The instant New York Times bestseller!From one of Americas most beloved sportswriters and the bestselling author of Pappyland, a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports."Wright Thompsons stories are so full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail that I sometimes thinks hes working my side of the street - the world of fiction." - John GrishamThere is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN (and its not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers (see back of book) . But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtrys Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. He jimmies the lock to the furnaces inside the people he profiles and does an analysis of the fuel that fires their ambition. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Pat Riley or Urban Meyer, he strips the away the self-serving myths and fantasies to reveal his characters in full. There are fascinating common denominators: it may not be the case that every single great performer or coach had a complex relationship with his father, but it can sure seem that way. And there is much marvelous local knowledge: about specific sports, and times and places, and people. Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporters art, and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.
Penguin Books
|
9780143133872
|
Paperback
Genuine Fakes
By Pyne, Lydia
Is the distinction between "real" and "fake" as clear-cut as we think?Does an authentic Andy Warhol painting need to be painted by Andy Warhol? Should we be outraged that some of those famous scenes in Blue Planet were filmed in a lab? Who are the scientists putting ever-more improbable flavors in our Jelly Belly beans? Welcome to the world of "genuine fakes"--the curious objects that fall in between things that are real and things that are not. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes that defy simple categorization. Whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. In Genuine Fakes, historian Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history, science and culture.
Bloomsbury Sigma
|
9781472961822
|
Hardcover
Other Minds
By Godfrey-smith, Peter
A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousnessAlthough mammals and birds are widely regarded to be the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to keep tabs on individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once, but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey, and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journey. But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually think for themselves ? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate together, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia? And how does the cephalopod mind differ from the mammal mind, which took its own path a path that eventually gave rise to an especially rich form of consciousness? By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind and on our own. "
Farrar
|
9780374227760
|
Print book
Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?
By Lawler, Andrew
From ancient empires to modern economics, veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globethe chicken. Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it. Throughout the history of civilization, humans have embraced it in every form imaginableas a messenger of the gods, powerful sex symbol, gambling aid, emblem of resurrection, all-purpose medicine, handy research tool, inspiration for bravery, epitome of evil, and, of course, as the star of the worlds most famous joke.
Atria Books
|
9781476729893
|
Hardcover
The Matter of Everything
By Sheehy, Suzie
A physicist's surprising, fascinating journey through the experimentsthat unlocked the nature of matter and gave riseto the technology that ushered us into the modern world.Physics has always been engaged in the pursuit of expanding our knowledge of the nature of matter and the world around us. But how can you use experiments to further this quest? How do you measure the mass of a particle a trillion times smaller than a grain of sand? How do you capture the movement of particles that have traveled billions of miles through deep space into our atmosphere? And, finally, why is all this important?In The Matter of Everything, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged the experiments that changed the course of history.
Knopf
|
9780525658757
|
Hardcover
The Anthropocene Reviewed
By Green, John
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.
John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.
Dutton
|
9780525555216
|
Hardcover
What the Bears Know
By Searles, Steve
The incredible story of how one man went from a hired hunter to becoming one of America's top champions for this iconic animal.. In this wondrous and eye-opening exploration, Steve Searles, the renowned and respected "Bear Whisperer" of Mammoth Lakes, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of these remarkable creatures and the world we share. In the late 1990s, the town of Mammoth Lakes, California hired Steve Searles as a hunter to cull half its troublesome bear population. But as he began to prepare for the grim task, the bears soon won him over, and Searles realized there had to be a better way. He soon developed non-lethal tactics to control their behavior and overpopulation that heralded a landmark moment in the care and handling of the American black bear.
