Natural Science

Ofelia Archer is a witch about town. That town happens to be New Orleans. Magic has always been part of her life, but now it’s the creed she lives by, as she runs her supernatural bar Krewe in the heart of the city. Zacharias Sully left a life of luxury to protect and serve. His panther-shifter background means he’s ready for a fight. He just never thought he would be doing it alongside a witch. Ofelia and Sully weren’t looking for love, but they found each other. Now they just have to survive the darkness that is constantly threatening New Orleans.

Our ability to think about the future is one of the most powerful tools at our disposal. In The Invention of Tomorrow, cognitive scientists Thomas Suddendorf, Jonathan Redshaw, and Adam Bulley argue that its emergence transformed humans from unremarkable primates to creatures that hold the destiny of the planet in their hands. Drawing on their own cutting-edge research, the authors break down the science of foresight, showing us where it comes from, how it works, and how it made our world.

Drawing upon a lifetime of scientific expertise and an abiding love of nature, Richard Fortey uses his small wood to tell a wider story of the ever-changing British landscape, human influence on the countryside over many centuries and the vital interactions between flora, fauna and fungi. The trees provide a majestic stage for woodland animals and plants to reveal their own stories.

For years, America's national parks have provided public breathing spaces in a world in which such spaces are steadily disappearing, which is why close to 300 million people visit the parks each year. Now, to honor the centennial of the National Park Service, Terry Tempest Williams, the author of the beloved memoir When Women Were Birds, returns with The Hour of Land, a literary celebration of our national parks, what they mean to us, and what we mean to them.

It may be a wonderful world, but as Dan Riskin explains, it's also a dangerous, disturbing, and disgusting one. At every turn, it seems, living things are trying to eat us, poison us, use our bodies as their homes, or have us spread their eggs. In Mother Nature Is Trying to Kill You, Riskin is our guide through the natural world at its most gloriously ruthless. Using the seven deadly sins as a road map, Riskin offers dozens of jaw-dropping examples that illuminate how brutal nature can truly be.

Francois Attadedji saw something in black women all over the world; in Africa, in Asia, in America, in Australia, in Europe, even in Antarctica that caught his attention. No matter where black women are on the planet, it is the same. So, he decided to write a book about it: Many Reasons Why Black Women Don’t Wear Their Own Natural Nappy, Zippy, Curly, Kinky, Tiny, Short, Wavy Hairs. He believes that it is possibly not what you think. Answers from black women themselves. He got 100 answers from 100 different black women that he combined into 23 interviews in this book.

I was always good at being bad, which is why I’m the last person you’d expect to save the world. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given a choice. I’ve learned my prophecy has something to do with the Elves, an incredible magical people that went extinct a century ago. At a paranormal prison where evil runs free, there’s more to discover about the Elves than I ever expected. As my investigation continues, I receive messages from the gods, who seem certain I’m the magical world’s only hope for survival.

Energy is humanity's single most important resource. In fact, as energy expert Michael E. Webber argues in Power Trip, the story of how societies rise can be told largely as the story of how they manage energy sources through time. In 2019, as we face down growing demand for and accumulating environmental impacts from energy, we are at a crossroads and the stakes are high. But history shows us that energy's great value is that it allows societies to reinvent themselves.

A natural history of the wilderness in our homes, from the microbes in our showers to the crickets in our basements Even when the floors are sparkling clean and the house seems silent, our domestic domain is wild beyond imagination. In Never Home Alone, biologist Rob Dunn introduces us to the nearly 200,000 species living with us in our own homes, from the Egyptian meal moths in our cupboards and camel crickets in our basements to the lactobacillus lounging on our kitchen counters. You are not alone.

Humanity has used asphalt for thousands of years. This humble hydrocarbon may have glued the first arrowhead to the first shaft, but the changes wrought by this material are most dramatic since its emergence as pavement. Since the 1920s the automobile and blacktop have allowed unprecedented numbers of Americans to experience the beauty of their continent from the Adirondacks to the Rockies and beyond, to Big Sur and the Pacific Coast Highway.

A team of marine scientists is on the verge of making the most stunning discovery in the history of man: a previously unknown predatory species, alive now, evolving just like the dinosaurs, and being forced out of its world and into man's for a violent first encounter.

From best-selling authors Larissa Ione, Alexandra Ivy, Jacquelyn Frank, and G. A. Aiken comes an anthology of four all-new novellas set in the alluring worlds that each has created.

The never-before-told story of the horned rabbit - the myths, the hoaxes, the very real scientific breakthrough it inspired - and how it became a cultural touchstone of the American West.

The earth has died many times, and it always comes back looking different. In an exhilarating, surprising exploration of our planet, Craig Childs takes listeners on a firsthand journey through apocalypse, touching the truth behind the speculation. Apocalyptic Planet is a combination of science and adventure that reveals the ways in which our world is constantly moving toward its end and how we can change our place within the cycles and episodes that rule it.

Climate Change and the Road to Net-Zero is a story of how humanity has broken free from the shackles of poverty, suffering, and war and for the first time in human history, grown both population and prosperity. It’s also a story of how a single species has reconfigured the natural world, repurposed the Earth’s resources, and begun to reengineer the climate. The book uses these conflicting narratives to explore the science, economics, technology, and politics of climate change.

When Alex Kaine scores a job with a small but lucrative travel agency, he discovers its secret: that Mystic Getaways actually controls the Mystic Gateways, a series of portals that open wormholes to dramatically altered, far-flung versions of our own world.

The loss of walking as an individual and a community act has the potential to destroy our deepest spiritual connections, our democratic society, our neighborhoods, and our freedom. But we can change the course of our mobility. And we need to. Delving into a wealth of science, history, and anecdote, from our deepest origins as hominins to our first steps as babies, to universal design and social infrastructure, A Walking Life shows exactly how walking is essential, and how deeply reliant our brains and bodies are on this simple pedestrian act - and how we can reclaim it.

Tristan Fairholm has always liked fixing things. It makes up for everything in his life he can't mend - his parents' divorce, his father's alcoholism, and his little brother's weak heart. But when he kills his brother in a car accident, he destroys the only thing he truly cared for. He has nearly given up when a mysterious woman appears and offers him a place at her school. Along with 15 other juvenile delinquents, Tristan is given a chance to escape penitentiary while he studies magic in the wild mountains of Canada.

The author of Last Train to Paradise tells the story of the largest public water project ever created - William Mulholland's Los Angeles aqueduct - a story of Gilded Age ambition, hubris, greed, and one determined man whose vision shaped the future and continues to impact us today.

This book by a distinguished agronomist and agricultural researcher is a factual presentation designed to show farmers how they can increase their crop yields and reduce their production costs so they may enjoy a higher standard of living. Dr. Tiedjens’ More Food From Soil Science provides concrete examples of ways to help cure the agricultural doldrums.