Encouraged reading — UTC Portsmouth

The college encourages reading; reading for pleasure, reading to gain information, reading to simply broaden your horizons.

We take every opportunity to promote reading across all of our subjects so please take a careful look at our encouraged subject reading lists where you can make your own selections and continue your studies, at any location and at any time you choose.

Reach for more through independent reading and in the process become a better, if not excellent, communicator.

Encouraged subject reading list: English

Year 10 and 11

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I’m the King of the Castle by Susan Hill
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
1984 by George Orwell
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Outsiders by S E Hinton
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
The War of the Worlds by H G Wells
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Year 12 and 13

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Strange Meeting by Susan Hill
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Secret History by Donna Tartt
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Encouraged subject reading list: Maths

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

Why do buses come in threes? by Rob Eastaway and Jeremy Wyndham
1089 and All That: A Journey into Mathematics by David Acheson

Things to Make and Do in the Fourth Dimension by Matt Parker
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh
Alex's Adventures in Numberland by Alex Bellos

Encouraged subject reading list: Biology

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
Unweaving the Rainbow by Richard Dawkins
Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins
The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins
The Descent of Men by Steve Jones
In the Blood: God, Genes and Destiny by Steve Jones
Almost Like a Whale: The 'Origin of Species' Updated by Steve Jones
The Language of the Genes by Steve Jones
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley
The Language of Genes Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code by Matt Ridley
Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley
DNA: The Secret of Life by James Watson
The Double Helix: Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA
The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas
The Medusa and the Snail: More Notes of a Biology Watcher by Lewis Thomas
The Rough Guide to the Brain (Rough Guides Reference Titles) by Barry Gibb
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body by Armand Marie Leroi
The Machinery of Life by David S. Goodsell
This Is Biology: The Science of the Living World by Ernst Mayr
Plan and Purpose in Nature by George C. Williams
The Language Instinct by Steve Pinker
The Diversity of Life by Edward O Wilson
The Origin of Humankind by Richard Leaky
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for A Hat by Oliver Sachs
What a Plant Knows by Daniel Chamovitz Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Genome by Matt Ridley
The Spark of Life by Frances Ashcroft

Encouraged subject reading list: Chemistry

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Richard Feynman (red font signals top 5)
Periodic Tales - Hugh Aldersey Williams
Uncle Tungsten - Oliver Sachs
The Periodic Table by Eric Scerri
The Shocking History of Phosphorus: A Biography of the Devil’s Element by John Emsley
Calculations in Chemistry by Jim Clark
Chemistry in Context by Graham Hill
Why Chemical Reactions Happen by James Keeler & Peter Wothers
The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean

Years 12 and 13

H2O – a biography of water - Philip Ball
Four laws that drive the universe - Peter Atkins
Better looking, better living, better loving : how chemistry can help you achieve life’s goals - Emsley, John
Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
The chemistry of explosives - Jacqueline Akhavan
Magic molecules – how drugs work - Susan Aldrich
The periodic kingdom – a journey into the land of the chemical elements - Peter Atkins
Elegant solutions : ten beautiful experiments in chemistry - Philip Ball
The ingredients – a guided tour of the elements - Philip Ball
Stories of the invisible – a guided tour of the molecules - Philip Ball
The science of chocolate - Beckett, S. T.
Chemical creativity: ideas from the work of Woodward, Huckel, Meerwein and others - Berson, Jerome A.
The Fontana history of chemistry - Brock, W. H.
Food – the chemistry of its components - Coultate, T. P.
The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide: Separating Facts from Fiction about Everyday Products - Emsley, John
The elements of murder - Emsley, John
On food and cooking – the science and lore of the kitchen - McGee, Harold
Prometheans in the lab – chemistry and the making of the modern world - McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch
The truth about hormones - Parry, Vivienne
The fats of life (sic) - Pond, Caroline M.
The chemistry of fragrances - Pybus, David & Sell, Charles
The making of the atomic bomb - Rhodes, Richard
Chemical curiosities: spectacular experiments and inspired quotes - Roesky, Herbert W. & Möckel, Klaus
The chemistry of fireworks - Russell, Michael S.
Chemistry in the market place - Selinger, Ben

Electronic Journals, Magazines and Websites

Catalyst, a science magazine for students aged 14-19
Resources for students collated by Royal Society of Chemistry
Chemistry World magazine from the RSC
ChemNet (also from the RSC)
New Scientist
The Periodic Table videos from the University of Nottingham
A level resources from the University of Liverpool
Animations of organic reactions mechanisms from ChemTube3d
Chemguides A level chemistry notes (these are really good)
A level resources from Knockhardy Publishing

Encouraged subject reading list: Physics

Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 (All Years)

A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Quantum Universe: Everything that can happen does happen by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat by John Gribbin
Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Why don’t penguins’ feet freeze? by New Scientist
The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow
Newton by Peter Ackroyd
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Encouraged subject reading list: Geography

Year 10 and 11

Geography Review (magazine - some copies in the Geography room - 205G)

National Geographic (magazines - copies on 1st floor mezzanine and Geography room - 205G)

https://www.rgs.org/geography/news/ - Royal Geographical Society news section

https://www.sciencedaily.com/news/earth_climate/geography/ - Geography section

https://www.theguardian.com/science/geography - Geography section

Year 12 and 13

Geography Review (magazine - some copies in the Geography room - 205G)

National Geographic (magazines - copies on 1st floor mezzanine and Geography room - 205G)

Topic Eye (magazine series)

https://www.rgs.org/geography/news/ - Royal Geographical Society news section