Best mini-guide to the Alaskan WildernessThis friendly, illustrated field guide presents interesting, but not overwhelming, information on Alaska's most common land and marine creatures and their habitats. With this book you can learn bear safety, edible berries, tracking, how glaciers are shaping Alaska, the creatures in a tidepool, and so much more. Curious explorers of all ages will enjoy referencing this vibrant guide as you explore the wonder of Alaska."Have you ever wondered if that juicy yellow berry was safe to eat?" The most interesting Alaskan wildlife and their habitats Approachable illustrations highlighting what you should notice A broad ecosystem approach, from sea to tundra Filled with fun facts for the whole family This guidebook also features a special paper finish for notes.
Sastrugi Press
|
9781944986582
|
Paperback
The Last Elephants
By Pinnock, Don
Amazing photographs of elephants accompany narratives from researchers, scientists, and conservationists celebrating elephants and calling for their preservationAfrican savanna elephants--among the most magnificent and beloved of our fellow mammals--are an extraordinary, social, and intelligent species. The Last Elephants, an homage to these animals and a clarion call for their preservation, is based upon a shocking finding: savanna elephant populations across Africa are being decimated, with two to three murdered every hour for their ivory. Without action, these elephants soon will vanish from our world. They are a species in imminent danger of extinction, and it is up to us to save them.Featuring more than 250 full-color photos of the breathtaking animals by some of the world's top wildlife photographers, The Last Elephants was inspired by the devastating results of the continent-wide Great Elephant Census of 2016, undertaken by Elephants without Borders in tandem with the world's most prominent conservation groups. The book joins together the voices and vision of scientists, lawmakers, rangers, conservationists, and on-the-ground researchers to speak out against elephant killings, to close loopholes in international law that allow the ivory trade to continue, and to pay tribute to the thousands who work to protect the animals, including African communities who have elected to preserve and protect their elephant neighbors. Offering both profiles of preservation plans that work and hope for elephants' future, this is a must-read for everyone concerned for the future of one of Earth's most captivating species.
Smithsonian Books
|
9781588346636
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Paperback
The World in a Grain
By Beiser, Vince
The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives.After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future.And, incredibly, we're running out of it.The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.
Riverhead Books
|
9780399576423
|
Hardcover
How to Disappear
By Busch, Akiko
It is time to reevaluate the merits of the inconspicuous life, to search out some antidote to continuous exposure, and to reconsider the value of going unseen, undetected, or overlooked in this new world. Might invisibility be regarded not simply as refuge, but as a condition with its own meaning and power? The impulse to escape notice is not about complacent isolation or senseless conformity, but about maintaining identity, autonomy, and voice. In our networked and image-saturated lives, the notion of disappearing has never been more alluring. Today, we are relentlessly encouraged, even conditioned, to reveal, share, and promote ourselves. The pressure to be public comes not just from our peers, but from vast and pervasive technology companies that want to profit from patterns in our behavior. A lifelong student and observer of the natural world, Busch sets out to explore her own uneasiness with this arrangement, and what she senses is a widespread desire for a less scrutinized way of life - for invisibility. Writing in rich painterly detail about her own life, her family, and some of the worlds most exotic and remote places, she savors the pleasures of being unseen. Discovering and dramatizing a wonderful range of ways of disappearing, from virtual reality goggles that trick the wearer into believing her body has disappeared to the way Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway finds a sense of affiliation with the world around her as she ages, Busch deliberates on subjects new and old with equal sensitivity and incisiveness. How to Disappear is a unique and exhilarating accomplishment, overturning the dangerous modern assumption that somehow fame and visibility equate to success and happiness. Busch presents a field guide to invisibility, reacquainting us with the merits of remaining inconspicuous, and finding genuine alternatives to a life of perpetual exposure. Accessing timeless truths in order to speak to our most urgent contemporary problems, she inspires us to develop a deeper appreciation for personal privacy in a vast and intrusive world.
