Come Late to the Love of Birds


Book Description

Sandra's first collection, The Animal Bridegroom featured an introduction by Neil Gaiman and has sold out. This collection expands on her themes of abject romances, deformed fairytales gone and the astonishing delights of life in glorious 21st century. Kasturi's latest poetry book fuses nature's continuous emotional offerings, our desire to understand ourselves with our passion to be free, devoid of the burden of modern thought.




Vesper Flights


Book Description

The New York Times–bestselling author of H is for Hawk explores the human relationship to the natural world in this “dazzling” essay collection (Wall Street Journal). In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.




Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang


Book Description

Before becoming one of today's most intriguing and innovative mystery writers, Kate Wilhelm was a leading writer of science fiction, acclaimed for classics like The Infinity Box and The Clewiston Test. Now one of her most famous novels returns to print, the spellbinding story of an isolated post-holocaust community determined to preserve itself, through a perilous experiment in cloning. Sweeping, dramatic, rich with humanity, and rigorous in its science, Where Later the Sweet Birds Sang is widely regarded as a high point of both humanistic and "hard" SF, and won SF's Hugo Award and Locus Award on its first publication. It is as compelling today as it was then. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is the winner of the 1977 Hugo Award for Best Novel. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.




How to Know the Birds


Book Description

"In this elegant narrative, celebrated naturalist Ted Floyd guides you through a year of becoming a better birder. Choosing 200 top avian species to teach key lessons, Floyd introduces a new, holistic approach to bird watching and shows how to use the tools of the 21st century to appreciate the natural world we inhabit together whether city, country or suburbs." -- From book jacket.




Late Migrations


Book Description

From the New York Times columnist, a portrait of a family and the cycles of joy and grief that mark the natural world: “Has the makings of an American classic.” —Ann Patchett Growing up in Alabama, Margaret Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.” Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut. “Magnificent . . . Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)




The Bedside Book of Birds


Book Description

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY MARGARET ATWOOD Featured in the vast majority of mythologies and religions, birds are generally associated with creativity and the human spirit. From the Christian dove to Quetzalcoatl (the Aztec plumed serpent), and from Raven Man to Plato's description of the soul growing wings and feathers, birds have represented the soul in contrast to the body, the spiritual as opposed to the earthly. The Bedside Book of Birds is an unexpected and fascinating treasure trove of paintings, drawings, essays and scientific observations: it marvellously conveys the hope, the longing and the enchantment that birds have evoked in humans in all cultures and all times. Beautifully produced, the book contains more than one hundred illustrations, ranging from early cave paintings through works by Audubon, Morris and Gould, to Inuit and other works created in the twentieth century. There are writings by naturalists like W.H. Hudson, Laurens van der Post, Peter Matthiessen and Barry Lopez, and by classical authors such as Shakespeare, Coleridge, Melville and Poe. There is also a rich seam of contemporary work by Jorge Luis Borges, Ted Hughes, Italo Calvino, Bruce Chatwin and Haruki Murakami, among many others. The Bedside Book of Birds is a book to explore, to savour, and to learn from - a book for the winged soul in all of us.




When We Were Birds


Book Description

In When We Were Birds, Joe Wilkins wrestles his attention away from the griefs, deprivations, and high prairies of his Montana childhood and turns toward "the bean-rusted fields and gutted factories of the Midwest," toward ordinary injustice and everyday sadness, toward the imminent birth of his son and his own confusions in taking up the mantle of fatherhood, toward faith and grace, legacy and luck. A panoply of voices are at play--the escaped convict, the late-night convenience store clerk, and the drowned child all have their say--and as this motley chorus rises and crests, we begin to understand something of what binds us and makes us human: while the world invariably breaks all our hearts, Wilkins insists that is the very "place / hope lives, in the breaking." Within a notable range of form, concern, and voice, the poems here never fail to sing. Whether praiseful or interrogating, When We Were Birds is a book of flight, light, and song. "When we were birds," Wilkins begins, "we veered & wheeled, we flapped & looped-- / it's true, we flew."




One Wild Bird at a Time


Book Description

The acclaimed scientist/writer's captivating encounters with individual wild birds, yielding "marvelous, mind-altering" insights and discoveries




For the Love of Reading


Book Description

This insightful book reviews the current research on literacy programming, examines the latest standards for strengthening reading skills, and provides educators, families, and caregivers methods for building successful reading habits in and out of the classroom. Research indicates that children need more than classroom instruction to become proficient readers. Unfortunately, few parents realize how simple, everyday practices can build a lifelong love of reading. Educators, diligent with employing mandatory literacy standards, may overlook families and support systems as tools for improving student performance. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the various methods of reading instruction, analyzing the pedagogy behind Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), the importance of reading aloud to children, and the necessity of working the home-school connection. For the Love of Reading: Guide to K–8 Reading Promotions provides strategies and tips for setting up successful reading environments for children, including having a well-stocked library collection; engaging students through book clubs, reading lists, and prepared book talks; and involving student and adult volunteers. The author asserts that the entire school community—teachers, librarians, parents, caregivers, and administrators—must work together to promote literacy.




Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!


Book Description

Needing to brush his teeth, a bus driver asks the reader to make sure that the pigeon goes to bed on time--but the bird has many excuses about why it should stay awake.