time. A gift for my father’s bar-mitzvah, the book sat on a remote shelf
until I rediscovered it in my childhood, beginning my enduring fascination with how institutions
evolve.
Amitai Aviram
College of Law
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The History of the Hobbit
John D. Rateliff
I first read J.R.R. Tolkien’s
The Hobbit as a 9-year-old boy, devouring the book in a single day. Soon thereafter
I read the entirety of
The Lord of the Rings and became a medievalist for life. Rateliff’s 2-volume account of
the Hobbit’s composition shows us how middle-earth first reached publication-and how the success of
The Lord of the Rings caused Tolkien to revise the book that began it all.
English
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Bear Snores On
Karma Wilson
Every time my children and i read this book, it serves as a gentle reminder that good sleep,
good friends, and a good party every once in a while all make life more fun.
Jennifer Bernhard
Department Of Electrical And Computer Engineering
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Das Glasperlenspiel (The Glass Bead Game)
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse published
Das Glasperlenspiel in 1943. I read the novel with 18 years searching for my role in live.
Hesse provided in his book thought-provoking impulses. The temptation of living a life in an
academic ivory tower vs. the need to contribute solving real-life problems still resonates with
me.
Martin Bohn
Crops Sciences
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Borges: Selected Poems
Jorge Luis Borges
In memory of my father, German Roberto Bollero.
German Bollero
Crop Sciences
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My Side of the Mountain
Jean Craighead George
This book and its main character provided me a t a young age with a role model for youthful
independence, inquisitiveness, a love for nature, and a practical expreession of ingenuity. My life
has since been guided by my commune with nature and a use of intellect to find myself and my place
in this world.
Stephen Boppart
Electrical And Computer Engineering, Bioengineering
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Message Effects Research
Sally Jackson
Sally Jackson’s book, message effects research: principles of design and analysis, guided and
inspired my thinking about the content of our discipline (communication) and about the methods we
use to study it. It is truly a revolutionary book.
Dale Brashers
Communication
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Gravitation and Cosmology: Principles and Applications of the General Theory of
Relativity
Steven Weinberg
This book was my introduction to the theory of general relativity and its application to the
study of the origin and evolution of the universe. My curiosity piqued, I decided to pursue
cosmology as a career.
Robert Brunner
Astronomy
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Race, Language and Culture
Franz Boas
Race, Language and Culture collects the seminal essays written by Franz Boas, the founder
of American Anthropology. They are the basis of the scholarly tradition I seek to continue.
Matti Bunzl
Anthropology
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Modeling of Asphalt Concrete
Y. Richard Kim (Editor)
When people ask me about my research area, they are almost always shocked to learn that a large,
international scientific research community is devoted to the advanced study of asphalt materials
and pavements. If there is any doubt about the complexity of the subject, this book should set
the record straight. Chapter 14 chronicles the research subject that tugged me away from
structures and bridges and over to (down to, really)…pavements.
William Buttlar
Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Star Maker
Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon’s
Star Maker is a fascinating science-fiction view of the origin and evolution of the
universe that was ahead of its time and has inspired physicists, biologists and poets alike
(Freeman Dyson, John Maynard Smith, and Jorge Luis Borges, to name a few). The novel fueled my
imagination when I was young. Its breathtaking cosmological views inspire today my evolutionary
genomic research on origins and evolution of life.
Crop Sciences
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Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
This book has always held a special place for me. It was one of the first I read
that spoke to how I felt as I moved through the world. Ellison eloquently captured the
feelings of millions of African Americans, both those alive at the time his book went to press and
those yet unborn.
Jason Chambers
Advertising
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The Passion
Jeannette Winterson
Winterson’s writing is absolutely magical. The passion is one of her most exquisite works and it
has personal significance for me.
Tamara Chaplin
History
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The Feynman lectures on physics
Richard Feynman
As a graduate student at Caltech, Feynman’s lectures were a major reference for me to understand
physics. My current role as researcher and instructor helped me to further appreciate his lectures
as a reference guide on teaching and inspiring our students.
Ioannis Chasiotis
Aerospace Engineering
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Inequalities: Theory of Majorization and Its Applications
Albert W. Marshall and Ingram Olkin
This book helped me to prove my first theorem in my thesis.
