Sparkers


Book Description

A magical world that will captivate fans of Kate DiCamillo and Diana Wynne Jones. Marah Levi is a promising violinist who excels at school and can read more languages than most librarians. Even so, she has little hope of a bright future: she is a sparker, a member of the oppressed lower class in a society run by magicians. Then a mysterious disease hits the city of Ashara, turning its victims’ eyes dark before ultimately killing them. As Marah watches those whom she loves most fall ill, she finds an unlikely friend in Azariah, a wealthy magician boy. Together they pursue a cure in secret, but more people are dying every day, and time is running out. Then Marah and Azariah make a shocking discovery that turns inside-out everything they thought they knew about magic and about Ashara, their home. Set in an imaginative world rich with language, lore, and music, this gripping adventure plunges the reader into the heart of a magical government where sparks of dissent may be even more deadly than the dark eyes.




Field Notes on Science and Nature


Book Description

Once in a great while, as the New York Times noted recently, a naturalist writes a book that changes the way people look at the living world. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, published in 1838, was one. Roger Tory Peterson’s 1934 Field Guide to the Birds was another. How does such insight into nature develop? Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their native habitat, Field Notes on Science and Nature allows readers to peer over the shoulders and into the notebooks of a dozen eminent field workers, to study firsthand their observational methods, materials, and fleeting impressions. What did George Schaller note when studying the lions of the Serengeti? What lists did Kenn Kaufman keep during his 1973 “big year”? How does Piotr Naskrecki use relational databases and electronic field notes? In what way is Bernd Heinrich’s approach “truly Thoreauvian,” in E. O. Wilson’s view? Recording observations in the field is an indispensable scientific skill, but researchers are not generally willing to share their personal records with others. Here, for the first time, are reproductions of actual pages from notebooks. And in essays abounding with fascinating anecdotes, the authors reflect on the contexts in which the notes were taken. Covering disciplines as diverse as ornithology, entomology, ecology, paleontology, anthropology, botany, and animal behavior, Field Notes offers specific examples that professional naturalists can emulate to fine-tune their own field methods, along with practical advice that amateur naturalists and students can use to document their adventures.




Grinnell College in the Nineteenth Century


Book Description

In this most engaging history of one of America's premier liberal arts colleges, Wall captures far more than the formation and growth of Grinnell College, Iowa. It is also a story about organized religion and religious values in nineteenth-century America, about westward expansion across the Mississippi River, and about town building on the prairies. Strong personalities drive the early college: Leonard and Sarah Parker, George F. Magoun, George Herron, Carrie Rand, Martha Foote Crowe, and above all, George Augustus Gates. Wall's quotations from personal letters and college minutes illuminate their backgrounds, motivations, and aspirations. The book was originally commissioned by President George Drake as a sesquicentennial history of the college. This volume contains the story Wall had completed when he died. Mrs Bea Wall finished her husband's last chapter.




Ashes


Book Description

Ashes is a gothic novel depicting the life and struggles of Alice Reaper. Alice Reaper departs from her hometown Boydton, Virginia after her father's tragic death. She begins anew in the small town of Bedford, Ohio as nightmares and the memories of the past haunt her. Longing for inner peace, she struggles against her own darkness, demons, and the ashes of a life she once lived.




Everyday Practice of Science


Book Description

Scientific facts can be so complicated that only specialists in a field fully appreciate the details, but the nature of everyday practice that gives rise to these facts should be understandable by everyone interested in science. This book describes how scientists bring their own interests and passions to their work, illustrates the dynamics between researchers and the research community, and emphasizes a contextual understanding of science in place of the linear model found in textbooks with its singular focus on "scientific method." Everyday Practice of Science also introduces readers to issues about science and society. Practice requires value judgments: What should be done? Who should do it? Who should pay for it? How much? Balancing scientific opportunities with societal needs depends on appreciating both the promises and the ambiguities of science. Understanding practice informs discussions about how to manage research integrity, conflict of interest, and the challenge of modern genetics to human research ethics. Society cannot have the benefits of research without the risks. The last chapter contrasts the practices of science and religion as reflective of two different types of faith and describes a holistic framework within which they dynamically interact.




Last Stand


Book Description

The dramatic history of the extermination and resurrection of the American buffalo, by #1 bestselling author of The Revenant Michael Punke's The Last Stand tells the epic story of the American West through the lens of the American bison and the man who saved these icons of the Western landscape. Over the last three decades of the nineteenth century, an American buffalo herd once numbering 30 million animals was reduced to twelve. It was the era of Manifest Destiny, a Gilded Age that treated the West as nothing more than a treasure chest of resources to be dug up or shot down. The buffalo in this world was a commodity, hounded by legions of swashbucklers and unemployed veterans seeking to make their fortunes. Supporting these hide hunters, even buying their ammunition, was the U.S. Army, which considered the eradication of the buffalo essential to victory in its ongoing war on Native Americans. Into that maelstrom rode young George Bird Grinnell. A scientist and a journalist, a hunter and a conservationist, Grinnell would lead the battle to save the buffalo from extinction. Fighting in the pages of magazines, in Washington's halls of power, and in the frozen valleys of Yellowstone, Grinnell and his allies sought to preserve an icon from the grinding appetite of Robber Baron America. Grinnell shared his adventures with some of the greatest and most infamous characters of the American West—from John James Audubon and Buffalo Bill to George Armstrong Custer and Theodore Roosevelt (Grinnell's friend and ally). A strikingly contemporary story, the saga of Grinnell and the buffalo was the first national battle over the environment. Last Stand is the story of the death of the old West and the birth of the new as well as an examination of how the West was really won—through the birth of the conservation movement. It is also the definitive history of the American buffalo, written by a master storyteller of the West.




The Grinnell Review


Book Description




More Hometown Memories of Grinnell, Iowa


Book Description

As a student of local history, I find Daves stories of old Grinnell very fascinating. We who lived in this era of the 40s, 50s, and 60s have some interesting things to share with others about our town and its people. His broad knowledge continues to amaze me. How he remembers so much from 50-70 years ago and is able to record it for the rest of us to enjoy is wonderful. If he wants to expand on a topic of which he is unfamiliar, he knows the right person to contact. Yes, he lives in Texas, but he contacts friends all over to help expand on his topics. Daves knowledge and expertise in basketball continued from his first book A Journey in Overseas Basketballwritten in 1997 through the first edition of Home Town Memories of Grinnell, Iowa in 2012 and now into the sequel ofMore Hometown Memories of Grinnell, Iowa.




Wildings


Book Description

"Rivka, one of the magical elite, embarks on a quest to find her twin brother, Arik, who was sent away when he failed to develop his own magical abilities"--