Penguin Press
|
9781101980415
|
Paperback
Influenza
By Brown, Dr Jeremy
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?. While influenza is now often thought of as a common and mild disease, it still kills over 30,000 people in the US each year. Dr. Jeremy Brown, currently Director of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, expounds on the flus deadly past to solve the mysteries that could protect us from the next outbreak. In Influenza, he talks with leading epidemiologists, policy makers, and the researcher who first sequenced the genetic building blocks of the original 1918 virus to offer both a comprehensive history and a roadmap for understanding whats to come. Dr. Brown digs into the discovery and resurrection of the flu virus in the frozen victims of the 1918 epidemic, as well as the bizarre remedies that once treated the disease, such as whiskey and blood-letting. Influenza also breaks down the current dialogue surrounding the disease, explaining the controversy over vaccinations, antiviral drugs like Tamiflu, and the federal governments role in preparing for pandemic outbreaks. Though 100 years of advancement in medical research and technology have passed since the 1918 disaster, Dr. Brown warns that many of the most vital questions about the flu virus continue to confound even the leading experts. Influenza is an enlightening and unnerving look at a shapeshifting deadly virus that has been around long before people - and warns us that it may be many more years before we are able to conquer it for good.
Touchstone
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9781501181245
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Hardcover
Another Good Dog
By Achterberg, Cara Sue
When Cara felt her teenaged children slipping away and saw an empty nest on the horizon, she decided the best way to fill that void was with dogs - lots of them - and so her foster journey began. In 2015, her Pennsylvania farm became a haven for Operation Paws for Homes. There were the nine puppies at once, which arrived with less than a days notice; a heart-worm positive dog; a deeply traumatized stray pup from Iraq; and countless others who just needed a gentle touch and a warm place to sleep. Operation Paws for Homes rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in the rural south and shuttles them north to foster homes like Caras on the way to their forever homes. What started as a search for a good dog, led to an epiphany that there wasnt just one that could fill the hole left in her heart from her children gaining independence - she could save dozens along the way. The stories of these remarkable dogs-including an 80-pound bloodhound who sang arias for the neighbors - and the joy they bring to Cara and her family (along with a few chewed sofa cushions) fill this touching and inspiring new book that reveals the wonderful rewards of fostering. When asked how she can possibly say goodbye to that many loveable pups, Cara says, "If I dont give this one away, I cant possibly save another."
Pegasus Books
|
9781681777931
|
Audiobook
No Immediate Danger
By Vollmann, William T
A timely, eye-opening book about climate change and energy generation that focuses on the consequences of nuclear power production, from award-winning author William T. VollmannIn his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age, from poverty to violence to the dark soul of American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come--the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger, the first volume of Carbon Ideologies, by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort. Turning to nuclear power first, Vollmann then recounts multiple visits that he made at significant personal risk over the course of seven years to the contaminated no-go zones and sad ghost towns of Fukushima, Japan, beginning shortly after the tsunami and reactor meltdowns of 2011. Equipped first only with a dosimeter and then with a scintillation counter, he measured radiation and interviewed tsunami victims, nuclear evacuees, anti-nuclear organizers and pro-nuclear utility workers.Featuring Vollmann's signature wide learning, sardonic wit, and encyclopedic research, No Immediate Danger, whose title co-opts the reassuring mantra of official Japanese energy experts, builds up a powerful, sobering picture of the ongoing nightmare of Fukushima.Watch for No Good Alternative, the second volume of Carbon Ideologies, focusing on human experiences related to coal mining and oil and natural gas production - coming in June 2018.
Viking
|
9780399563492
|
Hardcover
Atlas of a Lost World
By Childs, Craig
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet comes a vivid travelogue through prehistory, tracing the arrival of the First People in North America at least twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that tell of their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were. How they arrived, persisted, and ultimately thrived is a story that resonates from the Pleistocene to our modern era. During the Ice Age, sea levels were much lower, exposing a vast land bridge between Asia and North America. But the land bridge was not the only way across. Different people arrived from different directions, and not all at the same time. The first explorers of the New World were few, their encampments fleeting. The continent they reached had no people, and was inhabited by megafauna - mastodons, giant bears, mammoths, saber-toothed cats, 500-pound jaguar-lions, enormous bison, and sloths that stood one story tall. The First People were hunters - Paleolithic spear points are still encrusted with the proteins of their prey - but they were wildly outnumbered and many would have been prey to the much larger animals. Atlas of a Lost World chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans' chances for survival. A blend of science and personal narrative reveals how much has changed since the time of mammoth hunters, and how little. Across unexplored landscapes yet to be peopled, readers will see the Ice Age, and their own age, in a whole new light.
