Queenspotting: Meet the Remarkable Queen Bee and Discover the Drama at the Heart of the Hive


Hilary Kearney - 2019
    Since her well-being is linked to the well-being of the entire colony, the ability to find her among the residents of the hive is an essential beekeeping skill. In QueenSpotting, experienced beekeeper and professional "swarm catcher" Hilary Kearney challenges readers to 'spot the queen' with 48 fold-out queenspotting puzzles - vivid up-close photos of the queen hidden among her many subjects. QueenSpotting celebrates the unique, fascinating life of the queen bee chronicles of royal hive happenings such as The Virgin Death Match, The Nuptual Flight - when the queen mates with a cloud of male drones high in the air - and the dramatic Exodus of the Swarm from the hive. Readers will thrill at Kearney's adventures in capturing these swarms from the strange places they settle, including a Jet Ski, a couch, a speed boat, and an owl's nesting box. Fascinating, fun, and instructive, backyard beekeepers and nature lovers alike will find reason to return to the pages again and again.

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud


Elizabeth Greenwood - 2016
    So off she sets on a darkly comic foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000 a consultant can make you disappear--but your suspicious insurance company might hire a private detective to dig up your coffin...only to find it filled with rocks.Greenwood tracks down a British man who staged a kayaking accident and then returned to live in his own house while all his neighbors thought he was dead. She takes a call from Michael Jackson (no, he's not dead--or so her new acquaintances would have her believe), stalks message boards for people contemplating pseudocide, and gathers intel on black market morgues in the Philippines, where she may or may not obtain some fraudulent goodies of her own. Along the way, she learns that love is a much less common motive than money, and that making your death look like a drowning virtually guarantees that you'll be caught. (Disappearing while hiking, however, is a way great to go.)Playing Dead is a charmingly bizarre investigation in the vein of Jon Ronson and Mary Roach into our all-too-human desire to escape from the lives we lead, and the men and women desperate enough to give up their lives--and their families--to start again.

I Swear I Saw This: Drawings in Fieldwork Notebooks, Namely My Own


Michael Taussig - 2011
    Taking as a starting point a drawing he made in Medellin in 2006—as well as its caption, “I swear I saw this”—Taussig considers the fieldwork notebook as a type of modernist literature and the place where writers and other creators first work out the imaginative logic of discovery. Notebooks mix the raw material of observation with reverie, juxtaposed, in Taussig’s case, with drawings, watercolors, and newspaper cuttings, which blend the inner and outer worlds in a fashion reminiscent of Brion Gysin and William Burroughs’s surreal cut-up technique. Focusing on the small details and observations that are lost when writers convert their notes into finished pieces, Taussig calls for new ways of seeing and using the notebook as form. Memory emerges as a central motif in I Swear I Saw This as he explores his penchant to inscribe new recollections in the margins or directly over the original entries days or weeks after an event. This palimpsest of afterthoughts leads to ruminations on Freud’s analysis of dreams, Proust’s thoughts on the involuntary workings of memory, and Benjamin’s theories of history—fieldwork, Taussig writes, provokes childhood memories with startling ease. I Swear I Saw This exhibits Taussig’s characteristic verve and intellectual audacity, here combined with a revelatory sense of intimacy. He writes, “drawing is thus a depicting, a hauling, an unraveling, and being impelled toward something or somebody.” Readers will exult in joining Taussig once again as he follows the threads of a tangled skein of inspired associations.

Nano House: Innovations for Small Dwellings


Phyllis Richardson - 2011
    In the countryside, we want to preserve nature and the landscape. In impoverished parts of the world, the necessity for sustainable and economical shelter is stronger than ever. Lifestyles and daily routines are also changing. We live in an interconnected world in which digital communication, information, and entertainment are pervasive. Yet basic human needs remain constant: a roof over our heads and somewhere to cook, eat, and sleep. Increasingly, we look for ways to occupy our habitats more ecologically, flexibly, and efficiently.Digital design tools, sustainable materials, and new prefabrication technologies have led to an explosion in innovative ideas for designing domestic spaces, particularly those in tight surroundings. All the homes in Nano House are drawn from a broad array of climatic and environmental contexts, building methods, and spatial innovations.This lively book is the perfect resource and inspiration for designers, architects, builders—for anyone looking to maximize living space with minimal environmental impact.

Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters


Joan Ryan - 1995
    An acclaimed expose that has already helped reform Olympic sports—now updated to reflect the latest developments in women's gymnastics and figure skating—it continues to plead for sanity, safety, and an end to our national obsession: winning at any cost.

Bad Sisters


Rebecca Chance - 2011
    But Deeley's five-year contract is up, and his cut-throat publicist wants Deeley out. So, dejected and penniless, Deeley wends her way home to London, hoping to re-establish links with her two estranged elder sisters.

Astrology of the Moon: An Illuminating Journey Through the Signs and Houses


Amy Herring - 2010
    With Astrology of the Moon, you can identify and better understand your core emotional needs, learn to fulfill them, and make positive choices for a more rewarding, spiritually enriched life.Illuminating the natal and progressed moon relationship, this information-packed astrology book explains the moon's powerful energetic potential in relation to the signs, houses, planets, and aspects. In an easy-to-use "cookbook" format designed to help you quickly look up your moon sign, Amy Herring reveals your ever-evolving emotional needs when it comes to love, family life, spiritual health, career planning, and more.You will also find many practical activities and ideas to maximize your creative potential and fulfill your essential needs so you can create happiness at every stage of life.Praise:"A new book about new astrology for the New Age! Even a seasoned astrologer will find the insights new and sometimes profound. This is a good book to highlight in your astrology section." -NEW AGE RETAILER"For beginners and more advanced students alike, Amy Herring's Astrology of the Moon will illuminate the path to personal growth."  —DELL HOROSCOPE"Good astrology transcends labels, and this book is good astrology. The material presented here is not speculative; it's here-and-now with a psycho-spiritual flavor... The Moon illuminates. So does this book. It's a fine read." -NCGR MEMBERLETTER"[This] is an illuminating work that will open hearts, enlighten minds, and change lives."—Ronnie Grishman, editor-in-chief of DELL HOROSCOPE"An easy-to-read feast of ageless wisdom that provides an evolutionary roadmap for the emotional adventure we call life."—Rick Levine, astrologer for Tarot.com"This book is a fabulous resource: educational, informative, fun, and very helpful in understanding the natal and progressed moon. Herring has a fresh, new, and vital voice in astrology."—Lynda Hill, author of 360 Degrees of Wisdom

The Creative Writing MFA Handbook: A Guide for Prospective Graduate Students


Tom Kealey - 2005
    The handbook includes profiles of fifty creative writing programs, guidance through the application process, advice from current students and professors including George Saunders, Aimee Bender, Tracy K. Smith, and Geoffrey Wolff, and the most comprehensive listings of graduate writing programs in and outside the United States. The handbook also includes special sections about Low-Residency writing programs, Ph.D. programs, publishing in literary journals, and workshop and teaching advice.In a remarkably concise, user-friendly fashion, The Creative Writing MFA Handbook answers as many questions as possible, and is packed with information, advice, and experience.

Here Is What You Do


Chris Dennis - 2019
    A yacht races to outrun a tsunami. A young man jailed on a drug charge forms a relationship with his cellmate that is by turns tender and brutal. A family buys a rural slaughterhouse, and tensions with their religious neighbors quickly escalate. A teen raised by his eccentric gay father, a Turkish immigrant, finds his life fractured by violence. A fictionalized Coretta Scott King, surveilled and harassed by the FBI, considers the costs of her life with her husband. Here Is What You Do is a bravura, far-ranging collection, its stories linked by sorrow and latent hope, each one drilling toward its characters’ darkest emotional centers. In muscularly robust prose, with an unfailing eye for human drives and frailties, Chris Dennis captures the raw need, desire, cruelty, and promise that animate our lives.

