Spice God


C.L. Stone - 2013
    She needed a new home and a new job, not to mention a new life. Juniper Island, a thriving and posh hideaway known for its bustling summer tourism, held a promise to be exactly the change she needed. Without a second thought, Melody buys a one-way bus ticket.Directed to the North Shore by the bus driver, she meets Tonac, the unusual chef and owner of Mayana, a restaurant tailored to serve the hard-working island locals. He gives his delicious meals away for free, but that’s not the strangest part; he doesn't serve people what they want, only what they need.When Melody tastes the food for the first time, she finds out why the customers keep coming back, and it’s not just to eat for free or to be served by a rude waiter with no people skills. The food influences people in unique ways: sometimes it gives them visions, sometimes bravery, and in others it casts a new light into the darkest and faintest of memories -- whether they wanted to remember or not.Knowing she can do better as a server than the crabby waiter, Melody applies for a job at this strange restaurant. Tonac takes her on, but under his care, she comes face-to-face with the secrets of what he really is and who (and what) else inhabits the island.But not all of the residents of Juniper Island are happy with Tonac and his special meals. And when Melody gets caught up in the middle, it'll take more than a few spiced apple tarts or a bowl of pumpkin soup to uncover the deep and dark secrets that some inhabitants of Juniper Island want to keep buried.NOTE: This has been re-issued under the name Melody. You can find it here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

Rich Man's Toy


Fawn Bailey - 2018
    Her name is Amber Jonathan. She's been hurt, used and abused. And I intend on doing it all over again. But this time, she's going to beg for more. I'm the crown prince. Blue blood runs through my veins. It's time for me to have a heir, and a wife to join me on the throne. But it can never be Amber... Our little rendez-vous can only last a single night. No strings. No attachments. Nothing but a night of dangerous, forbidden fun. However, fate might have something else in store... Reading Order: Rich Man's Toy (The Dazzling Court FREE prequel) Dark Castle (The Dazzling Court book 1) Wicked Prince (The Dazzling Court book 2) Ever After (The Dazzling Court book 3)

The End of the Wild


Stephen M. Meyer - 2006
    The species that survive will be the ones that are most compatible with us: the weedy species--from mosquitoes to coyotes--that thrive in continually disturbed human-dominated environments. The End of the Wild is a wake-up call. Marshaling evidence from the last ten years of research on the environment, Stephen Meyer argues that nothing--not national or international laws, global bioreserves, local sustainability schemes, or wildlands--will change the course that has been set. Like it or not, we can no longer talk about conserving nature, only managing what is left. The race to save biodiversity is over.But that doesn't mean our work is over. The End of the Wild is also a call to action. Without intervention, the surviving ecosystems we depend on for a range of services--including water purification and flood and storm damage contro--could fail and the global spread of invasive species (pests, parasites, and disease-causing weedy species) could explode. If humanity is to survive, Meyer argues, we have no choice but to try to manage the fine details. We must move away from the current haphazard strategy of protecting species in isolation and create trans-regional meta-reserves, designed to protect ecosystem functions rather than species-specific habitats.

Eden


Tim Smit - 2002
    Since Eden opened in 2001, well over ten million visitors have made their way to Eden, drawn by the astonishing, visionary ambition of its founders, the everchanging horticulture and new developments on-site. More have discovered it as an extraordinary music venue, attending Eden's sessions. But Eden is far more than a visitor attraction. It has mutated into an organisation with projects and partnerships all over the world concerned with rehabilitation (physical and social), community education, biodiversity, sustainable construction, green employment and town planning.Marking the 10th anniversary, this edition is the extraordinary, fully updated story of Eden complete with stunning new photographs.

Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed


Alan Rabinowitz - 2007
    He has journeyed to the remote corners of the earth in search of wild things, weathering treacherous terrain, plane crashes, and hostile governments. Life in the Valley of Death recounts his most ambitious and dangerous adventure yet: the creation of the world's largest tiger preserve.The tale is set in the lush Hukaung Valley of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. An escape route for refugees fleeing the Japanese army during World War II, this rugged stretch of land claimed the lives of thousands of children, women, and soldiers. Today it is home to one of the largest tiger populations outside of India—a population threatened by rampant poaching and the recent encroachment of gold prospectors.To save the remaining tigers, Rabinowitz must navigate not only an unforgiving landscape, but the tangled web of politics in Myanmar. Faced with a military dictatorship, an insurgent army, tribes once infamous for taking the heads of their enemies, and villagers living on less than one U.S. dollar per day, the scientist and adventurer most comfortable with animals is thrust into a diplomatic minefield. As he works to balance the interests of disparate factions and endangered wildlife, his own life is threatened by an incurable disease.The resulting story is one of destruction and loss, but also renewal. In forests reviled as the valley of death, Rabinowitz finds new life for himself, for communities haunted by poverty and violence, and for the tigers he vowed to protect.