Yuguo Chen
Statistics
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We Make the Road By Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
Myles Horton and Paulo Freire (edited by Brenda Bell, John Gaventa and John Peters)
It taught me that the way to lasting social change is through providing opportunities for people
to develop and apply the skills they need to change the injustice they perceive in their lives.
This book changed my understanding of the educational process and my role as a social work
educator.
Susan Cole
School Of Social Work
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Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life (Revised and Enlarged)
Joseph Brent
The complex, troubled, productive, energetic and fascinating life of C.S. Peirce is masterfully
captured in book form, a book which itself makes an equally fascinating publication story (see its
preface). This story got me started in pragmatism, which is the main engine of my work at present.
Thank you, Dr. Brent.
Linquistics
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The Age of Lincoln
Orville Vernon Burton
The Age of Lincoln, illustrates the transformation of 19th century. American society in
politican, social, religious and economic terms. Besides, I had the pleasure of meeting Orville
Vernon Burton and enjoyed him as much as reading his book.
John Dee
Music
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Don Quijote de la Mancha
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
This master work offers all sorts of lessons about life. It ‘speaks’ to the reader in different
levels, in multi-layer degrees of understanding, it is a master piece about human behavior. Ever
since I read it, when I was around 14 years old, it is the book I always go back to, and every time
is a multi-layer reading throughout all these years.
Eduardo Diazmunoz
School Of Music / Opera and New Msic Ensemble
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The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America
Robert Entman and Andrew Rojecki
Robert Entman’s work, as encapsulated in this manuscript, motivated much of my own
scholarship. When I was considering the role of racial stereotyping in the mass media,
particularly news contexts, it was Entman’s work that told me that the area was important and
deserved serious social scientific attention.
Travis Dixon
Communication
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Signal Processing for Communications
Paolo Prandoni and Martin Vetterli
The book presents a modern approach to signal processing and the teaching of the subject to
undergraduate students. I share the same conviction with the authors that signal processing is
a ubiquitous part of modern technology and should be taught to be fun.
Minh Do
Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
John Bartlett
I have spent hours reading through quotation dictionaries, finding wisdom, inspiration, and
levity, and have exchanged favorite quotes with many of my dearest friends. So what better
way to celebrate tenure… and to allow someone who could never pick just one book to choose many
all at once.
Psychology
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Lucky Jim
Kingsley Amis
The gender politics of this book leave something to be desired (as they did in Amis’s life). But
it’s still the perfect antidote to the tenure process.
Department of English
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The Measure of all Things
Ken Alder
This book fascinates me because it shows the horror and hardship in trying to establish a
logical coherent system of measurements during the french revolution. Reading it also makes one
wonder if and when the last country on Earth that uses the ridiculous english unit system will
finally convert.
Tony Grift
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
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Single-Channel Recording
Bert Sakmann and Erwin Neher
This book contains a thorough description of the “patch-clamp technique”, a methodology that
allows the detailed study of ion-channel proteins. These membrane proteins participate in virtually
all aspects of cell physiology, including regulation of cell volume, hormone secretion, muscle
contraction and neuronal activity, and are implicated in a variety of devastating congenital
diseases. This book represents a major source of information for my research activities as a
biophysicist in the ion-channel field.
Claudio Grosman
Molecular and Integrative Physiology
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Tea Life, Tea Mind
Soshitsu Sen XV
This book has played a profound role in my life as a designer, teacher and most importantly, as
a human being. Dr. Sen’s words have helped me to cultivate an inner awareness through the respect
of process, form and practice. It is within the framework of the way of tea that fostered my
sensory perception, sharpened my aesthetic understanding, heightened my cultural discernment, and
demonstrated the need for each of us to appreciate the moment.
Jennifer Gunji-Ballsrud
College Of Fine and Applied Arts, School Of Art and Design, Graphic Design
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Otras Inquisiciones (1937-1952)
Jorge Luis Borges
Pages 142, 143
Art and Design
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Guerrillas in the Bureaucracy: The Community Planning Experiement in the United States
Martin L. Needleman and Carolyn Emerson Needleman
Needleman and Needleman illustrate the strategies used by planners to covertly fight against
top-down and technically driven organizations. At a time when few had a voice in the urban
development process, planners created opportunities for local residents to voice concerns and shape
plans. Still relevant today, Guerrillas in the Bureaucracy teaches us how to promote social justice
from within the system.