The Dylanologists: Adventures in the Land of Bob


David Kinney - 2014
    Half a century later, he continues to be a touchstone, a fascination, and an enigma. From the very beginning, he attracted an intensely fanatical cult following, and in The Dylanologists, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Kinney ventures deep into this eccentric subculture to answer the question: What can Dylan's grip on his most enthusiastic listeners tell us about his towering place in American culture? In exuberant prose, Kinney introduces us to a vibrant underground: diggers searching for unheard tapes and lost manuscripts, researchers obsessing over the facts of Dylan's life and career, writers working to decode the unyieldingly mysterious songs, collectors snapping up prized artefacts for posterity, travellers caravanning from concert to concert. It's an affectionate mania, but as far as Dylan is concerned, a mania nonetheless. Over the years, he has been frightened, annoyed, and perplexed by fans who try to peel back his layers. Intensely private and fiercely combative, Dylan makes one thing plain: He does not wish to be known. Intelligent, entertaining, and insightful, The Dylanologists is a richly detailed work of narrative journalism in the tradition of Confederates in the Attic and an absorbing story about the tension between zealous fans and their beloved idol.

The Woman in the Strongbox


Maureen O'Hagan - 2018
    Her real identity was buried so deep it would take five years to unearth. Who was Lori Ruff?Maureen O’Hagan’s The Woman in the Strongbox is part of Missing, a collection of six true stories about finding, restoring, or accepting the losses that define our lives—from the mysterious to the inspiring. Each story can be read—or listened to—in a single sitting.

Zak George's Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love


Zak George - 2016
    A dynamic YouTube star and Animal Planet personality with a fresh approach, Zak helps you tailor training to your dog’s unique traits and energy level—leading to quicker results and a much happier pet. For the first time, Zak has distilled the information from his hundreds of videos and experience with thousands of dogs into this comprehensive guide that includes·      Choosing the right pup for you ·      Housetraining and basic training ·      Handling biting, leash pulling, jumping up, barking, aggression, chewing, and other behavioral issues ·      Health care essentials like finding a vet and selecting the right food ·      Cool tricks, traveling tips, and activities to enjoy with your dog ·      Topics with corresponding videos on Zak’s YouTube channel so you can see his advice in action  Packed with everything you need to know to raise and care for your dog, this book will help you communicate and bond with one another in a way that makes training easier, more rewarding, and—most of all—fun!From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Dead Husband Project


Sarah Meehan Sirk - 2017
    In The Date, an online dating match takes an unusual turn when the man who shows up to the restaurant has no face. In Ozk, a young girl longs to connect with her socially isolated mother, a professor of mathematics who makes a radical discovery.Uncanny, sometimes violent, achingly sad and always profound, these stories showcase a writer with skill and empathy, and draw us in with a steady, unyielding grip.

I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling With Villains (Real and Imagined)


Chuck Klosterman - 2013
    As a child, he rooted for conventionally good characters like wide-eyed Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. But as Klosterman aged, his alliances shifted—first to Han Solo and then to Darth Vader. Vader was a hero who consciously embraced evil; Vader wanted to be bad. But what, exactly, was that supposed to mean? When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really saying (and why are we so obsessed with saying it)? In I Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman questions the very nature of how modern people understand the culture of villainy. What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don’t we see Batman the same way we see Bernhard Goetz? Who’s more worthy of our vitriol—Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O.J. Simpson’s second-worst decision? And why is Klosterman still obsessed with some kid he knew for one week in 1985?Masterfully blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and limitless imagination, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on the complexity of the anti-hero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still creates). I Wear the Black Hat is the rare example of serious criticism that’s instantly accessible and really, really funny. Klosterman is the only writer doing whatever it is he’s doing.

Brewing Justice: Fair Trade Coffee, Sustainability, and Survival


Daniel Jaffee - 2007
    But is it working? This vivid study of coffee farmers in Mexico offers the first thorough investigation of the social, economic, and environmental benefits of fair trade. Based on extensive research in Zapotec indigenous communities in the state of Oaxaca, Brewing Justice follows the members of the cooperative Michiza, whose organic coffee is sold on the international fair trade market. It compares these families to conventional farming families in the same region, who depend on local middlemen and are vulnerable to the fluctuations of the world coffee market. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book carries readers into the lives of these coffee producer households and their communities, offering a nuanced analysis of both the effects of fair trade on everyday life and the limits of its impact. Brewing Justice paints a clear picture of the complex dynamics of the fair trade market and its relationship to the global economy. Drawing on interviews with dozens of fair trade leaders, the book also explores the changing politics of this international movement, including the challenges posed by the entry of transnational corporations into the fair trade system. It concludes by offering recommendations for strengthening and protecting the integrity of fair trade.