Pegasus Books
|
9781639365012
|
Hardcover
The Art of Logic in an Illogical World
By Cheng, Eugenia
How both logical and emotional reasoning can help us live better in our post-truth worldIn a world where fake news stories change election outcomes, has rationality become futile? In The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, Eugenia Cheng throws a lifeline to listeners drowning in the illogic of contemporary life. Cheng is a mathematician, so she knows how to make an airtight argument. But even for her, logic sometimes falls prey to emotion, which is why she still fears flying and eats more cookies than she should. If a mathematician cant be logical, what are we to do? In this audiobook, Cheng reveals the inner workings and limitations of logic and explains why alogic - for example, emotion - is vital to how we think and communicate. Cheng shows us how to use logic and alogic together to navigate a world awash in bigotry, mansplaining, and manipulative memes. Insightful, useful, and funny, this essential audiobook is for anyone who wants to think more clearly.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Basic Books
|
9781541672482
|
Hardcover
Evolutions
By Harman, Oren Solomon
A brilliant lyrical exploration of how modern science illuminates what it means to be human, from the award-winning author of The Price of AltruismWe don't think anymore, like the ancient Chinese did, that the world was hatched from an egg, or, like the Maori, that it came from the tearing apart of a love embrace. The Greeks told of a tempestuous Hera and a cunning Zeus, but we now use genes and natural selection to explain fear and desire, and physics to demystify the workings of the universe.Science is an astounding achievement, but are we really any wiser than the ancients? Has science revealed the secrets of fate and immortality? Has it provided protection from jealousy or love? There are those who believe that science has replaced faith, but must it also be a death knell for mythology?Evolutions brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, the journey from a single cell all the way to our human minds.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
|
9780374150709
|
Hardcover
The Big, Bad Book of Botany
By Largo, Michael
David Attenborough meets Lemony Snicket in The Big Bad Book of Botany Michael Largos entertaining and enlightening one-of-a-kind compendium of the worlds most amazing and bizarre plants their history and their loreThe Big Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild wonderful and weird plants Some are so rare they were once more valuable than gold Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities including the power to turn a person to stone Others have been used by assassins to kill kings and sorcerers to revive the dead Here too is vegetation with astonishing properties to cure and heal many of which have long since been lost with the advent of modern medicineOrganized alphabetically The Big Bad Book of Botany combines the latest in biological information with bizarre facts about the plant kingdoms oddest members including a species that is more poisonous than a cobra and a prehistoric plant that actually walked Largo takes you through the history of vegetables and fruits and their astonishing agricultural evolution Throughout he reveals astonishing facts from where the worlds first tree grew to whether plants are telepathicFeaturing more than photographs and illustrations The Big Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.
The Cost of These Dreams
By Thompson, Wright
The instant New York Times bestseller!From one of Americas most beloved sportswriters and the bestselling author of Pappyland, a collection of true stories about the dream of greatness and its cost in the world of sports."Wright Thompsons stories are so full of rich characters, bad actors, heroes, drama, suffering, courage, conflict, and vivid detail that I sometimes thinks hes working my side of the street - the world of fiction." - John GrishamThere is only one Wright Thompson. He is, as they say, famous if you know who he is: his work includes the most read articles in the history of ESPN (and its not even close) and has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series ten times, and he counts John Grisham and Richard Ford among his ardent admirers (see back of book) . But to say his pieces are about sports, while true as far as it goes, is like saying Larry McMurtrys Lonesome Dove is a book about a cattle drive. Wright Thompson figures people out. He jimmies the lock to the furnaces inside the people he profiles and does an analysis of the fuel that fires their ambition. Whether it be Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods or Pat Riley or Urban Meyer, he strips the away the self-serving myths and fantasies to reveal his characters in full. There are fascinating common denominators: it may not be the case that every single great performer or coach had a complex relationship with his father, but it can sure seem that way. And there is much marvelous local knowledge: about specific sports, and times and places, and people. Ludicrously entertaining and often powerfully moving, The Cost of These Dreams is an ode to the reporters art, and a celebration of true greatness and the high price that it exacts.
Genuine Fakes
By Pyne, Lydia
Is the distinction between "real" and "fake" as clear-cut as we think?Does an authentic Andy Warhol painting need to be painted by Andy Warhol? Should we be outraged that some of those famous scenes in Blue Planet were filmed in a lab? Who are the scientists putting ever-more improbable flavors in our Jelly Belly beans? Welcome to the world of "genuine fakes"--the curious objects that fall in between things that are real and things that are not. Unsurprisingly, the world is full of genuine fakes that defy simple categorization. Whether or not we think that those things are authentic is a matter of perspective. In Genuine Fakes, historian Lydia Pyne explores how the authenticity of eight genuine fakes depends on their unique combinations of history, science and culture.
Other Minds
By Godfrey-smith, Peter
A philosopher dons a wet suit and journeys into the depths of consciousnessAlthough mammals and birds are widely regarded to be the smartest creatures on earth, it has lately become clear that a very distant branch of the tree of life has also sprouted higher intelligence: the cephalopods, consisting of the squid, the cuttlefish, and above all the octopus. In captivity, octopuses have been known to keep tabs on individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once, but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter? In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into being how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey, and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journey. But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually think for themselves ? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate together, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia? And how does the cephalopod mind differ from the mammal mind, which took its own path a path that eventually gave rise to an especially rich form of consciousness? By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mind and on our own. "
Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?
