"Intro to Probability" by Ellen Vitercik -- Allie Skalnik '26
I often fail to appreciate a textbook. Assigned readings? I tend to furiously skim them during lunch unless there's a discussion coming up, and they're never what I turn to first when understanding a topic turns elusive. So, when I tell you this textbook is magic, you have to believe me. It's everything a textbook should be: easy to understand, precise and full of figures that actually help the concepts click into place lego block-style instead of merely cluttering the page. Truly, I wish textbooks everywhere would take a page out of this textbook's book.
"Wordcraft: The Complete Guide to Clear, Powerful Writing" by Jack Hart -- Emerson Prentice '29
This required book is the opposite of busy work. Though it is focused on journalistic writing, it's still filled with skills any student would benefit from throughout their college career. It teaches you how to communicate your ideas so that your readers will want to listen. Each chapter is structured to give specific tips about aspects of writing like "method" or "process." Then, the chapter ends with a cheatsheet you can come back to at any time, just in case you need a refresher. I imagine this textbook will be one I will continue to refer to long after my class is finished.
"Grad School Essentials: A Crash Course in Scholarly Skills" by Zachary Shore -- Emmett Chung '27
Despite the name, this book is indispensable for any undergraduate humanities major (such as myself) whose assignments consist primarily of slogging through monographs and journal articles. Shore's technique of reading the conclusion and introduction before strategically skimming chapters makes what would otherwise be time-consuming preliminary research into a breeze. If you want to improve your contributions in seminars and retain more of what you read, start with "Grad School Essentials" (available digitally through Searchworks). Disclaimer: this technique only works for secondary sources.
"The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction" by Peter Atkins -- Chris Procaccino '29
Despite its name, "Thermodynamics" seems to be more of an exercise in proofs than an exercise in thermodynamics. What's great about the textbook is that, unlike most chemistry textbooks of a similar level, it spends pages rigorously -- maybe too rigorously -- defining concepts like temperature and heat that most other books scoff at. What's not-so-great about it is that it's a deceptively complicated introduction to a concept that, for most gen-chem courses, shouldn't be that complicated. So, if you're dreaming of inventing the world's next steam engine, "Thermodynamics" is for you. If not, you can stick to the basics.
"Sensation & Perception" by Jeremy Wolfe et al. -- Chloe Shannon Wong '28
By the time this article is published, I will have already completed my PSYCH 30: Introduction to Perception midterm. Future me... please say it went well. But even if it didn't, I still want to shout out "Sensation & Perception," a textbook that admirably tries to boil down the inner workings of the human eye into a few pages. As a psychology major most comfortable with the "social" aspect of "social science," anatomy-heavy courses always present an intellectual challenge. Interested in knowing what the heck a ganglion cell is? Or why the retina is organized backwards? Check out "Sensation & Perception." In my opinion, a textbook tackling a tough topic should really hold your hand, and while this textbook was definitely dense in some parts -- making it difficult to discern detail from main concepts -- its clear glossary section and explanatory diagrams save the day.
"Organic Chemistry as a Second Language: First Semester Topics" by David R. Klein -- Kelly Wang '26
In nervous anticipation for my first quarter of organic chemistry during my sophomore year, I scavenged the web for introductory organic chemistry textbooks and came across David Klein's engaging, graphic-centered guide. Though some may argue Klein oversimplifies concepts, this textbook made a nuanced and daunting topic accessible. I felt more comfortable having a general framework of reactions in my mind before inserting the endless "exceptions" that any chemistry student is familiar with. Short sections dissected everything from resonance structures to epoxides. I had ample practice problems to test my understanding of the content I read minutes before. Small caveats aside, Klein made organic chemistry feel approachable, defied the stereotype of paragraph-heavy textbooks and, most importantly, taught me how to draw chairs.