Book shelf

Book shelf

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

To have your book considered for inclusion, please submit your publication's details

Please note: to have your book considered for inclusion, its publication date must be either upcoming or it must have been published during the last 12 months. Unfortunately, we cannot include any details of books published prior to this time.

CAMCard discounts

Get up to 20% off when you use your CAMCard in selected book shops!

The Surface Temperature of the Earth

The Surface Temperature of the Earth

Trevor Underwood (Clare 1962)

This monograph comprises six papers on climate science written by Trevor Underwood, who studied theoretical physics at Cambridge University in the 1960s and returned to scientific research in 2008. This research originated from a chance encounter in a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale in December 2015 with a consulting engineer who had been involved in the 1973 construction of a sewage outfall through the coral reef off Hillsboro Inlet in Broward County, Florida.  The author was kindly provided with a typewritten copy of a survey of the reef that was conducted before the trench was refilled.

A Left for Itself

A Left for Itself

David Swift (Girton 2006)

In the first full length analysis of the rise of left-wing hobbyists, performative radicals and the 'Identity Left', A Left for Itself interrogates the connection between socio-economic realities and politico-cultural views and boldly asks what is a worthy politics, one for the follower count or one for effecting change.

Sacred Music by Women Composers Volume 1: SATB Anthems

Sacred Music by Women Composers Volume 1: SATB Anthems

Louise Stewart; Co-editor: Olivia Sparkhall (Homerton 1998)

The first of its kind, Sacred Music by Women Composers contains 22 anthems for mixed-voice choirs, accompanied and unaccompanied, in a beautifully presented anthology. The collection includes both biographical information and commentaries, showcasing the very best established and new names in choral composition. Launched at Selwyn College on 17 November 2019, this book contains exciting repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day, providing choirs with a much-needed resource for performing superb compositions by women.

Days of My China Dragon

Days of My China Dragon

Chandrahas Choudhury (Trinity 2000)

The Bombay restaurateur Jigar Pala has three, great, overlapping passions: food, people and banter. And he shakes and stirs them to great effect in his hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant, The China Dragon, set up with great ambitions on the foundation of a place previously set up by his father. Join Jigar as he shows you the arts of fried rice ("Self-fried rice is the right and duty of every human being") and Dragon Chicken, and portrays and narrates the stories of customers, waiters, chefs, ghosts and dragons (not to mention himself).

Drinkology. The Science of What We Drink and What It Does to Us, from Milks to Martinis

Drinkology. The Science of What We Drink and What It Does to Us, from Milks to Martinis

Alexis Willett (Darwin 2001)

Do you really know what you are drinking? Are you sure?

We consume many drinks every day and they all have an impact of some kind on our body. Maybe we're just thirsty, maybe we need something to wake us up, maybe we want something to relax us at the end of the day. But have you ever stopped to wonder what exactly is in your chai latte or just what those added electrolytes in your bottled water are supposed to do?

Love is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships

Love is the Drug: The Chemical Future of Our Relationships

Brian Earp (Trinity 2013) and Julian Savulescu

What if there were a pill for love? Or an anti-love drug, designed to help us break up?

This controversial and timely new book argues that recent medical advances have brought chemical control of our romantic lives well within our grasp. Substances affecting love and relationships, whether prescribed by doctors or even illicitly administered, are not some far-off speculation - indeed our most intimate connections are already being influenced by pills we take for other purposes, such as antidepressants.

Twenty Thousand Miles Through South America

Twenty Thousand Miles Through South America

Kirk Wilson (Hughes Hall 2007)

In 2019 Kirk Wilson rode a 160cc Indian made motorcycle from Colombia to Venezuela, the long way round through ten countries, carrying only a backpack. He crossed frozen mountain roads on the equator in Ecuador, and the driest desert in the world in Chile. He broke down in torrential rain six hours into the Amazon Jungle in Peru, and ended up in a ditch underneath the bike on a dark night in Bolivia. To complete the journey he had to get himself and the motorcycle across the closed Venezuela-Colombia frontier, as the world tried to start a civil war.

The Myths We Live By: Adventures in Democracy, Free Speech and Other Liberal Inventions

The Myths We Live By: Adventures in Democracy, Free Speech and Other Liberal Inventions

Peter Cave (King's 1972)

 In this witty and mischievous book, philosopher Peter Cave dissects the most controversial disputes of today, using philosophical argument, thought experiments and taking the reasoning to where it leads.  He thus reveals the hidden complexities and muddles in the many cherished beliefs of our liberal democracies.

Untimely affects

Untimely affects

Nadine Boljkovac (Newnham 2005)

Untimely affects: Gilles Deleuze and an Ethics of Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) examines screen affect, ethics and politics via works of screen and multimedia artist Chris Marker and filmmaker Alain Resnais, philosopher Gilles Deleuze and others, and was reissued in paperback in April 2015.