Stacy Harwood
Urban and Regional Planning
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Private Typecasters, Preserving the Craft of Hot-Metal Type into the Twenty-First
Century.
Richard L. Hopkins
This book combines an interest in book arts with the opportunity to add to the UIUC’s collection
of fine press books and in particular Henry Morris’ Bird and Bull Press publications.
Caroline Haythornthwaite
GSLIS
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Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search for Common Ground Between God and
Evolution
Kenneth R. Miller
I am a scientist and a person of faith. I have encountered numerous people who insist that
science and faith are mutually exclusive. This book presents a masterful and approachable
resolution to this conflict. I hope that this book will encourage students of science to grow in
their faith and encourage students of faith to understand scientific investigation.
Lois Hoyer
Pathobiology
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Clarence Darrow For the Defense
Irving Stone
My American history teacher my junior year of high school assigned this book as required
reading. Although I already knew that I wanted to go to law school, this book solidified that
preference. In law school, my criminal law professor, Michael Tigar, seemed very close in
spirit to Clarence Darrow.
Angela Christine Hurt
Law
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Shakespeare’s Audience
Alfred Harbage
Shakespeare’s Audience transported me to the turn of the 17th century. Harbage’s insights
and documentation of the people of that time made me understand, not only intellectually but
viscerally, why we must evaluate texts in context with the time and audience for which they were
written.
Journalism
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The Little Prince
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Katherine Woods translator)
This story sums up all that is good and not-so-good with the world. The Fox’s secret is best of
all: ‘it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the
eye.’
University Library
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Sex in Public: The Incarnation of Early Soviet Ideology
Eric Naiman
The footnotes. This book shows how to combine literature with history, how to read closely and
to think broadly.
Lilya Kaganovsky
Departmnt of Slavic Language and Literature; Program in Comparative and World
Literature
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Environmental Soil Physics
Daniel Hillel
This text book is filled with excellent examples of practical problems. It provides
comprehensive information for all environmental scientist and engineer dealing with water,
environment, and soils. Starting from basic information, physics, chemistry, biology, and higher
level mathematical expressions, this book strives to expand our understanding of the terrestrial
ecosystem.
Prasanta Kalita
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
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Paul Celan: Poems, A Bilingual Edition
Paul Celan (translator: Michael Hamburger)
Paul Celan is one of the most amazing poets-or indeed writers-I have ever read. His poetry (and
the debates it generated) were central to the conception of my first book, unwanted beauty. He
suffered a great deal before, during, and after the holocaust and his capacity to express suffering
is groundbreaking.
Brett Ashley Kaplan
Comparative and World Literature
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Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience
Goffman, Erving
I vividly remember sitting stunned at the end of three intensive days spent reading this book in
graduate school. Goffman’s intricate analysis of taken-for-granted everyday actions has profound
implications for our understanding of the self.
Lori Kendall
GSLIS
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China
Edward Burtynsky
Burtynsky’s work is about our impact on the natural landscape and he photographs subjects such
as quarries and tire recycling in an uncomfortably beautiful way. His book, China, is a
sweeping look at the country from the insides of factories, to the Three Gorges Dam project, to the
rapidly changing streets of Shanghai.
M. Kathleen Kern
University Library
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Engaging Theories in Interpersonal Communication: Multiple Perspectives
Leslie A. Baxter & Dawn O. Braithwaite (Editors)
Engaging theories in interpersonal communication depicts the state-of-the-art theorizing in my
field in 2008. Its chapters make interpersonal communication theories accessible for a new
generation of scholars.
Leanne Knobloch
Communication
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Le parti pris des choses
Francis Ponge
Ponge turns microcosms into macrocosms, allowing the reader to build a view of life from the
small into large, from the ordinary into the extraordinary. From Ponge, I discovered the idea
that anything and everything can be viewed from the top down or the bottom up and that levels of
analyses are relative: one person’s mechanism is another person’s phenomenon.
Donna Korol
Psychology
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Variations on the Song of Songs
Christos Yannaras
Much as it is abundantly evident that reasoning has very limited capabilities in terms of
explaining human existence, most of the people who tried to write beyond its limits ended up in
irrationality. This book constitutes an exception and walks in an exemplary manner on the
tight rope between reasoning and metaphysics.
