Staff Picks is a regular feature where our Library & Collections staff recommend must-read books and must-watch films from our collection, chosen to captivate your curiosity and spark your imagination.
Selected by Sheneez Sylvia Wynter, O. J., a celebrated and notable alumni of King's College London, is a Jamaican writer whose many essays invite us to rethink and challenge the ways in which we see the world.
This book, editted by Canadian Professor Katherine McKittrick, is one of only two editted volumes on Wynter's work, and it sees prestigious decolonial scholars from around the world celebrate, comment upon and dialogue with Wynter's ground-breaking ideas. It opens with an epic and extensive chapter co-written by Wynter and McKittrick, that should not be missed by anyone interested in decolonial thought and/or Caribbean philosophy!
Selected by Red
Wouldn't exactly say it was a pleasurable read but it was definitely an enthralling one. This book is a memoir mostly centred around the author's experience of abuse in a queer relationship. Would describe as raw, heavy, and frightening, but really beautiful writing with an interesting structure, in the way of chapters varying from being just one sentence to written in the style of a 'Choose your own adventure', and so many lines I had to write down to hold onto.
Selected by Louise
A modern re-telling of David Copperfield, exploring the devasting effects of poverty and the opiod crisis in 1990s/early 2000s rural America. Not an easy read in terms of its subject, but an important one.
Selected by Jack
Landlords jack up rents, ruin neighbourhoods, destroy cities and are a big part of why I can’t go watch a play in London anymore because they’re all either rubbish or £50. Read if you are interested in New York, the AIDS crisis, theatre, being gay, making art, or you have a sort of general sense of malaise and unease and you don’t know why. SPOILER: It’s probably capitalism.
Selected by Charlie W
Women's wrestling isn't new, but that is rarely acknowledged or understood by wrestling fans today. The fight to be respected, to be included, to break down the systemic barriers that exist - well, it's better, but it's still ongoing. This biography does a great job in surfacing the history of women's wrestling, the changemakers and the trail blazers.
There are career profiles of over 100 women wrestlers from throughout history, ranging from Minerva to Manami Toyota to Mae Young to Sasha Banks (or, should I say, Mercedes Moné? CEO! CEO!) There's also good international coverage (although it is US focused). Whether you like wrestling or this is all Brand New Information I'd highly recommend this informative, and easy going read.
Selected by Arved
The amount of underlining I have done puts this firmly in the favourite books of all time category. Yalom is one of our most gifted living authors, with an unmatched penetrating kindness. One for all those that tend to often be proven right in hindsight and thus find it hard to let go off projects.
We have been working with lecturers over the summer of 2020 to switch to eresources for your modules and make them accessible directly through your MyReadingLists:
New to Reading Lists?
Find out how to look up your module reading lists in the Getting Started With the Library - Undergraduates and Taught Postgraduates section of this guide - look for the navigation button in the top left corner!
Legal journal titles and other publications often appear as abbreviations in citations and references. Many titles can share the same initials, so this can be confusing. The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations is a free to use tool that tells you which titles match which set of initials:
When you know the title of the journal you need, you can use Library Search to see if it is held at King's:
New to using Library Search?
Find out how to use Library Search to find the books and items you need in the Getting Started With the Library - Undergraduates and Taught Postgraduates section of this guide - look for the navigation button in the top left corner!
If a title in your reading list is supplied as a Kortext e-textbook (please ask your module leader for confirmation), the resources page linked below is designed to help you get the most from this versatile format.
The page features guidance on highlighting text, searching text, making notes, sharing notes, exporting references, together with information on how to use the mobile apps reader:
Libraries & Collections provides a range of books and online journals to support your studies and research. All of our print books, and most journal articles can be located with Library Search:
New to using Library Search?
Find out how to use Library Search to find the books and items you need in the Getting Started With the Library - Undergraduates and Taught Postgraduates section of this guide - look for the navigation button in the top left corner!
Books on your subject can be found at:
Books on your subject can be found at:
Books on your subject can be found at:
These online book collections won't be searched by Library Search but contain thousands of titles on a huge variety of subjects. Check each collection's description for details of borrowing procedures and limitations.
Don't forget: You can browse the full range of databases and resources with the A-Z databases list:
An essential research resource for students, scholars, and academics, Oxford Scholarship Online provides access to prestigious academic books across the humanities, social sciences, sciences, medicine.
Available online on Oxford Academic, scholars and students can discover these academic books alongside Handbooks, Very Short Introductions, practitioner medicine and psychology texts, and hundreds of the highest quality journals. King's subscribes to the full or partial sets listed below and has access to some additional single titles:
Springer Humanities, Social Sciences & Law ebook Collections provides access to ebooks and chapters in the areas of Philosophy of Science, Law, Phenomenology, Educational Research and Higher Education. The library only has access to specific ebooks from the Springer Humanities, Social Sciences & Law collection, mainly having access currently to titles published between 2011 to 2012.
Taylor & Francis eBooks provides access to content in Humanities, Social Sciences, Behavioural Sciences, Built Environment, STM and Law content from publishers that include Routledge, Psychology Press and Focal Press
Please note: King’s does not have access to all books on this platform
The Political Science and Policy Studies UPCC collections (2010, 2011, 2012) offer over 600 peer-reviewed digital books from 65 major university presses and scholarly publishers, and allow books to be discovered and searched in an integrated environment with content from nearly 500 journals currently on MUSE. King's has access to the 2010, 2011 and 2012 collections only.