A Mate for the King


Rebel Carter - 2018
     Ever. But what happens when a bruja and a shifter fall in love? And what is their punishment when they bring a magic-wielding halfling omega into the world? The short answer is death. The long is that their legacy lives on in an orphaned omega left in the care of a coven, but things don’t end there when the shifter world reclaims the omega and sets off a chain of events no shifter could have ever predicted. Cora has spent every day since dreaming of her escape from the Moonwater Clan. Life as a Moonwater omega is bleak, but it's even worse for Cora as she's never experienced a heat, and there's little hope of a happily ever after if she remains their captive. Still, she holds on to the hope that things will change for her. And what better occasion than the upcoming coronation of the shifter world’s king to wish for a new beginning? But everything changes when she’s rescued from an aggressive alpha by none other than the soon-to-be king, and she finds herself drawn to him in a way she never imagined for herself. *********** The Fireheart alpha and king of the shifters is dead. Not just dead, but murdered. Which means that his son, Zehr, will become the new king. But he is filled with self-doubt at the prospect of the throne. On top of it all is the pressure to take a mate, something Zehr has avoided for years in hopes of bonding the right one. The one meant to be his mate and partner for life. With his father’s murderer still at large, finding a mate is the last thing on Zehr’s mind. Fate has other plans when he saves an unknown omega from another alpha's advances, and he finds himself under her spell. Literally. Because she’s full of magic. Zehr isn't sure what to make of the magic-wielding omega, but he does know one thing: he can't let her endure her first heat alone. Zehr and Cora’s attraction to one another is put to the test by prejudices against magic and the low station of Cora’s birth. Despite it all, the couple’s bond can bridge the ancient rift between the magical realm and shifter society, but only if they can overcome their own fears and doubts. Alpha and Omega is a novella series with A Mate for the King as its first installment! Fall into a world of intrigue, magic, and scintillating chemistry with an excerpt from our second novella, The Lioness Claims a Mate, a romance featuring a F/F pairing of a runaway omega and the female alpha who shatters expectations.

Canoe Country: The Making of Canada


Roy MacGregor - 2015
    Famous paddlers have been so enchanted with the canoe that one swore God made Canada as the perfect country in which to paddle it. Drawing on MacGregor's own decades spent whenever possible with a paddle in his hand, this is a story of high adventure on white water and the sweetest peace in nature's quietest corners, from the author best able (and most eager) to tell it.

America's Neighborhood Bats: Understanding and Learning to Live in Harmony with Them


Merlin D. Tuttle - 1988
    In this revised edition, Merlin D. Tuttle, founder and science director of Bat Conservation International in Austin, Texas, offers bat aficionados the most up-to-date bat facts, including a wealth of new information on attracting bats and building bat houses and a totally revamped key to the identification of common North American species.

Markings


S.B. Roozenboom - 2013
    Strangely enough, she can’t shake the feeling that he’s stalking her. And when a yellow-eyed stranger takes interest in her too, Celina discovers a dangerous secret: Her co-workers are Miew Demos–creatures linked to Bastet, the feline goddess of Egypt and members of a clan called Miews, shifters who can transform from human to feline in an instant.They, and she, are being hunted by a wolf clan, the Iew Keftey, who will not rest until every last one of the Miews is annihilated. Celina’s life unravels as she is thrust into this age-old battle of brother against brother. Meanwhile, she’s losing her heart to Aaron who may or may not have lost his to her. And her own Bayberry family history is hiding something… something that will forever link her destiny with that of the Miews.Celina and the clan need each other, but is either strong enough to face what is to come?

Overheating: An Anthropology of Accelerated Change


Thomas Hylland Eriksen - 2016
    Overheating offers a groundbreaking new way of looking at the problems of the Anthropocene, exploring crises of the environment, economy, and identity through an anthropological lens. Thomas Hylland Eriksen argues that while each of these crises is global in scope, they are nonetheless perceived and responded to locally—and that once we realize that, we begin to see the contradictions that abound between the standardizing forces of global capitalism and the socially embedded nature of people and local practices. Only by acknowledging the primacy of the local, Eriksen shows, can we begin to even properly understand, let alone address, these problems on a global scale.

