READING L.A.

Micky Dolenz, director:

“On Human Nature” by Edward O. Wilson (Harvard University Press).

“For the past few thousand years, theologians, philosophers, psychologists and sociologists have examined the human condition. It seems about time that a biologist should give it a shot, and Wilson gives it one heck of a shot.”

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Julie Lawson, database manager:

“The Hippopotamus Pool” by Elizabeth Peters (Warner).

“This is the eighth book in a series of nine, and I’ve fallen in love with the characters and the setting--the Victorian era. It’s a detective novel without a lot of violence and makes for perfect summer reading: an escapist story that doesn’t require too much thought.”

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Robert C. Ritchie, museum research director:

“The Lord Cornbury Scandal” by Patricia Bonomi (University of North Carolina)

“Bonomi deflates the long-held charge that Cornbury, an early British governor of New York, was a cross-dresser. Her accessible book shows the rough-and-tumble politics of the 18th century and what might happen to a politician who got the locals mad.”

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Mike Newhouse, attorney:

“Gideon’s Trumpet” by Anthony Lewis (Vintage).

“This book is about the Supreme Court decision in 1963 that gave indigent people the right to counsel. Clarence Gideon had been jailed several times. He represented himself and was convicted. It’s a terrific insight into the history of justice for poor people.”