From Lucy to Language Donald Johansen, Blake Edgar, David Brill, Simon & Schuster, 1996 This is a beautiful collection of David Brill photos of virtually all of the major fossil skulls. The text is substantial and very up to date. A wonderful book to own.
	The Last Neanderthal: The Rise, Success, and Mysterious Extinction of Our Closest Human Relatives Ian Tattersal, WestView Press, 1999 This is another fantastic book photographically. Dr. Tattersall is the Curator of the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and he is a major contributor to the field of human origins.
	Why is sex fun? The evolution of human sexuality Jared Diamond, Basic Books, 1997 Dr. Diamond is a biologist at UCLA, and he is a great writer on evolutionary topics. This is a fairly short book (145 pages) but is really interesting.
	Iceman Ian Tattersal, WestView Press, 1999 This book deals with "Otzi," the frozen prehistoric dude two hikers found coming out of a glacier in the Italian Alps in 1992. He is "only" 5,000 years old, but the story is so interesting I put it on the list.
	The Great Human Diasporas: The history of diversity and evoluation Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Perseus Publishing, 1996 This 300-page book is a classic and is often mentioned in other books and articles on human evolution. Cavalli-Sforza is a Stanford geneticist, and this book deals with the genetic linkages among various groups of humans across the planet. It is written for the lay person and is pretty understandable.
	The Wisdom of the Bones Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, Vintage Books, 1996 Alan Walker is the Penn State anthropologist who "co-founded" the Nariokotome Boy in 1984 near Lake Turkana in Kenya. Richard Leakey takes main credit for the find, though Kamoya Kimieu, as you may remember, actually spotted the first skull fragment. About 300 pages, this is a very interesting and readable account of the story.
	Extinct Humans Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey Schwartz, Westview Press, 2000 Dr. Tattersall is with the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is a widely recognized authority on human origins. This book is about 250 pages with many beautiful photographs. It provides, good, scholarly descriptions of most of the major human fossils and their interpretation.
	The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and future of the human animal Jared Diamond, HarperPerennial, 1993 Dr. Tattersall is with the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is a widely recognized authority on human origins. This book is about 250 pages with many beautiful photographs. It provides, good, scholarly descriptions of most of the major human fossils and their interpretation.
	Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Humankind's Beginnings Virginia Morell, Touchstone, 1996 This is a long (about 600 pages) but truly fascinating biographical story of Louis Leakey, his wife Mary Leakey, and their son Richard Leakey, from just before Louis's birth until a few years after his death. It is very well written and well documented and is one of the most interesting books I have ever read.