Evolution's Workshop: God & Science on the Galápagos Islands


Edward J. Larson - 1965
    Isolated and desolate, they were largely overlooked by early explorers until Charles Darwin arrived there in the 1830s. It was Darwin who recognized that Galapagos' isolation and desolation were advantages: the paucity of species and lack of outside influences made the workings of natural selection crystal clear. Since then, every important advance and controversy in evolutionary thinking has had its reflection on the Galapagos. In every sense-intellectually, institutionally, and culturally-the history of science on these islands is a history of the way evolutionary science was done for the past 150 years. Evolution's Workshop tells the story of Darwin's explorations there; the fabulous Gilded Age expeditions, run from rich men's gigantic yachts, that featured rough-and-ready science during the day and black-tie dinners every night; the struggle for control of research on the Galapagos; the current efforts by "creation scientists" to use the Galapagos to undercut evolutionary teaching; and many other compelling stories.

Dyrwolf


Kat Kinney - 2018
    In the unforgiving forests of the north, shape-shifting wolves have enslaved the sole human city for hundreds of miles, driving survivors up into the mountains. When Lea tracks a shifter and finds him caught in a trap, she’s convinced he’s the white wolf from her dreams. Not that it matters. He’s one of them. And they’re at war.But as Lea pulls back the bowstring, Henrik shifts to human and begs her not to shoot. By name. But how could he possibly know her? In twenty years, the wolves have never crossed the river over to their side. Injured and unable to walk, Henrik needs Lea’s help to get back home. If he could be turned against the pack, it could change the course of the war. But first there’s the small problem of returning him to the wolves—without getting caught.

The Most Important Fish in the Sea: Menhaden and America


Howard Bruce Franklin - 2007
    Bruce Franklin shows how menhaden have shaped America’s national—and natural—history, and why reckless overfishing now threatens their place in both. Since Native Americans began using menhaden as fertilizer, this amazing fish has greased the wheels of U.S. agriculture and industry. By the mid-1870s, menhaden had replaced whales as a principal source of industrial lubricant, with hundreds of ships and dozens of factories along the eastern seaboard working feverishly to produce fish oil. Since the Civil War, menhaden have provided the largest catch of any American fishery. Today, one company—Omega Protein—has a monopoly on the menhaden “reduction industry.” Every year it sweeps billions of fish from the sea, grinds them up, and turns them into animal feed, fertilizer, and oil used in everything from linoleum to health-food supplements. The massive harvest wouldn’t be such a problem if menhaden were only good for making lipstick and soap. But they are crucial to the diet of bigger fish and they filter the waters of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, playing an essential dual role in marine ecology perhaps unmatched anywhere on the planet. As their numbers have plummeted, fish and birds dependent on them have been decimatedand toxic algae have begun to choke our bays and seas. In Franklin’s vibrant prose, the decline of a once ubiquitous fish becomes an adventure story, an exploration of the U.S. political economy, a groundbreaking history of America’s emerging ecological consciousness, and an inspiring vision of a growing alliance between environmentalists and recreational anglers.

My Pride and Joy: An Autobiography


George Adamson - 1986
    Now George tells the rest of the story.

Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? 200 birds, 12 months, 1 lapsed birdwatcher


Lev Parikian - 2018
    I was also a fraud, a liar and a cheat. Those lists of birds seen, ticked off like Don Juan’s conquests? A tissue of lies. One hundred and thirty species? More like 60. Dotterel, firecrest, smew? Give me a break.So when I revived my dormant mania early this year, I decided to right my childhood wrongs, even though they were born of good intentions. I would go birdwatching again. I would keep track of the birds I saw. I would not lie. To spice things up, and to guard against enthusiasm fatigue, I set myself a target. Six hundred and one bird species have been recorded in Britain. I would aim to see 200 of them in a year. A doddle, surely?Not so fast, man-cub.Half of the 601 are described as ‘rare’. One, the great auk, is extinct. That leaves 300. My friend Andrew is a proper and active birder. In his best year he clocked up 206. I’m neither proper nor active. What chance do I have? Slim to none. But I like a challenge.Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? is the story of that challenge. But it’s not just about birds. It’s about family, music, nostalgia; hearing the stories of strangers; the nature of obsession and obsession with nature. It’s about finding adventure in life when you twig it’s shorter than you thought; losing and regaining contact with the sights, sounds and smells of the natural world; the humiliation of being a professional musician who doesn’t recognise the song of a blue tit. It’s about the first time my parents heard me say ‘fuck’.It’s a book for anyone who has ever seen a small brown bird and wondered what it was, or tried to make sense of a world in which we can ask ‘What's that bird?’ and ‘What's for lunch?’ and get the same answer. It’s also a long overdue thank you letter to my parents.