The Ice - Stephen Pyne
best intro to the cryosphere, even 20 years later

The Beak of the Finch - Jonathan Wiener
evolution in microcosm in the Galapagos

The Revenge of Gaia - James Lovelock
planet in trouble from too many humans?

Storm World - Chris Mooney
global warming and extreme weather

The Ancestor's Tale - Richard Dawkins
evolution as narrative

The Discovery of Global Warming - Spencer Weart
the slow evolution of a large idea

The Genetic Strand - Edward Ball
family history through DNA

Biomimicry - Janine Benyus
design in nature

Reading the Rocks - Marcia Bjornerud
piecing together a history of a 4.5 billion year-old planet

Ice - Maria Gosnell
properties of solid water

Wonderful Life - Stephen Jay Gould
early evolutionary complexification

The Demon-Haunted World - Carl Sagan
science, religion, and ethics

Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Daniel Dennett
evolution for lay-persons

The Rock from Mars - Kathy Sawyer
ALH84001's significance for the ubiquity of life

Pulse - Robert Frenay
life forms as systems

Nature: An Economic History - Geerat Vermeij
a paleontologist oversteps his boundaries