Yes, The Hot Zone is excellent. And see Outbreak, with Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo, if you want a very loosely-adapted but very entertaining/scary fictional version of it.
In the sense that I’ve let her borrow my copies with no expectations that they’ll be returned yes. I expect they’re taking up space in her locker at school.
I have Lives of a Cell and its sequel whose title I just forgot; I seemto recall she was underwhelmed by it, but I could easily be wrong.
Keep on with the book suggestions; I’m going shopping manana.
Maybe try her on Stranger or one of his later things. Since they have a fair amount of non-explicit sex, they might draw her in.
Or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress or Starship Troopers. They’re so fascinating politically that they might hook her.
I read Stranger as a freshman in high school, and was hooked on Heinlein for good. I’ve come to disagree with many of his ideas, but I’d be lying if I said he didn’t influence my political and sociological beliefs for years, and I don’t think that was a bad thing.
I just finished reading a little known novel that includes a lot of science. The book is called Wet Desert and I really enjoyed it! The basic premise: environmental terrorists blow up Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado river with the idea of returning the Grand Canyon to its natural state.
It has enough discussions about ecology, dams, hydrology, etc. to satisfy the science urge, and as a bonus, it’s a real page turner.
I just finished it a month ago, and I’ve already recommended it to several people. To my knowledge, this is the only book that this author has written. I’d definitely read his others if he had any.
Enjoy,
J.
p.s., I have no relation to this author or book other than being a satisfied reader.
I wish someone had given me Godel, Escher, Bach when I was sixteen, though it’s not very biology-related.
The Double Helix by James Watson. A great book about the people and personalities behind the data and research.
I haven’t read this collection, but Asimov is always very good: The Tyrannosaurus Prescription (and 100 other essays).
I have read this Asimov collection and it is good: The Roving Mind.
You can also get used copies of some other collections of his essays. The science is, inevitably, a bit out of date. But what is there is excellent.
Stiff by Mary Roach deals with the science behind cadaver research and forensic anthropology. It’s informative and very entertaining.
She also has three other books out, Spook, which deals with the science behind the paranormal, Bonk, which deals with the science behind sex, and the latest Packing for Mars, which strangely has more than one letter in its title, dealing with space travel, flight, etc. I found Spook to be tedious since she seemed to have run out of material halfway through and just pads the book with details about 18th century psychics. Bonk was very entertaining as well, but it might be kind of creepy to receive the book from an adult relative. I haven’t read Packing for Mars, but I heard it’s pretty good.
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s books on astronomy are fun and very knowledgeable. He’s hosted some NOVA episodes and been on Colbert quite often. For more serious books on physics and astronomy, there’s always Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
If she likes to read about food, any of Michael Pollan or Marion Nestle’s works are great too, although they often deal with the policy surrounding food just as much as the science of food. Another great food book is Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking although that’s more of a reference book.
The World Without Us by Alan Weisman deals with the aftermath of the collapse of human civilization and he goes into great detail about how our buildings and infrastructure would hold up and how fast nature would recover. It’s a good mix of ecology, engineering, and biology. Very interesting chapter on the aftermath of Chernobyl.