"In this uplifting memoir, a professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment"-- In this affecting memoir, O'Kane (Guatemala in Focus), a natural sciences lecturer at the University of Vermont, elegantly weaves personal and natural history as she details how her fascination with birds compelled her to quit her journalism career, return to school at age 45 to get a PhD in environmental...

"In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the questions which run through it. How might we go about capturing on the page the relationships that have formed us? How do we write about our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean for an author's way of writing,...

James Pierson Beckwourth (1798 or 1800 – 1866 or 1867), born James Beckwith and generally known as, Jim Beckwourth was an American mountain man, fur trader, and explorer. A mulatto born into slavery in Virginia, he was freed by his father (and master) and apprenticed to a blacksmith; later he moved to the American West. As a fur trapper, he lived with the Crow Nation for years. He is credited with the discovery of Beckwourth Pass, through the...

California's female chief of fire protection looks back at her pioneering path in a male-dominated field, taking readers inside station houses, on daily calls, and along on wildfire campaigns.

"This lavishly illustrated book by Lisa Perrin introduces more than 25 infamous women poisoners, exploring the circumstances and skill sets that led them to lives of crime. Learn about popular poisons throughout history and their deadly effects, and explore the common motives that drove these women to commit their dastardly deeds. You might find yourself rooting for some of them-like Sally Bassett, who helped poison her granddaughter's enslavers in...

Kendrick Lamar is American hip-hop royalty, with twenty-three tracks and three albums that have sold more than a million copies and gone platinum. As a respected MC, Lamar speaks to socially conscious issues and racial injustice in his lyrics. His fans connect with his music and message, and he rocketed to star status. Born in Compton, California, Lamar witnessed hardships early in life, from seeing a shooting and racial riots to poverty. He...

In 1797 an extraordinary visionary died, leaving behind a grieving husband, a two-year-old daughter, and a newborn. The woman was Mary Wollstonecraft, her daughter Fanny Imlay, and her baby Mary Godwin, who, through many trials and tribulations, grew up to become the remarkable Mary Shelley, creator of one of the most important books in literature: Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus. While many books have examined both women's lives, their...

In the late 1940s Patrick Leigh Fermor, now widely regarded as one of the twentieth century’s greatest travel writers, set out to explore the then relatively little-visited islands of the Caribbean. Rather than a comprehensive political or historical study of the region, The Traveller’s Tree, Leigh Fermor’s first book, gives us his own vivid, idiosyncratic impressions of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, Barbados, Trinidad,...

A deeply personal story of one man’s spiritual odyssey and the unflagging faith which enabled him to survive the ordeal that wrenched his body and spirit to near collapse.
 
Captured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a “Vatican spy,” Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent some 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. He here recalls how it was only through an...

A revelatory meditation on class and consumer culture, from 2022 Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux

 

"A dryly charming look at the way the French live now, through the sharp eyes of its most acclaimed chronicler."—Kirkus Reviews

For half a century, the French writer Annie Ernaux has transgressed the boundaries of what stories are considered worth telling, what subjects

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