Pantheon
|
9780307908650
|
Hardcover
The Plant Messiah
By Magdalena, Carlos
An impassioned memoir of saving extraordinary plants on the brink of extinction, by a scientist who has been called a "codebreaker" (Telegraph) and "an inspiration" (Jane Goodall) Carlos Magdalena is not your average horticulturist. He's a man on a mission to save the world's most endangered plants. First captivated by the flora of his native Spain, he has travelled to the remotest parts of the globe in search of exotic species. Renowned for his pioneering work, he has committed his life to protecting plants from man-made ecological destruction and thieves hunting for wealthy collectors.In The Plant Messiah, Magdalena takes readers from the Amazon to the jungles of Mauritius to deep within the Australian Outback in search of the rare and the vulnerable. Back in the lab, we watch as he develops groundbreaking, left-field techniques for rescuing species from extinction, encouraging them to propagate and thrive once again. Along the way, he offers moving, heartfelt stories about the secrets contained within these incredible organisms. Passionate and absorbing, The Plant Messiah is a tribute to the diversity of life on our planet, and the importance of preserving it.
Doubleday
|
9780385543613
|
Hardcover
Horizon
By Lopez, Barry
From the National Book Award-winning author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams, a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters--human, animal, and natural--that have shaped an extraordinary life.Taking us nearly from pole to pole--from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth--and across decades of lived experience, Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "one of our finest writers," gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves indelibly, immersively, through his travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galpagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. As he takes us on these myriad travels, Lopez also probes the long history of humanity's quests and explorations, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today's ecotourists in the tropics. Throughout his journeys--to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe--and via friendships he forges along the way with scientists, archaeologists, artists and local residents, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world. Horizon is a revelatory, epic work that voices concern and frustration along with humanity and hope--a book that makes you see the world differently, and that is the crowning achievement by one of America's great thinkers and most humane voices.
Knopf
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9780394585826
|
Hardcover
The Equations of Life
By Cockell, Charles
A groundbreaking new view on the theory of evolution, arguing that life develops in predictable waysWe are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find on a distant planet something very much like a lady bug eating something like an aphid, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.A remarkable scientific contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life makes a radical argument about what life can--and can't--be.
Basic Books
|
9781541617599
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Hardcover
Supernavigators
By Barrie, David
A globetrotting voyage of discovery celebrating the navigational gifts of animals; from whales and lobsters to birds and beetles - and many more! In Supernavigators, award-winning author David Barrie takes us on a tour of the cutting-edge science of animal navigation, where scientists are unraveling how creatures as various as butterflies, birds, crustaceans, fish, reptiles, and even people find their way. Weaving interviews with leading experts on animal behavior with the groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientists, Barrie introduces astounding animals of every stripe: Dung beetles that steer by the light of the Milky Way. Ants and bees that navigate using patterns of light invisible to humans. Sea turtles, spiny lobsters, and moths that find their way using Earth's magnetic field. Salmon that return to their birthplace by following their noses. Baleen whales that swim thousands of miles while holding a rock-steady course, and birds that can locate their nests on a tiny island after crisscrossing an ocean. There's a stunning diversity of animal navigators out there, often using senses and skills we humans don't have access to ourselves. For the first time, Supernavigators reveals these wonders in a whole new light.
