Summer 2024 MIT recommended reading

Borrow these titles recommended by MIT News

An illustration of books on shelves with the text "Summer Reading 2024"MIT News is featuring recent books published by MIT faculty and staff in its 2024 summer reading list. The following titles from this year’s list are available to borrow now from the MIT Libraries. We will add to this list as more titles become available.


Novel, memoir, and poetry

Seizing Control: Managing Epilepsy and Others’ Reactions To It — A Memoir” (Haley’s, 2023)
By Laura Beretsky, grant writer in the MIT Introduction to Technology, Engineering, and Science (MITES) program

 

Science and engineering

The Visual Elements: Handbooks for Communicating Science and Engineering” (University of Chicago Press, 2023 and 2024)
By Felice Frankel, research scientist in chemical engineering

A Book of Waves” (Duke University Press, 2023)
By Stefan Helmreich, professor of anthropology

An Introduction to System Safety Engineering” (MIT Press, 2023)
By Nancy G. Leveson, professor of aeronautics and astronautics

 

Culture, humanities, and social sciences

Political Rumors:  Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It” (Princeton University Press, 2023)
By Adam Berinsky, professor of political science

Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China,” (Princeton University Press, 2023)
By Tristan Brown, assistant professor of history

Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions” (Polity, 2024)
By Alex Byrne, professor of philosophy

Life at the Center: Haitians and Corporate Catholicism in Boston (University of California Press, 2024)
By Erica Caple James, professor of medical anthropology and urban studies

Portable Postsocialisms: New Cuban Mediascapes after the End of History” (University of Texas Press, 2024)
By Paloma Duong, associate professor of media studies/writing

They All Made Peace — What Is Peace?” (University of Chicago Press, 2023)
Chapter by Lerna Ekmekcioglu, professor of history and director of the Program in Women’s and Gender Studies

At the Pivot of East and West: Ethnographic, Literary and Filmic Arts” (Duke University Press, 2023)
By Michael M.J. Fischer, professor of anthropology and of science and technology studies

Lines Drawn across the Globe” (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023)
By Mary Fuller, professor of literature and chair of the faculty

The Rise and Fall of the East: How Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology Brought China Success, and Why They Might Lead to Its Decline” (Yale University Press, 2023)
By Yasheng Huang, the Epoch Foundation Professor of International Management and professor of global economics and management

Dare to Invent the Future: Knowledge in the Service of and Through Problem-Solving” (MIT Press, 2023)
By Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, professor of science, technology, and society

 

Technology, systems, and society

Code Work: Hacking Across the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands” (Princeton University Press, 2023)
By Héctor Beltrán, assistant professor of anthropology

Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What is Human in a World of Machines” (Penguin Random House, 2023)
By Joy Buolamwini SM ’17, PhD ’22, member of the Media Lab Director’s Circle

Counting Feminicide: Data Feminism in Action” (MIT Press, 2024)
By Catherine D’Ignazio, associate professor of urban science and planning

Rethinking Cyber Warfare: The International Relations of Digital Disruption” (Oxford University Press, 2024)
By R. David Edelman, research fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies

Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness” (Penguin Random House, 2024)
Chapter by Tod Machover, the Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media; Rébecca Kleinberger SM ’14, PhD ’20; and Alexandra Rieger SM ’18, doctoral candidate in media arts and sciences

The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots” (W. W. Norton and Company, 2024)
By Daniela Rus, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; and Gregory Mone

 

Education, business, finance, and social impact

Disciplined Entrepreneurship Startup Tactics: 15 Tactics to Turn Your Business Plan Into a Business” (Wiley, 2024)
By Paul Cheek, executive director and entrepreneur in residence at the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship and senior lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management, with foreword by Bill Aulet, professor of the practice of entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan and managing director of the Martin Trust Center

Organic Social Media: How to Build Flourishing Online Communities” (KoganPage, 2023)
By Jenny Li Fowler, director of social media strategy in the Institute Office of Communications

From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (MIT Press, 2024)
By Malia Lazu, lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management

The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset That Drives Extraordinary Results” (Hachette Book Group, 2023)
By Andrew McAfee, principal research scientist and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

Iterate: The Secret to Innovation in Schools” (Teaching Systems Lab, 2023)
By Justin Reich, associate professor in comparative media studies/writing

red helicopter — a parable for our times: lead change with kindness (plus a little math)” (HarperCollins, 2024)
By James Rhee, senior lecturer in the MIT Sloan School of Management

Wiring the Winning Organization: Liberating Our Collective Greatness through Slowification, Simplification, and Amplification” (IT Revolution, 2023)
By Steven J. Spear, senior lecturer in system dynamics at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and Gene Kim

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance” (Oxford University Press, 2024)
Chapter by Annie Thompson, lecturer in the MIT Center for Real Estate; Walter Torous, senior lecturer at the MIT Center for Real Estate; and William Torous

Data Is Everybody’s Business: The Fundamentals of Data Monetization” (MIT Press, 2023)
By Barbara H. Wixom, principal research scientist at the MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research (MIT CISR); Leslie Owens, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and former executive director of MIT CISR; and Cynthia M. Beath

 

Arts, architecture, planning, and design

The Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage, and Death” (Routledge, 2023)
Chapter by Laura Anderson Barbata, lecturer in MIT’s Program in Art, Culture, and Technology

Land Air Sea: Architecture and Environment in the Early Modern Era” (Brill, 2023)
Chapter by Caroline Murphy, the Clarence H. Blackall Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture

 

Miscellaneous

Made Here: Recipes and Reflections From NYC’s Asian Communities” (Send Chinatown Love, 2023)
Chapter by Robin Zhang, postdoc in mathematics, and Diana Le