Book shelf

Book shelf

Explore a selection of publications by alumni and academics, and books with a link to the University or Cambridge

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Book cover shows people hiking through the countryside and a close up of someone tying their shoelace

Exercise: A Scientific and Clinical Cverview

Dr Hugh JN Bethell (St John's 1960) & Prof David Brodie

A comprehensive description of the science of physical performance, how to measure it, its place in maintaining good health and its role in the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases - particularly the degenerative conditions of later life.

The book also describes the woefully inadequate activity levels of our population, the dangers of sedentary lifestyles and the huge social and financial benefits to be gained by increasing exercise for all.

The book cover shows a silhouetted figure staring into the sunset over a mountainous landscape

Beyond the Horizon might be Better

Sola Amure (Christ's 1976)

Sola Amure’s childhood was spent between Nigeria and England.

In Nigeria his family enjoyed every material comfort: the only things lacking from his early life were love and affection. He was very upset at the huge disparity between people like his family and those families struggling to eat.

The book cover depicts cylinders of materials in neat lines

Materials and Sustainability: Building A Circular Future

Paul Foulkes-Arellano (Queens 1982) & Julia L Freer Goldstein

This book examines sustainable manufacturing, from the extraction of materials to processing, use and disposal, and argues that significant changes in all of the above are needed for the world to progress toward a more circular economy.

A yellow and black depiction of Mecca (a 3D cube in shape) on a deep blue background.

Labbaikallah - Life Lessons In A Spiritual Journey

Siti Malini Mat (Newnham 1999)

A collection of introspective reflections in the hajj journey of a regular Muslim lady, when she made it a point to deliberately ask herself, in almost each step of the way:

What does this mean to me?
What can I learn from this?
How can the lessons help me grow to become a better Muslim and a better person?

Nietzsche’s Political Economy book cover, brown background with green bold text

Nietzsche’s Political Economy

Dmitri G. Safronov (Girton 2016)

Nietzsche’s Political Economy is a pioneering appraisal of Nietzsche’s critique of industrial culture and its unfolding crisis. The author contends that Nietzsche remains unique in conceptualizing the upheavals of modern political economy in terms of the crisis of its governing values.

When We Walk By book cover, depicting the possessions of an unhoused person on the street

When We Walk By: Forgotten Humanity, Broken Systems, and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homelessness in America

Kevin F. Adler (St Catherine's 2007) and Donald W. Burnes

A deeply humanising analysis that will change the way you think about poverty and homelessness - for the socially engaged reader of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste and Matthew Desmond's Evicted.

Think about the last time that you saw or interacted with an unhoused person. What did you do? What did you say? Did you offer money or a smile, or did you avert your gaze?

Alvin Hansen biography book cover, featuring a black and white image of the subject, dressed in a suit

Alvin Hansen: Seeking a Suitable Stabilization - An Academic Biography

Robert J. Bigg (Clare 1975)

Alvin Hansen was instrumental in the development of American Keynesianism, social security, and full-employment policies. His was a search for practical policies that could reconcile the demands of technological progress and private enterprise with employment security and a better society. How could government policy best support a dynamic maturing economy in the face of challenges from the lack of population and territorial growth that had supported the American expansion of the nineteenth century?

Molecular storms book cover, showing bold text over exploding light points

Molecular Storms: the Physics of Stars, Cells and the Origin of Life

Liam Graham (Robinson 1986)

Why is the universe the way it is? Wherever we look, we find ordered structures: from stars to planets to living cells. This book shows that the same driving force is behind structure everywhere: the incessant random motion of the components of matter. Physicists call it thermal noise. Let’s call it the molecular storm.

The Decarbonization Delusion book cover, featuring a white page with bold typeface

The Decarbonization Delusion - What 3.5 Billion Years of Biological Sustainability Can Teach Us

Andrew Moore (Clare 1990)

Could the race to decarbonize our energy systems be leading us closer to environmental disaster? Why did biology choose carbon, in a variety of compounds, as its energy carrier and storage substance? From the smallest life forms, through multicellular organisms, and up to whole ecosystems, this economy of carbon compounds is fundamentally sustainable. Yet today, many are conspiring to expunge carbon-based energy carriers from human economies, replacing them with solutions based on other elements and minerals.

Book cover depicting a crayon drawing of the Vajont dam

La Notte Più Buia Della Valle

Andrea Di Antonio (Hughes Hall 2016)

Il disastro del Vajont si verifica nell’omonima valle situata a cavallo tra Veneto e Friuli Venezia Giulia, all’interno della quale viene realizzata una diga alta 261,60 metri che sottende un bacino idroelettrico di oltre 150 milioni di metri cubi d’acqua. Il 9 ottobre 1963, alle ore 22:39, una frana stimata in 270 milioni di metri cubi precipita all’interno del lago causando la formazione di un’onda alta circa 200 metri, che distrugge tutto ciò che incontra lungo il suo percorso e di cui, una parte, sormonta la diga e si incanala verso gli abitati di fondovalle.

