Natural Science

Even those who take no interest in the field of dragon naturalism have heard of Lady Trent's expedition to the inhospitable deserts of Akhia. Her discoveries there are the stuff of romantic legend, catapulting her from scholarly obscurity to worldwide fame. The details of her personal life during that time are hardly less private, having provided fodder for gossips in several countries.

My mother isn’t my mother. A werewolf wants me for his one-and-only baby mama. Oh! And I’m the new leader of a tribe I joined weeks ago. Messed up doesn’t begin to explain it. I’m more desperate than ever to uncover an explanation for Mum’s mounting betrayals. Because this time, I’m not sure forgiveness is possible.

I’m a worrier on my best days, but with a psycho tracking my every move because he’s obsessed with killing me, I’ve graduated to the level of paranoid lunatic. Even if I could forget about the tracker—not happening since he’s figured out the fastest way to get to me is to attack my adopted family—my regular life is also anxiety-inducing as the city of Magiford is brewing with trouble.

In March 1980, a napping volcano awoke. Two months later, the mountain roared. Author Richard Waitt was one of the first to arrive following the mountain's early rumblings. A geologist with intimate knowledge of Mount St. Helens, Waitt delivers a detailed and accurate chronicle of events. His eruption story unfolds through unforgettable, riveting narratives - the heart of a masterful chronology that also delivers engrossing science, history, and journalism.

Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us and our ancestors in deep time. This pause-resisting survey of the whole of terrestrial evolution sheds new light on how nervous systems evolved in animals, how the brain developed, and what it means to be human. In The Deep History of Ourselves, LeDoux argues that the key to understanding human behavior lies in viewing evolution through the prism of the first living organisms.

Three years after her fateful journeys through the forbidding mountains of Vystrana, Mrs. Camherst defies family and convention to embark on an expedition to the war-torn continent of Eriga, home of such exotic draconian species as the grass-dwelling snakes of the savannah, arboreal tree snakes, and, most elusive of all, the legendary swamp-wyrms of the tropics. The expedition is not an easy one.

This book provides a complete overview of the American Founders' political theory, covering natural rights, natural law, state of nature, social compact, consent, and the policy implications of these ideas. The book is intended as a response to the current scholarly consensus, which holds that the Founders' political thought is best understood as an amalgam of liberalism, republicanism, and perhaps other traditions.

After losing her partner in the line of duty, Agent Sidney Shaw is forced to team up with a renegade bounty hunter. And she doesn’t like it. John Smoke—an incarcerated wild card—is released into her custody, only to push her vaunted training to the limits and toss the FBI playbook out. But a vast hidden network of criminals with the terrifying ability to shape-shift into monsters is spreading its supernatural sickness in the very fabric of human society. Innocents end up dead or missing.

Let’s see, my hired hunter has decided I’m his mate, my twin sister is blaming me for her abduction, a crazy and dangerous supernatural is now after my magic, and I’m somehow supposed to keep running Practically Perfect despite the disaster that is my life. Sigh...I just can’t win, especially when the crazy supernatural comes looking for me and my hired hunter goes into full-blown territorial werewolf mode. Did I mention that I haven’t accepted his mating bond? Now, it’s getting real, especially when I learn that my hunter has kept a very dark secret from me....

When Mum died, I inherited a lot more than a pack of lies. I landed a $410,000 debt. Discovered her previous surname. And her real place of birth. Desperate to uncover the truth, I drive to a tiny dot on the map called Deception Valley. Coincidental name? Nope. There, I find her secret family - because she had one of those too.

When Bernd Heinrich decided to write a memoir of his ultramarathon running experience, he realized that the preparation for the race was as important, if not more so, than the race itself. In Why We Run, Heinrich considers the flight endurance of birds, the antelope's running prowess and limitations, and the ultra-endurance of camels to understand how human physiology can or cannot replicate these adaptations. Heinrich offers an original and provocative work combining the rigors of science with the passion of running.

Rahl, a young apprentice scrivener on the island of Recluce, likes life to work out in his favor. And he has a bad attitude, too. To make sure things go his way, he uses a small amount of order magic at opportunistic moments-but his abilities are starting to get the attention of the Council magisters. So the Council sends him to the mage training school for testing, and through misuse of his powers, which are getting stronger all the time, Rahl gets himself banished to the continent and empire of Hamor.

We have a system in crisis, but Annie Leonard shows us that this is not the way things have to be. It's within our power to stop the environmental damage, social injustice, and health hazards caused by polluting production and excessive consumption, and Leonard shows us how. Expansive, galvanizing, and sobering yet optimistic, The Story of Stuff transforms how we think about our lives and our relationship to the planet.

By night, they fight in a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse. By day, they are friendly next-door neighbors. Neither of them know that their alter egos are archenemies. I’ve spent my life training in the family business of slaying vampires, but I’m tired of all the death. I want to prove we slayers can help society, not just break it. I start my new life by joining the Magiford supernatural task force, which exists to protect humans and supernaturals from harmful magic.

Interest in psychedelic mushrooms has never been greater–or the science less definitive. Popular science writer and amateur mycologist Eugenia Bone reports on the state of psychedelics today, from microdosing to heroic trips, illustrating how “citizen science” and anecdotal accounts of the mushrooms’ benefits are leading the new wave of scientific inquiry into psilocybin. With her signature blend of first-person narrative and scientific rigor, Bone breaks down just how the complicated cocktail of psychoactive compounds is thought to interact with our brain chemistry.

The Self Delusion is an explosive, powerful and inspiring book that brings together overwhelming evidence against the illusion we have of ourselves as independent beings - and explains how understanding our many connections may be the key to a better future.

Since the beginning of time, humankind has looked upon nature and seen the divine. In the writings of the great thinkers across religions, the natural world inspires everything from fear, to awe, to tranquil contemplation; God, or however one defined the sublime, was present in everything. Yet today, even as we admire a tree or take in a striking landscape, we rarely see nature as sacred.

Deserts are environments that can be inhospitable even to seasoned explorers. Craig Childs has spent years in the deserts of the American West, and his treks through arid lands in search of water reveal the natural world at its most extreme.

From award-winning ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman, and written using exclusive interviews and information comes the definitive account of the dramatic story that gripped the world: the miracle rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a flooded cave miles underground for nearly three weeks - a pulse-pounding account by a reporter who was there every step of their journey out.

The unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of An African Love Story, Daphne Sheldrick's touching memoir about romance, life and elephants from Africa's greatest living conservationist. Read by Virginia McKenna, the star of Born Free and the Founder Trustee of the Born Free Foundation. An African Love Story is the incredible memoir of the life of Africa's greatest living conservationist. It tells two stories.