Some Books That Inspire Us
Mustard Seed School
February 2012
Enjoyable reading for a general audience (in no particular order):
1. What’s Math Got to do With It?
by Jo Boaler
Viking Penguin, 2008
2. Letters to a Young Mathematician
by Ian Stewart
Basic Books, Perseus Books Group, 2009
Good for older students
3. Fermat’s Enigma
by Simon Singh
Anchor Books, 1997
4. Mathematics Education for a Changing World
by Stephen S. Willoughby
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1990
5. A Mathematician's Lament
by Paul Lockhart
Available on the internet, just Google it
6. Seeing Further:
The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society
edited by Bill Bryson
William Morrow, 2010
7. The Man Who Counted: A Collection of Mathematical Adventures
By Malba Tahan, Copyright 1972
W. W. Norton and Company, 1993 (English Translation)
Good for students Grades 5 and up
8. A Mathematical Mosaic: Patterns & Problem Solving
By Ravi Vakil
Brendan Kelly Publishing, Inc, 2008
Good for older students
Heavier sledding for the mathematically inclined (no particular order):
9. The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
Richard Courant Lecture in Mathematical Sciences
Delivered at New Yourk University, May 11, 1959
By Eugene P. Wigner, Princeton University
Available on the internet, just Google it
10. Fostering Algebraic Thinking
by Mark Driscoll
Heinemann, 1999
11. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics:
Teachers’ Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics
in China and the United States
by Liping Ma
Lawrence Eribaum Associates, Inc, 1999
12. Is God a Mathematician?
by Mario Livio
Simon & Schuster, 2009
13. Proofs Without Words: Exercises in Visual Thinking
by Roger B. Nelsen
The Mathematical Association of America, 1993
14. Proofs Without Words II: More Exercises in Visual Thinking
by Roger B. Nelsen
The Mathematical Association of America, 2000