The Experiment
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9781615195374
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Hardcover
Down from the Mountain
By Andrews, Bryce
"Andrews' wonderful Downfrom the Mountain is deeply informed by personal experience and made all the stronger by his compassion and measured thoughts...Welcome and impressive work." - Barry Lopez The story of a grizzly bear named Millie: her life, death, and cubs, and what they reveal about the changing character of the American West The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're spreading across the West again. Descending into valleys where once they were king, bears find the landscape they'd known for eons utterly changed by the new most dominant animal: humans. As the grizzlies approach, the people of the region are wary, at best, of their return. In searing detail, award-winning writer, Montana rancher, and conservationist Bryce Andrews tells us about one such grizzly. Millie is a typical mother: strong, cunning, fiercely protective of her cubs. But raising those cubs - a challenging task in the best of times - becomes ever harder as the mountains change, the climate warms and people crowd the valleys. There are obvious dangers, like poachers, and subtle ones as well, like the corn field that draws her out of the foothills and sets her on a path toward trouble and ruin. That trouble is where Bryce's story intersects with Millie's. It is the heart of Down from the Mountain, a singular drama evoking a much larger one: an entangled, bloody collision between two species in the modern-day West, where the shrinking wilds force man and bear into ever closer proximity.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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9781328972453
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Hardcover
The Zen of Cat Walking
By Brooks, Clifford
Going for a walk is no longer just for the dogs! Experienced cat owner Clifford Brooks is here to teach you and your cat how to enjoy a stroll together. Cats are naturally adventurous creatures, and with the help of a leash and Brooks's tips, you can indulge those instincts with a sense of security.As any animal trainer will tell you, the magic is in your attitude and sensitivity to your kitty's needs and subtle reactions to new things. With that in mind, Brooks encourages cat owners to embrace Zen meditation as the foundation for leash training. Benefiting both you and your furry friend, practicing mediation will: Provide a calm atmosphere in which to learn an enjoyable skill and explore new environments together. Foster a positive energy between the two of you. Cultivate patience and appreciation for simple accomplishments. With step-by-step instructions, meditation guidance, and interviews with other successful cat walkers, you'll learn how cat walking can have a healthy impact on your life and the life of your feline companion. Essentially, you will become a more sensitive cat owner, able to detect when your own presence is affecting your cat's behavior. Combining a practical skill with a thoughtful approach, Brooks's advice will do wonders for the time you spend together.
Skyhorse Publishing
|
9781510726291
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Hardcover
Hearth
By Smith, Annick
A multicultural anthology, edited by Susan O'Connor and Annick Smith, about the enduring importance and shifting associations of the hearth in our world. A hearth is many things: a place for solitude; a source of identity; something we make and share with others; a history of ourselves and our homes. It is the fixed center we return to. It is just as intrinsically portable. It is, in short, the perfect metaphor for what we seek in these complex and contradictory times -- set in flux by climate change, mass immigration, the refugee crisis, and the dislocating effects of technology. Featuring original contributions from some of our most cherished voices -- including Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben, Pico Iyer, Natasha Trethewey, and Chigozie Obioma -- Hearth suggests that empathy and storytelling hold the power to unite us when we have wandered alone for too long.
Alaska
By Mann, Nikki
Best mini-guide to the Alaskan WildernessThis friendly, illustrated field guide presents interesting, but not overwhelming, information on Alaska's most common land and marine creatures and their habitats. With this book you can learn bear safety, edible berries, tracking, how glaciers are shaping Alaska, the creatures in a tidepool, and so much more. Curious explorers of all ages will enjoy referencing this vibrant guide as you explore the wonder of Alaska."Have you ever wondered if that juicy yellow berry was safe to eat?" The most interesting Alaskan wildlife and their habitats Approachable illustrations highlighting what you should notice A broad ecosystem approach, from sea to tundra Filled with fun facts for the whole family This guidebook also features a special paper finish for notes.
