Wider Reading and Discovery Lists for A-Level Helping You Fulfil Your Academic Potential

Wider Reading and Discovery Lists for A-Level Helping you fulfil your academic potential

These lists will give you a broader understanding of your chosen subjects, compliment your core reading and enable your academic success. Whatever you study, you should be developing your reading, comprehension and critical thinking skills.

However in depth subject knowledge can’t only be found in books, journals or periodicals. Discover more by visiting museums, galleries, theatres and academic institutions, stimulating your imagination and enhancing your core studies.

Contents

Art – page 3 Biology – pages 3 and 4 Business Studies – page 4 Chemistry – pages 4 and 5 Computer Science – page 5 Design and Technology – page 5 Drama – pages 6 and 7 Economics – pages 7, 8 and 9 English Literature – pages 10 and 11 French – page 11 Geography – page 12 History – page 13 Law – page 14 Maths and Further maths – page 14 Media Studies – pages 14 and 15 Philosophy and Ethics – page 15 Physical Education – page 16 Physics –page 16 Psychology – page 17 Spanish – pages 17 and 18 Sociology – page 18 Other places for curious minds – page 19

Art

Texts to read  Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich  History of Beauty by Umberto Eco  Shock of the New by Robert Hughes  Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon  The Art Book by Phaidon Press Ltd.  The Art Forger by Barbara A. Shapiro  Ways of Seeing by John Berger  Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made  Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain Art and Made History (in That Order) by Betty Edwards by Bridget Quinn  Seven Days in The Art World by Sarah Thornton

Places to discover  Barbican Art Gallery  London Gallery West  National Portrait Gallery  Serpentine Gallery  West London Art Factory  Somerset House  Westbank Art & Music  Brent Artists Resource  The Tate Modern  Tate Britain  Royal Academy of Arts  Whitechapel Gallery  Saatchi Gallery

Biology

Texts to read  The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins  Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel  The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Dennett Carey  Genome by Matt Ridley  On the Origin of Species by Charles  What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Darwin Balcombe  The Third Chimpanzee by Jared  The Structure of Evolutionary Theory Diamond by Stephen Jay Gould

Places to discover  The Science Museum  London Museums of Health and  The Natural History Museum Medicine  The Anatomy Museum  The Hunterian Museum  Grant Museum of Zoology

Other resources  New Scientist Magazine  BBC Focus Magazine  Discover Magazine

Business Studies

Texts to read  The Lean Startup by Eric Ries  Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill  Growing a Business by Paul Hawken  The Startup Playbook by David S.  How Google Works by Eric Schmidt Kidder and Jonathan Rosenberg  The Google Story by David A. Vise, Mark Malseed

Places to discover  London Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Chemistry

Texts to read  The Disappearing Spoon by Sam Kean  The Periodic Kingdom by Peter Atkins  Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersey-  The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Williams Science of Familiar Things by Cathy  The Elements by Theodore Gray Cobb and Monty L. Fetterolf  The Elements of Murder: A History of  Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks Poison by John Emsley

Places to discover  The Science Museum  The Fleming Museum @ Imperial  The Royal Institution College  The Faraday Museum  The Royal Society of Chemistry

Computer Science

Texts to read  The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy  Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Kidder Science of Human Decisions by Brian  Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Christian and Tom Griffiths Revolution by Steven Levy

Places to discover  The National Museum of Computing  The Science Museum

Design and Technology Texts to read  Materials for Design by Chris Lefferi  Design of the 20th Century by  Prototyping and model making for Charlotte Fiell Product Design By Bjarki Harlgrimsson  Sketching and Drawing for product  Design: The Definitive Visual History Designers(portfolio skills) by Kevin  50 Designers you should know by Henry Claudia Hellman Places to discover  The Science Museum  The Design Museum  The V&A Museum

Drama

Books about Acting ● The Actor and the Target by ● Building A Character by Constantin Declan Donnellan Stanislavski ● An Actor Prepares by Constantin ● Creating A Role by Constantin Stanislavski Stanislavski

Set texts and wider reading ANTIGONE ● Antigone by Sophocles ● Rebel Women: Staging Ancient ● A Guide to Greek Theatre and Greek Drama Today edited by John Drama by Kenneth McLeish Dillon and Stephen Wilmer ● Greek Theatre Performance: An Introduction by David Wiles

OUR COUNTRY’S GOOD ● Our Country’s Good by Timberlake ● Letters to George by Max Stafford- Wertenbaker Clark ● The Theatre of Timberlake ● Actioning - and How to Do It by Wertenbaker by Sophie Bush Nick Moseley ● Timberlake Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good by Max Stafford- Clark and Maeve McKeown

Books about Theatre Style

● Modern Drama in Theory and Practice Vol.1: Realism and Naturalism ● Modern Drama in Theory and Practice Vol.3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre

Books about Theatre Practitioners

● The Complete Brecht Toolkit by ● Theatre in Practice by Nick O'Brien Stephen Unwin ● Stanislavski in Practice: Exercises for ● The Complete Stanislavsky Toolkit by Students by Nick O'Brien Bella Merlin

Books about Devising ● Through the Body by Dymphna Callery

● The Frantic Assembly Book of Devising by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett ● Impro: Improvisation by Keith Johnstone

Online Resources ● Devising Theatre by David Farmer - https://dramaresource.com/devising-theatre/ ● Digital Theatre Plus - https://www.digitaltheatreplus.com/education ○ Some excellent guides on Antigone and Our Country’s Good ○ Introductions to Stanislavski and Brecht ○ Guides to Devising

Places to discover ● National Theatre - Entry Pass ○ Entry Pass is a free membership scheme for anyone aged 16 – 25. ● Victoria and Albert Museum -Theatre & Performance: Rooms 103 - 106b ● LIFT Festival - https://www.liftfestival.com/ ○ LIFT HAS DONE MORE TO INFLUENCE THE GROWTH AND ADVENTURE OF ENGLISH THEATRE THAN ANY OTHER ORGANISATION WE HAVE. Sir Mark Rylance, LIFT Patron ● Camden Fringe - https://www.camdenfringe.com/ ○ Performing arts festival which takes place in Camden during August.

Economics

Texts to read  23 Things They Don't Tell You About  Almighty Dollar (Dharshini David) – Capitalism (Ha-Joon Chang) – follows the journey of a single $ to challenges conventional thinking show how the global economy works  Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks  Capitalism Without Capital: The Rise of and Rewards of Our New Renaissance: the Intangible Economy (Haskel and (Ian Goldin & Chris Kutarna) Westlake)  Alibaba: The House that Jack Ma Built  Capitalism: 50 Ideas You Really Need (Duncan Clark) – The rise of the to Know (Jonathan Portes) – compact Chinese corporate giant and excellent reference material

 Choice Factory (Richard Shotton) – a  Limits of the Market: The Pendulum story of 25 behavioural biases that Between Government and the Market influence what we buy (Paul De Grauwe)  Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth) –  Misbehaving: The Making of challenges much of orthodox thinking Behavioural Economics (Richard in the subject Thaler) – a truly superb biography  Plundered Planet: How to Reconcile

Prosperity with Nature: (Professor  Drunkard’s Walk (Leonard Mlodinow) Paul Collier) – development classic – a brilliant history of Maths with lots  Poor Economics: Rethinking Ways to of relevant applications Fight Global Poverty (Banerjee &  Economics for the Common Good Duflo) – development economics (Jean Tirole) – applied micro from a  Positive Linking – Networks and recent Nobel prize winner Nudges (Paul Ormerod) – good  GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History introduction to network economics (Professor Diane Coyle) – really good  Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of on the GDP / well-being debate Change in the Post-Crisis World (Richir  Grave New World: (Stephen King) – Sharma) Former head of Econ at HSBC looks at  Risk Savvy - How to make good the fracturing global economy decisions (Gerd Gigerenzer) – the  Great Economists: How Their Ideas world of heuristics and risk Can Help Us Today (Linda Yueh) – management perspectives on contemporary issues  Ten Great Economists (Philip  Growth Delusion: The Wealth and Thornton) – biographical background, Well-Being of Nations (David Pilling) – well worth a read antidote to gospel of GDP  The Box - How the Shipping Container  Inequality (Anthony Atkinson) – a Made the World Smaller and the superb book on one of the defining World Economy Bigger, (Levinson) economic/political issues of the age  The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and  Inner Lives of Markets: How People the Age of Amazon (Brad Stone) – a Shape Them—And They Shape Us great business page turner (Sharman and Fishman)

 What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (Michael Sandel) –  The Great Divide (Professor Joseph Pure PPE bliss Stiglitz) – one of the classic critiques of  Who Gets What - And Why: globalisation Understand the Choices You Have;  The Great Escape (Professor Angus Improve the Choices You Make (Al Deaton) – a broad sweep of economic Roth) history and poverty reduction  Why Information Grows: The  The Undoing Project: (Michael Lewis) Evolution of Order, from Atoms to – Tracks the birth of behavioural Economies (Cesar Hidalgo) – economics, Kahneman and Tversky challenging  Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow:  World of Three Zeroes (Muhammad (Professor Daniel Kahneman) – the Yunus) – new book from founder of classic Kahneman epic on psychology the Grameen Bank”  Upstarts: How Uber and Airbnb are changing the world (Brad Stone) Follow up to his work on Amazon

Places to discover  The Migration Museum  Royal Economic Society  The Museum @ The Bank of England

Other Resources  The Financial Times  The Economist  The Financial pages of any broadsheet  The Economic Revie newspaper