A sketchy knowledge of ai book cover, drawn in a comic book style, showing a figure in a thought bubble over a city

A Sketchy Knowledge of AI

John O'Hare (Hughes Hall 1994)

"An Absolute Gem! This book is a treasure for anyone curious about AI. In just 30 sketches, it manages to demystify a futuristic technology that often seems beyond reach. The cartoon-based approach is not only accessible but also fun, making it a must-read for all ages. Understanding AI has never been this enjoyable!"

Currently #10 in the Amazon best selling list of children's books on computers, and #51 on all AI books.

Rescuing Richard book cover showing a map and compass, and a silhouetted gentleman

Rescuing Richard

Gareth Williams (Queens 1984)

Rescuing Richard is the thrilling third instalment of the Richard Davey Chronicles. A breathless quest that sweeps the reader from the blood-soaked battlefields of Zululand to the corridors of power in Regency London. Richard is astonished when Shaka appoints him to his inner council, where he vies for influence with Napoleon Bonaparte, recently escaped from St Helena. Wrestling with his conscience, Richard confronts colonial adventurers exploiting the land he has sworn to protect.

Book cover for In Patient Mental Health Care, with paint splatter affect background.

In-patient Mental Health Care from the Asylum System to the Present Day: A Lived Experience of Policy and Practice

Andrew Colley (Wolfson 2017)

With a focus on the progression and dismantlement of the asylum system, this book examines key issues around the policy and practice of in-patient mental health provision in the UK, making comparisons with similar services in other parts of the world.

In the Moment book cover, featuring a sage green background and a tab toggled to 'on'

In The Moment: Build your confidence, communication and creativity at work

Neil Mullarkey (Robinson 1980)

There are moments throughout our lives when our confidence and creativity can make all the difference. Discover how to transform your career and grow your network by finding success In The Moment. With over two decades of experience in bringing improv and other skills to leaders and teams, Neil Mullarkey shares his insights on creativity, leadership, meetings, storytelling, the human connection, both in face-to-face and virtual worlds.

All to Play For book cover, featuring a blue background with sports cartoon sports players

All to Play For: How Sport can Reboot Our Future

Matt Rogan (Fitzwilliam 1993) and Kerry Potter

From the collective shared experience of a nationwide event and the individual benefits gained from lacing up your trainers and getting out there, to the political power of a footballer's Twitter account, All to Play For is a roadmap for the way that sports can unite us in the worst of times.

An Ordinary Spectator Returns book cover detailing a sports players on a pitch

An Ordinary Spectator Returns: Watching Sport Again

Dr John Rigg (Trinity 1974)

An Ordinary Spectator Returns: Watching Sport Again presents a collection of John Rigg’s wide-ranging sports writing over the last six years. The book captures the thrill of watching some of the elite participants of the modern era, including Kevin De Bruyne, Alastair Cook, Sonny Bill Williams et al. But it’s not all about the star performers.

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What Would Jesus See?

Aaron Rosen (Pembroke 1999)

Aaron Rosen, one of the world’s leading experts on art and religion, brings a fresh lens to the Gospels, informed by his experience as an art curator and scholar, as well as his life as a practicing Jew married to an Episcopal priest. He examines Jesus's eye for spectacle, and his tools for discerning truth amid a flurry of false appearances. As he applies Jesus’s view to key challenges facing society today, Rosen taps a surprising trove of examples drawn from art, current events, and popular culture.

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Dialed In: Do Your Best When It Matters Most

Dr Dana Sinclair (Hughes Hall 1990)

For readers of Atomic Habits and Grit, a top performance psychologist, who has coached elite athletes, surgeons, and business leaders, shares her proven plan to getting the best results when the pressure is on. What do a major league baseball catcher struggling with pop-flies, an operating room doctor anxious before a surgery, and a slumping sixteen-year-old tennis prodigy all have in common? They’re elite performers who, for whatever reasons, are not achieving excellence, and they’re not sure how to improve.

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Collective Intelligence: How to build a business that's smarter than you

Jennifer Sundberg (St Catharine's 1998) & Pippa Begg (Downing 2002)

Enduringly successful companies don’t rely on a genius CEO. They build collective intelligence, systematically empowering everyone, from the boardroom to the shop floor, to use their brains and apply them to the problems and opportunities that matter most. The iPhone wasn’t the brainchild of Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet didn’t want to bet on Apple, and Amazon Prime wasn’t Jeff Bezos’ idea. Each of these breakthroughs was sparked by an employee who’d been given the tools, skills, and confidence to ask the right questions.

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Saying Goodbye - The poems of Xu Zhimo in English verse translation

Stuart Lyons (King's 1962)

200 poems with introduction, timeline and glossary. Between his arrival in Cambridge in 1921 and his tragic death ten years later, Xu Zhimo transformed Chinese poetry. Love and heartbreak, landscape and dreams, famine and war, Xu says 'goodbye' to his hopes and optimism. Stuart Lyons won the 2020 Stephen Spender Prize for poetry in translation. 

Available for purchase from The Shop at King's (King’s Visitor Centre), 13 King’s Parade, Cambridge CB2 1SP. Contact details: 01223 789340, shop@kings.cam.ac.uk

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