Dimitrios Kyritsis
Mechanical Science and Engineering
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Manchild in the Promised Land
Claude Brown
Manchild In The Promised Land was the first book that exposed me to a world outside of
white, suburban america. It shaped my desire to pursue social work as a profession and health
disparities as a research agenda.
School of Social Work
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Design for Ecological Democracy
Randolph T. Hester
Design for Ecological Democracy, written by my Ph.D. advisor Randy Hester, conveys an
inspired career committed to community building through public participation and design. It
synthesizes the personal, social, community, and ecological issues that frame all environmental
design through positive framing, good story telling, and inspired design.
Laura Lawson
Landscape Architecture
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Combustion Physics
Chung K. Law
This book covers comprehensive information on combustion. I read this book before it was
even published since professor law used it as the course material in Princeton University when I
was a Ph.D student there in 1991. This book has great impact on my research. Professor law
also served in my Ph. D committee, and encouraged me to pursue an academic career.
Chia-Fon Lee
Mechanical Science and Engineering
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Supersymmetry and String Theory: Beyond the Standard Model
Michael Dine
This is a very good reference book on the subjects of most interest to me, and was written by a
mentor of mine.
Rob Leigh
Physics
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Zhongguo cang shu lou
Ren Jiyu (Editor)
This three-volume sets contains major information reflecting how the Chinese library system
transforms from book repositories to a modern knowlege service center.
Jing Liao
Ricker Library of Architecture and Art
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Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, with Special Reference to
Education
Gary S. Becker
This is a classic collection of work by one of the founders of modern labor economics. As an
undergraduate and graduate student, Becker’s work inspired me and showed me how to use economics to
think about a variety of social issues.
Darren Lubotsky
Department of Economics and School of Labor and Employment Relations
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Holy Bible
God
In my life, no other books have pointed out my problems so precisely and given me hope so
genuinely at the same time. I strive for the same perfect balance when pursuing the frontiers of
knowledge and when mentoring my students.
Xiaowei Luo
Business Administration
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Psycho-Cybernetics and Self-Fulfillment
Maxwell Maltz
I read this book many times before i went back to graduate school. The goal-setting and
self-imaging techniques helped reinforcing my sense of purpose and boosting my confidence. It
certainly reshaped me and changed my life.
Plant Biology
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Cosmological Physics
John Peacock
This book has been a constant reference in my research on cosmology and the formation of
structures in the universe. I also used it in a graduate cosmology course. It is a
fantastic resource and has had a significant impact on my career during the 2000-2008 period.
Joseph Mohr
Astronomy, Physics and Ncsa
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The Jack Tales: Folk Tales from the southern Applacians
Richard Chase
I want to pay homage to my home state of North Carolina.
The Jack Tales is rich in myths, legends, and folk tales that help define what it means to
be from the South. Growing up, I read this book over and over again, desiring to be that clever
Jack who always came out on top of any situation.
University Library
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The Magic Toyshop
Angela Carter
I first read this book while I was living in Cambridge, England doing a postdoctoral fellowship.
It is lyrical, poetic, and a truly magical book (a book for adults in spite of the title.) I have
reread it since hen at least twice and still appreciate it so much.
Romana Nowak
Animal Sciences
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The Logic of Action: Young Children at Work
Frances Pckman Hawkins
Frances Hawkins and her husband David Hawkins’ writings about practicing science with young
children have been extremely important to me, my research and teaching.
Curriculum and Instruction
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Ymerologion tou viou mou (Biography of Savvas Tserkezis)
Savvas Tserkezis
This book inspired me over the years despite the extraordinary difficulties that the author
endured over a period of about 30 years (1880-1924), he persevered and never gave up nor
compromised his ideals or humility. As he himself put it ‘kathe empodion gia kalon,’
translating to ‘every obstacle always presents an opportunity.’
Mechanical Science and Engineering
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The Craft of Research
Wayne C. Booth et. al.
This lucid and powerful book helped me grasp-at a fundamental, atomic level-what it really means
to do research. In so doing, it not only helped my scholarly career, but helped me look into
life more deeply.
History
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Protein NMR Spectroscopy
John Cavanagh, Wayne J. Fairbrother, Arthur G. Palmer III, Nicholas J. Skelton and Mark
Rance
Protein NMR Spectroscopy is the authoritative work in the field for practicing researchers
in protein structure determination by NMR spectroscopy. I use this book for my graduate
special topics course, and some day i hope to write a thematically similar textbook for solid-state
NMR spectroscopy of proteins, my research specialty.