English Literature

Texts to read  White Teeth by Zadie Smith  Beloved by Toni Morrison  Tender is the Night by F. Scott  Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Fitzgerald Williams  Tamburlaine the Great by Christopher  Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Marlowe  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen  Hamlet and King Lear by William  Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Shakespeare Hardy  Atonement and Saturday by Ian  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens McEwan  The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret  The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Atwood Ishiguro  Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks  The Bell Jar and Collected Poetry by Sylvia Plath

Poets to read  Andrew Marvell  Samuel Taylor Coleridge  John Donne  Thomas Hardy  William Wordsworth  Christina Rossetti  John Keats  Dylan Thomas  William Blake  Seamus Heaney  Alfred Tennyson  Ted Hughes  Robert Browning  Anne Sexton  Elizabeth Barrett Browning  Robert Frost

Places to discover  The British Library  BBC Proms Literacy Festival  The Globe Theatre  Uxbridge Central Library  The National Theatre

Online Resources BBC In Our Time – Listen to academics discuss your favourite novels and literary movements.

French

Texts to read  Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi  Le Gone du Chaâba, Azouz Begag,  Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint- 2005 (novel) Exupéry  Les Petits Enfants du Siècle,  L’Etranger by Albert Camus Christiane Rochefort (novel)  Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise  Le Tartuffe, Molière, 1669 (play) Sagan  L’Etranger, Albert Camus, 1942  Les Mains Sales by Jean-Paul Sartre (novel)  Boule de Suif et autres contes de  No et moi, Delphine de Vigan, guerre (Boule de Suif, Un Duel, 2007( novel) Deux Amis, la mère Sauvage), Guy  Thérèse Desquesroux, François de Maupassant, 1880 (short Mauriac, 1927 (novel) stories)  Une si longue lettre, Mariama Bâ,  Le Château de ma Mère, Marcel 1981 (novel) Pagnol, 1957 (novel)  Un sac de Billes, Joseph Joffo, 1973 (novel)

Films to watch  La Vie en Rose  Paris, Je T'Aime  Amélie  Au Revoir Les Enfants

Other resources Have a look on http://www.franceinlondon.com to see French language cultural events, ranging from comedy and music to plays and book readings, occurring in London.

Geography

Texts to read  Geography for Edexcel by Bob Digby, Oxford University Press As Geography is so diverse and far-reaching the reading list could be endless! If you are interested in a particular area of geography, then do a search on Amazon and read the reviews.

Things to do Another way to prepare for A Level, is to watch the news on a regular basis…….the news is full of geography, especially with regard to disasters, climate change, environment, Industry and jobs and housing. There are lots of Geography in the News Internet sites with good interesting Articles and Interactive activities. Some are indicated below: https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/Geography http://www.geographyinthenews.org.uk/ https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/geography/ In addition, there are tons of Clips on You Tube on all topics studied. Just check they are from a reputable source. The topics studied were included in the information you got on Options Evening. Some good Geographical Websites Some of the best and most interesting websites include: www.Usgs.gov/natural_disasters.com www.Geolsoc.org.uk (tectonics explained by the geological society) https://www.rgs.org/geography/ (Royal Geographical Society) Once again, there are thousands of websites….just check they are from a reputable source, like BBC, Geographical Association etc. David Attenborough documentaries are interesting and full of geography and ecology.

Magazine Subscription National Geographic

History

Texts to read

 Young Stalin by Simon Sebag  Tudor England by John Guy Montefiore  Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch  The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union  Edward VI by Chris Skidmore by Martin McCauley  Elizabeth by David Starkey  Russia by Martin Sixsmith  1536 by Suzannah Lipscomb  Russia under the Old Regime by  The Later Tudors by Penry Williams Richard Pipes  (Complimentary novels: Wolf Hall by  The Romanovs by Lindsey Hughes Hilary Mantel, The Last Tudor by  Russia: People and Empire by Geoffrey Philippa Gregory and The Winter Hosking Queen by Boris Akunin)

Places to Discover  The British Museum  The Globe Theatre is a replica of an  The Imperial War Museum Elizabethan Play-House and often  The Churchill War Rooms hosts historical open days and  The National Archives at Kew exhibitions.  Visit Tudor landmarks like Hampton  The British Library Court and Lambeth Palace.

