Seveneves
Neal Stephenson
What would happen if the moon exploded? All the rules that govern our solar system would change – or rather, because the rules of physics would still be followed, everything about life on Earth would change irreversibly. This novel imagines in stunning detail a multicentury history of human life after the moon shatters, and the central role that women would play in it. Stephenson creates a rigorously science-based alternate reality peopled with compelling characters on complex adventures.
MICHELE RABKIN
Associate Director
Berkeley Connect
The Politics and the Constitution of Athens
Aristotle
An oldie but a goodie, Aristotle’s account of the political machine of fourth-century Athens is a fundamental tool for understanding the origins of political thought and how states formed institutions to order their state. Although Aristotle is attributed with some 158 accounts of other Greek constitutions, this is the only extant version of these works, which we only have by chance, as papyri containing portions of the text surfaced within the last century and a half and were pieced together by scholars.
ANDY HOGAN
Postdoctoral Fellow
The Center for the Tebtunis Papyri
The Bancroft Library