The Last Elephants
By Pinnock, Don
Amazing photographs of elephants accompany narratives from researchers, scientists, and conservationists celebrating elephants and calling for their preservationAfrican savanna elephants--among the most magnificent and beloved of our fellow mammals--are an extraordinary, social, and intelligent species. The Last Elephants, an homage to these animals and a clarion call for their preservation, is based upon a shocking finding: savanna elephant populations across Africa are being decimated, with two to three murdered every hour for their ivory. Without action, these elephants soon will vanish from our world. They are a species in imminent danger of extinction, and it is up to us to save them.Featuring more than 250 full-color photos of the breathtaking animals by some of the world's top wildlife photographers, The Last Elephants was inspired by the devastating results of the continent-wide Great Elephant Census of 2016, undertaken by Elephants without Borders in tandem with the world's most prominent conservation groups. The book joins together the voices and vision of scientists, lawmakers, rangers, conservationists, and on-the-ground researchers to speak out against elephant killings, to close loopholes in international law that allow the ivory trade to continue, and to pay tribute to the thousands who work to protect the animals, including African communities who have elected to preserve and protect their elephant neighbors. Offering both profiles of preservation plans that work and hope for elephants' future, this is a must-read for everyone concerned for the future of one of Earth's most captivating species.
The World in a Grain
By Beiser, Vince
The gripping story of the most important overlooked commodity in the world--sand--and the crucial role it plays in our lives.After water and air, sand is the natural resource that we consume more than any other--even more than oil. Every concrete building and paved road on Earth, every computer screen and silicon chip, is made from sand. From Egypt's pyramids to the Hubble telescope, from the world's tallest skyscraper to the sidewalk below it, from Chartres' stained-glass windows to your iPhone, sand shelters us, empowers us, engages us, and inspires us. It's the ingredient that makes possible our cities, our science, our lives--and our future.And, incredibly, we're running out of it.The World in a Grain is the compelling true story of the hugely important and diminishing natural resource that grows more essential every day, and of the people who mine it, sell it, build with it--and sometimes, even kill for it. It's also a provocative examination of the serious human and environmental costs incurred by our dependence on sand, which has received little public attention. Not all sand is created equal: Some of the easiest sand to get to is the least useful. Award-winning journalist Vince Beiser delves deep into this world, taking readers on a journey across the globe, from the United States to remote corners of India, China, and Dubai to explain why sand is so crucial to modern life. Along the way, readers encounter world-changing innovators, island-building entrepreneurs, desert fighters, and murderous sand pirates. The result is an entertaining and eye-opening work, one that is both unexpected and involving, rippling with fascinating detail and filled with surprising characters.
How to Disappear
By Busch, Akiko
It is time to reevaluate the merits of the inconspicuous life, to search out some antidote to continuous exposure, and to reconsider the value of going unseen, undetected, or overlooked in this new world. Might invisibility be regarded not simply as refuge, but as a condition with its own meaning and power? The impulse to escape notice is not about complacent isolation or senseless conformity, but about maintaining identity, autonomy, and voice. In our networked and image-saturated lives, the notion of disappearing has never been more alluring. Today, we are relentlessly encouraged, even conditioned, to reveal, share, and promote ourselves. The pressure to be public comes not just from our peers, but from vast and pervasive technology companies that want to profit from patterns in our behavior. A lifelong student and observer of the natural world, Busch sets out to explore her own uneasiness with this arrangement, and what she senses is a widespread desire for a less scrutinized way of life - for invisibility. Writing in rich painterly detail about her own life, her family, and some of the worlds most exotic and remote places, she savors the pleasures of being unseen. Discovering and dramatizing a wonderful range of ways of disappearing, from virtual reality goggles that trick the wearer into believing her body has disappeared to the way Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway finds a sense of affiliation with the world around her as she ages, Busch deliberates on subjects new and old with equal sensitivity and incisiveness. How to Disappear is a unique and exhilarating accomplishment, overturning the dangerous modern assumption that somehow fame and visibility equate to success and happiness. Busch presents a field guide to invisibility, reacquainting us with the merits of remaining inconspicuous, and finding genuine alternatives to a life of perpetual exposure. Accessing timeless truths in order to speak to our most urgent contemporary problems, she inspires us to develop a deeper appreciation for personal privacy in a vast and intrusive world.