Other Resources  History Today  Stuff You Missed in History Class  BBC History Podcast Podcast  BBC In Our Time  The Historian Magazine  BBC History Magazine  Hindsight Magazine

Law

Texts to read  The Rule of Law by Tom Bingham  Eve Was Framed by Helena Kennedy  Letters to a Law Student by Nicholas  One L by Scott Turow McBride  The Trial Franz Kafka  What About Law? by Catherine Barnard

Places to discover  National Justice Museum @ The Royal  The Museum of London Courts of Justice  The British Library  The Old Bailey  City of London Police Museum

Maths and Further Maths

Texts to read  Why Do Buses Come In Threes? by  The Simpsons and their Mathematical Rob Easterway Secrets by Simon Singh  Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh  Our Mathematical World by National  Alex’s Adventures in Numberland by Geographic Alex Bellos

Places to discover  The Winton (Mathematics) Gallery @ The Science Museum

Media Studies

Texts to read  Manufacturing Consent: The Political  Understanding Media by Marshall Economy of the Mass Media by McLuhan Edward S. Herman and Noam  No Logo by Naomi Klein Chomsky

 Influencing Machine by Brooke  Media Studies: The Basics by Julian Gladstone McDougall  Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

Places to discover  National Science and Media Museum  The British Library  BBC Television Centre  The National Archives, Kew  British Newspaper Archive  The Cinema Museum, London

Philosophy and Ethics

Texts to read  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle  The Puzzle of Christianity/ The Puzzle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig of Evil / The Puzzle of Ethics by Peter (general philosophy) Vardy (AS)  At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,  The Gospels and Jesus by Graham Being, Apricot Cocktails by Bakewell, S. Stanton (AS & A2) (general philosophy)  Who Wrote the Bible? By Richard  Sophie’s World by Gaarder, J. (general Friedman (A2) philosophy)  Existentialism and Humanism J.P.  Why There Almost Certainly Is a God Sartre (A2) OR The Evidence for God by Keith  Free Will by Sam Harris (A2) Ward; OR The Reason for God by  The God Delusion and The Blind Timothy Keller (general Christianity) Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins (A2)  The Drowned and the Saved by Primo  The Dawkins Delusion by A. McGrath Levi (general ethics) (A2)  Utilitarianism, J.S. Mill (AS)

Places to discover  The Victoria and Albert Museum  The British Museum  The Jewish Museum  The National Gallery – Art and Religion  Museum of London Collection

Physical Education

Texts to read  The Sports Gene by David Epstein  Game of Shadows by Lance  Racing through the Dark by David Williams Millar  Into Thin Air by Jon Kraukauer  Race Against Me by Dwain  Fever Pitch – Nick Hornby Chambers  A Day to Die For by Graham Ratcliffe

Places to discover  The Science Museum  Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum  The World Rugby Museum at and Tour Twickenham Physics

Texts to read  A Brief History of Time by Stephen  Chaos: Making a New Science by Hawking James Gleick  The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene  A Short History of Nearly Everything by  Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Bill Bryson Neil deGrasse Tyson

Places to discover  The Science Museum  The Museum of London  The Cavendish Museum  The Royal Society  The Royal Observatory  The Francis Crick Institute

Other resources  Physics Today

Psychology Texts to read  How to Win Friends and Influence  The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a People by Dale Carnegie Hat by Oliver Sacks  The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg  Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard  Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Thaler Kahneman  Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain  Outliers by Malcom Gladwell by David Eagleman  The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Places to discover  The Freud Museum, London  Bethlem Museum of the Mind, London  British Psychological Society  The Science Museum

Spanish Texts to read  La Casa de Bernarda Alba and  El Príncipe de la Niebla by Carlos Bodas de Sangre by Federico Ruiz Zafón García Lorca  La Sombra del Viento by Carlos  One Hundred Years of Solitude by Ruiz Zafón Gabriel García Márquez  El Chamán de la Tribu by Ricardo  The House of the Spirits / La Casa Alcantara de los Espíritus by Isabel Allende  El Entenado by Juan José Saer

Films to watch  El Camino/ The Way  El Espíritu de la Colmena/ The  Pan’s Labyrinth Spirit of the Beehive  Maria Full Of Grace

For information about Spanish cultural events, including film screenings, food tasting, music and exhibitions, please visit the British Spanish Society website: www.britishspanishsociety.org/whats-on/

Sociology Texts to read  The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell  Lucy by Donald Johanson and  The Protestant Work Ethic by Max Maitland A. Edey Weber  A Glasgow Gang Observed by James  The Social Construct of Reality by Patrick Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann  Gang Leader For a Day by Sudhir  Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser Venkatesh  A Short History of Nearly Everything by  Chavs by Owen Jones Bill Bryson  Folk Devils and Moral Panics by  At Home by Bill Bryson Stanley Cohen  The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

Places to discover  London Anthropology Day (9th July  The Anthropology Collection at The 2018) at The British Museum Horniman Museum  The Victoria and Albert Museum

Other Places for Curious Minds  Wellcome Collection  Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition  Old Operating Theatre  Smythson Stationery Museum  Museum at St Bartholomew's Hospital  Women's Library, London  The Wallace Collection Metropolitan University  The Barbican  Charles Dickens Museum  Leighton House Museum  Freud Museum London