Out of the Third World

Out of the Third World

Ashok Sharma (Trinity Hall 1969)

Out of the Third World is a chronicle of the travails, tenacity, and grit against overwhelming odds and adversity faced by Ashok, a shy 18-year-old Indian student from East Africa, in gaining admission to a British Medical school during a tumultuous period in the British history triggered by an apocalyptic-sounding rhetorical speech, dubbed "The Rivers of Blood," delivered by Enoch Powell, a prominent British politician, on April 20, 1968, harshly denouncing the immigration of non-white people into Great Britain and demanding their repatriation.

Ways of Heaven. An Introduction to Chinese Thought

Ways of Heaven. An Introduction to Chinese Thought

Roel Sterckx (Clare Hall 1992)

In Ways of Heaven, leading China scholar Roel Sterckx offers an engrossing introduction to classical China’s world of ideas. Drawing on evocative examples from philosophical texts, literature, and everyday life over centuries of Chinese history, Sterckx introduces major thinkers and traditions, illuminates key concepts like the dao, qi, yin, and yang, and examines questions of leadership, social order, death, nature, and more.

Chinese Thought. From Confucius to Cook Ding

Chinese Thought: from Confucius to Cook Ding

Roel Sterckx (Clare Hall 1992)

We are often told that the twenty-first century is bound to become China's century. Never before has Chinese culture been so physically, digitally, economically or aesthetically present in everyday Western life. But how much do we really know about its origins and key beliefs? How did the ancient Chinese think about the world?      

The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

Okechukwu Nzelu (Girton College 2007)

How do you begin to find yourself when you only know half of who you are?

As Nnenna Maloney approaches womanhood she longs to connect with her Igbo-Nigerian culture. Her once close and tender relationship with her mother, Joanie, becomes strained as Nnenna begins to ask probing questions about her father, who Joanie refuses to discuss.

Climate Change (A Ladybird Expert Book)

Climate Change (A Ladybird Expert Book)

HRH The Prince of Wales, Tony Juniper and Dr Emily Shuckburgh OBE (Trinity College 1994)

Part of the new Ladybird Expert series, Climate Change is a clear, simple and enlightening introduction to one of the most important issues facing our world today.

From HRH The Prince of Wales, environmentalist Tony Juniper and climate scientist Dr Emily Shuckburgh, it explains the history, dangers and challenges of global warming and explores possible solutions with which to reduce its impact.

Invisible Jumpers

Invisible Jumpers

Joseph Ford (St Catharine's 1997)

Photographs of jumpers blending into their background from an inventive 1000-hour knitting project Photographer Joseph Ford and knitting pro Nina Dodd have dedicated more hours than is reasonable to creating bespoke jumpers (for humans, animals and even bananas) that blend seamlessly into their surroundings – from bus seats to bushes, carpets to coastlines. The images are executed with such painstaking precision that should the camera, or jumper for that matter, move by an inch the illusion would unravel.

Meditation for Life

Meditation for Life

Justyn Comer (Trinity 1988)

Career, relationships, health, happiness, sport, creativity – you name it – they can all be enhanced by the practice of meditation. It has the power to improve every aspect of our lives. Although there has recently been a lot of coverage of meditation, most people still see it narrowly as being a relaxation technique, or a spiritual exercise. It can be both these things, but it is also so much more. This book is an attempt to explain the 'more'.

Burning Souls

Burning Souls

David Chernushenko (Clare Hall 1987)

A climate breakdown thriller. Burning Souls is a dramatic tale of courage and friendship in a time of political turmoil and ecological collapse.

Long time best friends Simone, Sagan, Jenny and Jiro learned of the predatory practices driving climate breakdown and social collapse, in a time and place when they could dream of making a difference.

And did.

Ideas of Power: The Politics of American Party Ideology Development

Ideas of Power: The Politics of American Party Ideology Development

Verlan Lewis (Trinity Hall 2009)

This groundbreaking book challenges the dominant view of ideology held by both political scientists and political commentators. Rather than viewing ideological constructs like liberalism and conservatism as static concepts with fixed and enduring content, Professor Verlan Lewis explains how the very meanings of liberalism and conservatism frequently change along with the ideologies of the two major parties in American politics.

Liberty Intact Human Rights in English Law

Liberty Intact Human Rights in English Law

Michael Tugendhat (Caius 1963)

The connections between conceptions of rights found in English law and those found in bills of rights around the World? How has English Common Law influenced the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) 1950?

Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome

Author Unknown: The Power of Anonymity in Ancient Rome

Tom Geue (King's 2008)

From Banksy to Elena Ferrante to the unattributed parchments of ancient Rome, art without clear authorship fascinates and even offends us. Classical scholarship tends to treat this anonymity as a problem or game—a defect to be repaired or mystery to be solved. Author Unknown is the first book to consider anonymity as a site of literary interest rather than a gap that needs filling. We can tether each work to an identity, or we can stand back and ask how the absence of a name affects the meaning and experience of literature.

Pages

Want to see your book here?

Submit your book's details for consideration using our webform.

Submit your book