Influenza
By Brown, Dr Jeremy
On the 100th anniversary of the devastating pandemic of 1918, Jeremy Brown, a veteran ER doctor, explores the troubling, terrifying, and complex history of the flu virus, from the origins of the Great Flu that killed millions, to vexing questions such as: are we prepared for the next epidemic, should you get a flu shot, and how close are we to finding a cure?. While influenza is now often thought of as a common and mild disease, it still kills over 30,000 people in the US each year. Dr. Jeremy Brown, currently Director of Emergency Care Research at the National Institutes of Health, expounds on the flus deadly past to solve the mysteries that could protect us from the next outbreak. In Influenza, he talks with leading epidemiologists, policy makers, and the researcher who first sequenced the genetic building blocks of the original 1918 virus to offer both a comprehensive history and a roadmap for understanding whats to come. Dr. Brown digs into the discovery and resurrection of the flu virus in the frozen victims of the 1918 epidemic, as well as the bizarre remedies that once treated the disease, such as whiskey and blood-letting. Influenza also breaks down the current dialogue surrounding the disease, explaining the controversy over vaccinations, antiviral drugs like Tamiflu, and the federal governments role in preparing for pandemic outbreaks. Though 100 years of advancement in medical research and technology have passed since the 1918 disaster, Dr. Brown warns that many of the most vital questions about the flu virus continue to confound even the leading experts. Influenza is an enlightening and unnerving look at a shapeshifting deadly virus that has been around long before people - and warns us that it may be many more years before we are able to conquer it for good.
Another Good Dog
By Achterberg, Cara Sue
When Cara felt her teenaged children slipping away and saw an empty nest on the horizon, she decided the best way to fill that void was with dogs - lots of them - and so her foster journey began. In 2015, her Pennsylvania farm became a haven for Operation Paws for Homes. There were the nine puppies at once, which arrived with less than a days notice; a heart-worm positive dog; a deeply traumatized stray pup from Iraq; and countless others who just needed a gentle touch and a warm place to sleep. Operation Paws for Homes rescues dogs from high-kill shelters in the rural south and shuttles them north to foster homes like Caras on the way to their forever homes. What started as a search for a good dog, led to an epiphany that there wasnt just one that could fill the hole left in her heart from her children gaining independence - she could save dozens along the way. The stories of these remarkable dogs-including an 80-pound bloodhound who sang arias for the neighbors - and the joy they bring to Cara and her family (along with a few chewed sofa cushions) fill this touching and inspiring new book that reveals the wonderful rewards of fostering. When asked how she can possibly say goodbye to that many loveable pups, Cara says, "If I dont give this one away, I cant possibly save another."
No Immediate Danger
By Vollmann, William T
A timely, eye-opening book about climate change and energy generation that focuses on the consequences of nuclear power production, from award-winning author William T. VollmannIn his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling some of the most important issues of our age, from poverty to violence to the dark soul of American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now, Vollmann turns to a topic that will define the generations to come--the factors and human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger, the first volume of Carbon Ideologies, by examining and quantifying the many causes of climate change, from industrial manufacturing and agricultural practices to fossil fuel extraction, economic demand for electric power, and the justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort. Turning to nuclear power first, Vollmann then recounts multiple visits that he made at significant personal risk over the course of seven years to the contaminated no-go zones and sad ghost towns of Fukushima, Japan, beginning shortly after the tsunami and reactor meltdowns of 2011. Equipped first only with a dosimeter and then with a scintillation counter, he measured radiation and interviewed tsunami victims, nuclear evacuees, anti-nuclear organizers and pro-nuclear utility workers.Featuring Vollmann's signature wide learning, sardonic wit, and encyclopedic research, No Immediate Danger, whose title co-opts the reassuring mantra of official Japanese energy experts, builds up a powerful, sobering picture of the ongoing nightmare of Fukushima.Watch for No Good Alternative, the second volume of Carbon Ideologies, focusing on human experiences related to coal mining and oil and natural gas production - coming in June 2018.