Chad Rienstra
Chemistry
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Urban Exile: Collected Writings of Harry Gamboa Jr.
Harry Gamboa Jr.
Harry Gamboa Jr.’s urban exile showcases an activist, writer, visual artist, and wordsmith of
the highest order whose profound influence on my thinking cannot be overstated.
Richard T.
Rodriguez
English and Latina/Latino Studies
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Goodnight Moon
Margaret Wise Brown
By far the most important book I read during my pre-tenure years-with my wife, Chryle, to my
son, Nathan.
Glenn Roisman
Psychology
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Psychometric Theory
Jum Nunnally and Ira Bernstein
This book is so essential to the research and practice of industrial/organizational
psychologists. If all disciplines were equipped with a deep understanding of psychometrics, the
world would be a better place.
Deborah Rupp
School Of Labor and Employment Relations; Department of Psychology
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Scourge The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox
Johnathan B. Tucker
My research focuses on poxviruses, like vaccinia virus, and how these viruses inhibit host cell
signal transduction events. This book provides a wonderful history of variola virus, the
causative agent of smallpox, and of the smallpox vaccine, vaccinia virus.
Microbiology
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The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I have always believed that most of the uncertainty in science, and life, lies not in that which
we know that we do not know, but, rather, in that which fail to realize that we do not
know. This is a lesson I hope to teach my children, and to learn myself.
Andrew Singer
Electrical and Computer Engineering
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Saying Something: Jazz Improvisation and Interaction
Ingrid Monson
This was an extremely important early influence on my direction as a jazz scholar.
Gabriel Solis
Music
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Mere Christianity
C.S. Lewis
In terms of the “impact factor” for my intellectual and spiritual growth, I can easily think of
several books by C.S. Lewis. Among them, Mere Christianity has always been my guide to deeper
understanding of my faith personally. His interpretation of God and humanity was a great
contribution to the history of Christian thoughts and Christian apologetics, and his arguments in
the book challenged me to think and examine my faith critically.
Yoo-Seong Song
University Library
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Promoting Diversity and Social Justice: Educating People from Priviledged Groups
Diane Goodman
Because dominant group members perpetuate oppression, Goodman explains that it is critical to
engage people from privileged groups in social justice issues. She encourages us to rethink the
costs of various forms of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, and so forth) and understand the ways
in which dominant group members also suffer as a result of oppressing others and living in unjust
systems.
Lisa
Spanierman
Educational Psychology
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The Art Spirit
Robert Henri
This book talks about life, art, why we do things, decisions, goals, our purpose. It is
applicable to anyone – primarily the artist, the painter, dancer, musician and anyone with the
desire to be anything – deep and real.
John ‘Chip’ Stephens
Fine and Applied Arts/Jazz Division
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With People in Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature
Rachel Kaplan, Stephen Kaplan and Robert Ryan
Rachel and Stephen Kaplan work tremendously hard to make science about environmental design
available to non-scientists. This book is an excellent example of their great skill at doing just
that. This book can be a lesson for all of us who hope to shape the world.
I love this book! It’s based on 30 years of research into the relationships between landscapes
and humans. It shows how we can design places that are beautiful and that meet human needs. It
would wonderful if every design student would read this book!
William Sullivan
Landscape Architecture
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The Crisis of the Twelfth Century
Thomas N. Bisson
In this newest book, my former dissertation advisor at Harvard challenges the central arguments
of his advisor at princeton, Joseph Strayer, and those of Stayer’s advisor, Charles Homer
Haskins. As Marc Bloch (another medievalist) has said, the task of an historian is to train
successors who will be able, if necessary, to refute him. This book is a product of that
ambition, and I hope I am, too.
Carol Symes
History
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Correspondance
Marcel Proust
This volume documents Marcel Proust’s final year and his desperate struggle to finish his novel,
a la Recherche du Temps Perdu. It also represents Philip Kolb’s own race against time. It
was published a year after his death, the same month that I embarked on what I hope to be a
lifelong adventure as the Kolb-Proust Librarian.