By Lawler, Andrew
From ancient empires to modern economics, veteran journalist Andrew Lawler delivers a sweeping history of the animal that has been most crucial to the spread of civilization across the globethe chicken. Queen Victoria was obsessed with it. Socrates last words were about it. Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur made their scientific breakthroughs using it. Catholic popes, African shamans, Chinese philosophers, and Muslim mystics praised it. Throughout the history of civilization, humans have embraced it in every form imaginableas a messenger of the gods, powerful sex symbol, gambling aid, emblem of resurrection, all-purpose medicine, handy research tool, inspiration for bravery, epitome of evil, and, of course, as the star of the worlds most famous joke.
The Matter of Everything
By Sheehy, Suzie
A physicist's surprising, fascinating journey through the experimentsthat unlocked the nature of matter and gave riseto the technology that ushered us into the modern world.Physics has always been engaged in the pursuit of expanding our knowledge of the nature of matter and the world around us. But how can you use experiments to further this quest? How do you measure the mass of a particle a trillion times smaller than a grain of sand? How do you capture the movement of particles that have traveled billions of miles through deep space into our atmosphere? And, finally, why is all this important?In The Matter of Everything, accelerator physicist Suzie Sheehy introduces us to the people who, through a combination of genius, persistence and luck, staged the experiments that changed the course of history.
The Anthropocene Reviewed
By Green, John
The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.
Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.
John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.
What the Bears Know
By Searles, Steve
The incredible story of how one man went from a hired hunter to becoming one of America's top champions for this iconic animal.. In this wondrous and eye-opening exploration, Steve Searles, the renowned and respected "Bear Whisperer" of Mammoth Lakes, takes the reader on a journey into the lives of these remarkable creatures and the world we share. In the late 1990s, the town of Mammoth Lakes, California hired Steve Searles as a hunter to cull half its troublesome bear population. But as he began to prepare for the grim task, the bears soon won him over, and Searles realized there had to be a better way. He soon developed non-lethal tactics to control their behavior and overpopulation that heralded a landmark moment in the care and handling of the American black bear.
The Art of Logic in an Illogical World
By Cheng, Eugenia
How both logical and emotional reasoning can help us live better in our post-truth worldIn a world where fake news stories change election outcomes, has rationality become futile? In The Art of Logic in an Illogical World, Eugenia Cheng throws a lifeline to listeners drowning in the illogic of contemporary life. Cheng is a mathematician, so she knows how to make an airtight argument. But even for her, logic sometimes falls prey to emotion, which is why she still fears flying and eats more cookies than she should. If a mathematician cant be logical, what are we to do? In this audiobook, Cheng reveals the inner workings and limitations of logic and explains why alogic - for example, emotion - is vital to how we think and communicate. Cheng shows us how to use logic and alogic together to navigate a world awash in bigotry, mansplaining, and manipulative memes. Insightful, useful, and funny, this essential audiobook is for anyone who wants to think more clearly.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
Evolutions
By Harman, Oren Solomon
A brilliant lyrical exploration of how modern science illuminates what it means to be human, from the award-winning author of The Price of AltruismWe don't think anymore, like the ancient Chinese did, that the world was hatched from an egg, or, like the Maori, that it came from the tearing apart of a love embrace. The Greeks told of a tempestuous Hera and a cunning Zeus, but we now use genes and natural selection to explain fear and desire, and physics to demystify the workings of the universe.Science is an astounding achievement, but are we really any wiser than the ancients? Has science revealed the secrets of fate and immortality? Has it provided protection from jealousy or love? There are those who believe that science has replaced faith, but must it also be a death knell for mythology?Evolutions brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, the journey from a single cell all the way to our human minds.
The Big, Bad Book of Botany
By Largo, Michael
David Attenborough meets Lemony Snicket in The Big Bad Book of Botany Michael Largos entertaining and enlightening one-of-a-kind compendium of the worlds most amazing and bizarre plants their history and their loreThe Big Bad Book of Botany introduces a world of wild wonderful and weird plants Some are so rare they were once more valuable than gold Some found in ancient mythology hold magical abilities including the power to turn a person to stone Others have been used by assassins to kill kings and sorcerers to revive the dead Here too is vegetation with astonishing properties to cure and heal many of which have long since been lost with the advent of modern medicineOrganized alphabetically The Big Bad Book of Botany combines the latest in biological information with bizarre facts about the plant kingdoms oddest members including a species that is more poisonous than a cobra and a prehistoric plant that actually walked Largo takes you through the history of vegetables and fruits and their astonishing agricultural evolution Throughout he reveals astonishing facts from where the worlds first tree grew to whether plants are telepathicFeaturing more than photographs and illustrations The Big Bad Book of Botany is a fascinating fun A-to-Z encyclopedia for all ages that will transform the way we look at the natural world.