Atlas of a Lost World
By Childs, Craig
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet comes a vivid travelogue through prehistory, tracing the arrival of the First People in North America at least twenty thousand years ago and the artifacts that tell of their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were. How they arrived, persisted, and ultimately thrived is a story that resonates from the Pleistocene to our modern era. During the Ice Age, sea levels were much lower, exposing a vast land bridge between Asia and North America. But the land bridge was not the only way across. Different people arrived from different directions, and not all at the same time. The first explorers of the New World were few, their encampments fleeting. The continent they reached had no people, and was inhabited by megafauna - mastodons, giant bears, mammoths, saber-toothed cats, 500-pound jaguar-lions, enormous bison, and sloths that stood one story tall. The First People were hunters - Paleolithic spear points are still encrusted with the proteins of their prey - but they were wildly outnumbered and many would have been prey to the much larger animals. Atlas of a Lost World chronicles the last millennia of the Ice Age, the violent oscillations and retreat of glaciers, the clues and traces that document the first encounters of early humans, and the animals whose presence governed the humans' chances for survival. A blend of science and personal narrative reveals how much has changed since the time of mammoth hunters, and how little. Across unexplored landscapes yet to be peopled, readers will see the Ice Age, and their own age, in a whole new light.
The Plant Messiah
By Magdalena, Carlos
An impassioned memoir of saving extraordinary plants on the brink of extinction, by a scientist who has been called a "codebreaker" (Telegraph) and "an inspiration" (Jane Goodall) Carlos Magdalena is not your average horticulturist. He's a man on a mission to save the world's most endangered plants. First captivated by the flora of his native Spain, he has travelled to the remotest parts of the globe in search of exotic species. Renowned for his pioneering work, he has committed his life to protecting plants from man-made ecological destruction and thieves hunting for wealthy collectors.In The Plant Messiah, Magdalena takes readers from the Amazon to the jungles of Mauritius to deep within the Australian Outback in search of the rare and the vulnerable. Back in the lab, we watch as he develops groundbreaking, left-field techniques for rescuing species from extinction, encouraging them to propagate and thrive once again. Along the way, he offers moving, heartfelt stories about the secrets contained within these incredible organisms. Passionate and absorbing, The Plant Messiah is a tribute to the diversity of life on our planet, and the importance of preserving it.
Horizon
By Lopez, Barry
From the National Book Award-winning author of the now-classic Arctic Dreams, a vivid, poetic, capacious work that recollects the travels around the world and the encounters--human, animal, and natural--that have shaped an extraordinary life.Taking us nearly from pole to pole--from modern megacities to some of the most remote regions on the earth--and across decades of lived experience, Barry Lopez, hailed by the Los Angeles Times Book Review as "one of our finest writers," gives us his most far-ranging yet personal work to date, in a book that moves indelibly, immersively, through his travels to six regions of the world: from Western Oregon to the High Arctic; from the Galpagos to the Kenyan desert; from Botany Bay in Australia to finally, unforgettably, the ice shelves of Antarctica. As he takes us on these myriad travels, Lopez also probes the long history of humanity's quests and explorations, including the prehistoric peoples who trekked across Skraeling Island in northern Canada, the colonialists who plundered Central Africa, an enlightenment-era Englishman who sailed the Pacific, a Native American emissary who found his way into isolationist Japan, and today's ecotourists in the tropics. Throughout his journeys--to some of the hottest, coldest, and most desolate places on the globe--and via friendships he forges along the way with scientists, archaeologists, artists and local residents, Lopez searches for meaning and purpose in a broken world. Horizon is a revelatory, epic work that voices concern and frustration along with humanity and hope--a book that makes you see the world differently, and that is the crowning achievement by one of America's great thinkers and most humane voices.
The Equations of Life
By Cockell, Charles
A groundbreaking new view on the theory of evolution, arguing that life develops in predictable waysWe are all familiar with the popular idea of strange alien life wildly different from life on earth inhabiting other planets. Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it has wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles S. Cockell makes the forceful argument that the laws of physics narrowly constrain how life can evolve, making evolution's outcomes predictable. If we were to find on a distant planet something very much like a lady bug eating something like an aphid, we shouldn't be surprised. The forms of life are guided by a limited set of rules, and as a result, there is a narrow set of solutions to the challenges of existence.A remarkable scientific contribution breathing new life into Darwin's theory of evolution, The Equations of Life makes a radical argument about what life can--and can't--be.
