When Beatrice Poole, a writer in Regency England starts searching for the Forbidden Rings of Aphrodite--a missing heirloom which she was supposed to have inherited from an uncle--she does not realize the danger of her quest. Fortunately, the Earl of Monkcrest is there to protect her.

"Meet the intelligent insects, marvelous minibeasts, and inspirational invertebrates that help shape our planet-and discover how you can help them help us by rebugging your attitude today! Remember when there were bugs on your windshield? Ever wonder where they went? We need to act now if we are to help the insects survive. Robin Wall Kimmerer, David Attenborough, and Elizabeth Kolbert are but a few voices championing the rewilding of our world. Rebugging...

In this beguiling work Posnett journeys to some of the most far-flung locales on the planet to bring seven wonders of the natural world--eiderdown, vicuña fiber, sea silk, vegetable ivory, civet coffee, guano, and edible birds' nests--that promise ways of using nature without damaging it.

Dante expert David Franco tracks down the whereabouts of a mirror bearing an image of the legendary Medusa which was possibly crafted by Renaissance artist Benvenuto Cellini. But David will need help if he is to find the clues scattered through art and history to the mirror's current location. And there are others who have heard of the mirror's powers, and they will stop at nothing to find it.

"The year is 1876. Among the warring Indian tribes and lawless gold-rush towns of America's western territories, two paleontologists pillage the Wild West. They are hunting for dinosaur fossils, while surveilling, deceiving and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Into this treacherous territory plunges the arrogant and entitled Yale student William Johnson. Determined to survive a summer in the west to win...

"In 2012, a New York auction catalogue made an unusual offering: "a superb Tyrannosaurus skeleton." In fact, Lot 49135 consisted of a nearly complete T. bataar, a close cousin to T. rex, the most famous animal that ever lived. The fossils now on display in Manhattan had been unearthed in Mongolia, some 6,000 miles away. At 8 feet high and 24 feet long, the specimen was spectacular, and the final gavel signaled a winning bid of well over $1 million....

For animal lovers of all ages, the true story of how Gerald Durrell and his wife founded England's Jersey Zoo. The book begins with an account of Durrell's third trip to the British Cameroons in West Africa, during which he and his wife capture animals to start their own zoo. Returning to England with a few additions to their family, they have nowhere to put them as they haven't yet secured a place for their zoo. Durrell's account of how he manages...

Army epidemiologist Frank Slater's offered a job no one else wants: to travel to a small island off the coast of Alaska and investigate a potentially lethal phenomenon. The permafrost has begun to melt, exposing bodies from a colony that was wiped out by the dreaded Spanish flu of 1918 and was once devoted to the mad Russian monk Rasputin. Frank must determine if the thawed remains still carry the deadly virus in their frozen flesh and, if so, ensure...

"When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920's Hoosier-brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it's love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister, Rebecca, that the nineteenth-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie's junk, she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier. But that night on the summer porch, where she's...

A compact and contemporary guide to collecting, drying and storing plant specimens, suitable for both professional researchers and ardent amateurs.The long-awaited successor to Dr. Christoper Brayshaw's beloved Plant Collecting for the Amateur, Linda P.J. Lipsen's Pressed Plants goes to the heart of professional and amateur plant collecting today.Rich in illustrations, this beautiful book balances the ongoing history of plant collection with practical...