Caroline Szylowicz
The Kolb-Proust Archive for Research – University Library
__________________________________
Intestinal Failure: Diagnosis, Management and Transplantation
Editied by Alan Langnas, Olivier Goulet, Eamonn Quigley and Kelly Tappenden
As an investigator committed to enhancing the lives of individuals with intestinal failure,
editing this book, involving visioning the central issues and inviting the key contributors to our
knowledge, was a true honor. As a small group of committed investigators and clinicians, may
we continue to stride together and save many more lives from the ravages of malnutrition.
Food Science And Human Nutrition
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Three Centuries of Harpsichord Making
Hubbard, Frank
I found Hubbard’s book as I was becoming interested in instrument building. It is a great
example of how scholarship can inform craftsmanship and musicianship, making each a more fulfilling
endeavor. Hubbard turned what easily could have been a staid topic into a fascinating tale, with
enough beautifully illustrated technical detail to be a truly useful book. It changed my world, and
continues to inform my art to this day.
John Toenjes
Dance
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Differential Forms in Algebraic Topology
Raoul Bott and Loring Tu
I have selected this book for two reasons. First, because it gives an elegant and concise
introduction to many of the most important ideas in algebraic topology. Second, to honor my former
Advisor, Raoul Bott, who was a great man as well as a great mathematician.
Susan Tolman
Mathematics
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Menander: A Commentary
Gomme, A.W. and F.H. Sandbach
This is a fundamental guide to my favorite classical author. I have always admired its breadth
and comprehensiveness, its insight and learning. The authors were interested in every facet of
menander. I still find the book profitable to consult, although I have used it for many years.
Ariana Traill
Classics
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The Design Theory and Methodology of Asphalt Pavement Based on Cross-Anisotropy
Zhenfeng Li and Erol Tutumluer
I co-authored this book published in China to present my most recent research findings on the
characterization of anisotropic (direction dependent) modulus and deformation behvavior of unbound
aggregate layers in road pavements.
Erol Tutumluer
Civil and Environmental Engineering
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Godel, Escher and Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
Douglas Hofstadter
This remarkable book introduced me to the role of creativity in mathematics. As an amateur
pianist, I was inspired by its argument that both logical, mathematical reasoning and
musical/artistic composition involve creative freedom within rigorous, external constraints. The
unexpected truth is that mathematics research is a fundamentally creative act.
Jeremy Tyson
Mathematics
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Jane Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
This was the first book that made me excited about reading and understanding the complexity of
human relationships. It was also a marvelous, pre-feminist depiction of an intelligent, competent,
and independent woman who set off on her own, with only her brilliant mind and indomitable spirit
to commend her.
Psychology
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Renewable Energy
Godfrey Boyle
This book is an excellent resource for those interested in renewable energy. I used this
book as a primary textbook for a new course on renewable energy systems.
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
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Principles of Adsorption and Adsorption Processes
Douglas Ruthven
It was the book I relied on most heavily during graduate school to understand my thesis
topic.
Charlie Werth
Civil and Environmental Engineering
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The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
Barack Obama
I chose this book because I’m attracted to the concept of hope. Hope can be audacious, but also
incredibly motivating. Hope is what fuels me. It’s why I became a professor. It’s what I have for
each of my students.
Tiffany White
Business Admininstration
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Van Loon’s Geography: The Story of the World We Live In
Hendrik Van Loon
I found this book in a used bookstore when I was a graduate student. I was inspired. Van
Loon is a model for writing and teaching. The facts aren’t always right and the book is dated
in many ways, but I hope some of my work ages as well as this.
Alex
Winter-Nelson
Agricultural and Consumer Economics
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Psychoneuroimmunology (Volumes 1-2)
Robert Ader (Editor)
I selected this book because it is the quintessential reference book for the communication that
takes place between the immune, central nervous and endocrine systems.
Jeffrey Woods
Kinesiology and Community Health
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Readings in Information Retrieval
Karen Sparck Jones and Peter Willett
This is an excellent collection of the most important research accomplishments in information
retrieval made before the rapid rise of web search applications. While many of the papers in this
book were published decades ago, they remain quite insightful today for developing novel search
engine technologies.
Computer Science
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A Tale of Two Cites
Charles Dickens
My father, a professor in agriculture, read the first paragraph of this book “it was the best of
times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…”
during the middle of the culture revolution in china in 1969, in which many professors were
suffering. It opened a new “world” for me in both life and language.
Weimo
Zhu
Kinesiology
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