Supernavigators
By Barrie, David
A globetrotting voyage of discovery celebrating the navigational gifts of animals; from whales and lobsters to birds and beetles - and many more! In Supernavigators, award-winning author David Barrie takes us on a tour of the cutting-edge science of animal navigation, where scientists are unraveling how creatures as various as butterflies, birds, crustaceans, fish, reptiles, and even people find their way. Weaving interviews with leading experts on animal behavior with the groundbreaking discoveries of Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientists, Barrie introduces astounding animals of every stripe: Dung beetles that steer by the light of the Milky Way. Ants and bees that navigate using patterns of light invisible to humans. Sea turtles, spiny lobsters, and moths that find their way using Earth's magnetic field. Salmon that return to their birthplace by following their noses. Baleen whales that swim thousands of miles while holding a rock-steady course, and birds that can locate their nests on a tiny island after crisscrossing an ocean. There's a stunning diversity of animal navigators out there, often using senses and skills we humans don't have access to ourselves. For the first time, Supernavigators reveals these wonders in a whole new light.
Down from the Mountain
By Andrews, Bryce
"Andrews' wonderful Downfrom the Mountain is deeply informed by personal experience and made all the stronger by his compassion and measured thoughts...Welcome and impressive work." - Barry Lopez The story of a grizzly bear named Millie: her life, death, and cubs, and what they reveal about the changing character of the American West The grizzly is one of North America's few remaining large predators. Their range is diminished, but they're spreading across the West again. Descending into valleys where once they were king, bears find the landscape they'd known for eons utterly changed by the new most dominant animal: humans. As the grizzlies approach, the people of the region are wary, at best, of their return. In searing detail, award-winning writer, Montana rancher, and conservationist Bryce Andrews tells us about one such grizzly. Millie is a typical mother: strong, cunning, fiercely protective of her cubs. But raising those cubs - a challenging task in the best of times - becomes ever harder as the mountains change, the climate warms and people crowd the valleys. There are obvious dangers, like poachers, and subtle ones as well, like the corn field that draws her out of the foothills and sets her on a path toward trouble and ruin. That trouble is where Bryce's story intersects with Millie's. It is the heart of Down from the Mountain, a singular drama evoking a much larger one: an entangled, bloody collision between two species in the modern-day West, where the shrinking wilds force man and bear into ever closer proximity.
The Zen of Cat Walking
By Brooks, Clifford
Going for a walk is no longer just for the dogs! Experienced cat owner Clifford Brooks is here to teach you and your cat how to enjoy a stroll together. Cats are naturally adventurous creatures, and with the help of a leash and Brooks's tips, you can indulge those instincts with a sense of security.As any animal trainer will tell you, the magic is in your attitude and sensitivity to your kitty's needs and subtle reactions to new things. With that in mind, Brooks encourages cat owners to embrace Zen meditation as the foundation for leash training. Benefiting both you and your furry friend, practicing mediation will: Provide a calm atmosphere in which to learn an enjoyable skill and explore new environments together. Foster a positive energy between the two of you. Cultivate patience and appreciation for simple accomplishments. With step-by-step instructions, meditation guidance, and interviews with other successful cat walkers, you'll learn how cat walking can have a healthy impact on your life and the life of your feline companion. Essentially, you will become a more sensitive cat owner, able to detect when your own presence is affecting your cat's behavior. Combining a practical skill with a thoughtful approach, Brooks's advice will do wonders for the time you spend together.
Hearth
By Smith, Annick
A multicultural anthology, edited by Susan O'Connor and Annick Smith, about the enduring importance and shifting associations of the hearth in our world. A hearth is many things: a place for solitude; a source of identity; something we make and share with others; a history of ourselves and our homes. It is the fixed center we return to. It is just as intrinsically portable. It is, in short, the perfect metaphor for what we seek in these complex and contradictory times -- set in flux by climate change, mass immigration, the refugee crisis, and the dislocating effects of technology. Featuring original contributions from some of our most cherished voices -- including Terry Tempest Williams, Bill McKibben, Pico Iyer, Natasha Trethewey, and Chigozie Obioma -- Hearth suggests that empathy and storytelling hold the power to unite us when we have wandered alone for too long.