Book shelf

Book shelf

Image (cropped) by Jessica Ruscello under CC0 1.0 licence

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

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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.

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A sketchy knowledge of ai book cover, drawn in a comic book style, showing a figure in a thought bubble over a city
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
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.
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'
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
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
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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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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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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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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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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Emma Williams (Christ's 1990)

The early career research stage is tough. Interesting, intellectually challenging, pushing back frontiers of knowledge, working with talented people from around the world – all fantastic things. But have you ever wondered what on earth the next career step is going to be? Felt surrounded by researchers who are brighter and more together than you? Felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of 'stuff' you are supposed to do as a researcher? Looked at those 'high ups' in your institution and wondered where the women are? Tried to explain to your parents that postdocs seldom get Nobel prizes?

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Jon Silverman (Selwyn 1968) & Robert Sherwood

The controversial 1991 War Crimes Act gave new powers to courts to try non-British citizens resident in the UK for war crimes committed during WWII. But in spite of the extensive investigative and legal work that followed, and the expense of some £11 million, it led to just one conviction: that in 1999 of Anthony (Andrzej) Sawoniuk.

Live to See the Day book cover
Nikhil Goyal (Selwyn 2016)

An indelible portrait of three children struggling to survive in the poorest neighborhood of the poorest large city in America. Live to See the Day is “An incisive, compassionate depiction of families in a crisis not of their making and a vision of the policy choices our country could adopt to save their lives.” —Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us. Kensington, Philadelphia, is distinguished only by its poverty. It is home to Ryan, Giancarlos, and Emmanuel, three Puerto Rican children who live among the most marginalized families in the United States.

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Natalia Petrovskaia (Peterhouse 2003)

This is Not a Grail Romance provides answers to some of the most important questions surrounding the medieval Welsh Arthurian tale Historia Peredur vab Efrawc, one of the few surviving medieval Welsh narrative compositions, and an important member of the ‘Grail' family of medieval European narratives. The study demonstrates that Historia Peredur is an original Welsh composition, rather than (as previous theories have suggested) being an adaptation of the twelfth-century French grail romance.

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Rajan Kashyap (Wolfson 1978)

Travel with the author, a former civil servant, on a fascinating journey. From a childhood spent in the infancy of free India, growing up in a state still relishing the after taste of maharajas and grand royalty, to traipsing into the Indian Administrative Service with child-like optimism. Enjoy a renaissance in the heady heights of the University of Cambridge, and a mellow cadence of a fruitful life in a modern Indian city, juxtaposed with a view of the transforming rural economy in a state at the heart of India’s green revolution.

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Alexis Willet (Darwin 2001)

Is life getting on top of you? Do you dream of being stranded on an island just for some alone time? Are you currently standing on a chair, screaming, ‘Enough is enough!’? I get it. Your diary is full and your brain is racing. The hectic world we live in demands so much of you, it can be exhausting to keep up. You crave spa days and holidays to recharge but, while they offer short-term respite, they don’t give you the long-term rejuvenation you really need. Well, come down off that chair, open up this book, and feel your stress float away.

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Jonathan Hollins (Emmanuel 1977)

The role of resident vet in the British Overseas Territories encompasses the complexities of caring for the world’s oldest known living land animal – Jonathan the giant tortoise, 190 years old – and MoD mascots at the Falklands airbase; pursuing mystery creatures and invasive microorganisms; relocating herds of reindeer; and rescuing animals in extraordinary and rugged landscapes.

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Brian Clegg (Selwyn 1973)

Take a tour through the galaxy on the fictional starship Endurance. The phenomena you will visit, from the vast nebulae that are birthplaces of stars to stellar explosions in vast supernovas, creating the elements necessary for life - or from the planets of other solar systems to the unbelievably supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way - all reflect the best picture current science has to offer. Accompanying Interstellar Tours is an online gallery with over fifty images and videos in full colour, each directly accessible from the page using QR codes.

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Liz Rice (Pembroke 1989)

What is eBPF? With this revolutionary technology, you can write custom code that dynamically changes the way the kernel behaves. It's an extraordinary platform for building a whole new generation of security, observability, and networking tools. This practical book is ideal for developers, system administrators, operators, and students who are curious about eBPF and want to know how it works.

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Sam Clark (Churchill 1999)

Many developed nations face the challenge of accommodating a growing, ageing population and creating appropriate forms of housing suitable for older people. Written by an architect, this practice-led ethnography of retirement housing offers new perspectives on environmental gerontology. Through stories and visual vignettes, it presents a range of stakeholders involved in the design, construction, management and habitation of third-age housing in the UK, highlighting the importance of design decisions for the everyday lives of older people.

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