Natural Science

This sweeping book is a systematic treatment of the historic transformation of the West from limited monarchy to unlimited democracy. Revisionist in nature, it reaches the conclusion that monarchy, with all its failings, is a lesser evil than mass democracy but outlines deficiencies in both as systems of guarding liberty.

For weeks, something’s been...off. I can’t explain it, but it’s as if I’m being watched. Suddenly, I’m a statistic - snatched off the street and thrown in a trunk by a terrifying man who turns into a wolf. His wolf wants me dead, yet something draws me to this broken man. We share an indescribable attraction, and my touch may be enough to heal his beast’s psychotic mind. But the Supernatural Forces doesn’t believe in second chances, and the SF always catches the rogue werewolves. And when they do, if I can’t prove Collin’s worth saving...they’ll kill him.

Mayan Calendar Prophecies takes a look at the science behind the Mayan calendar, prophecies and mythology. The Maya believed multiple cycles governed civilization. They created various calendars to track these cycles. Their short count calendar tracked a 256-year cycle believed to control epidemics, famines, warfare and more. Scientists have found a 250-year solar cycle that also appears to affect epidemics, famines, warfare and more. Their long count calendar tracked a 5000-year cycle related to natural disasters and cosmic catastrophes. Scientists have also discovered that the Earth is ...

A must-have audiobook for walkers, sailors, swimmers, anglers and everyone interested in the natural world, in How to Read Water, Natural Navigator Tristan Gooley shares knowledge, skills, tips and useful observations to help you enjoy the landscape around you. From wild swimming in Sussex to wayfinding off Oman, via the icy mysteries of the Arctic, Tristan Gooley draws on his own pioneering journeys to reveal the secrets of ponds, puddles, rivers, oceans and more to show us all the skills we need to read the water around us.

When John Hunter finds out he can get paid $5,000 for trapping a rogue chimera, it's game on. Now, he'll have a crash course on the goings-on of the secret underworld and more than a few bruises to prove his mettle. But not all is as straightforward as it may seem. There are those closest to Jonny who are more than they're letting on. And the humans in his life turn out to be the worst kind of monsters. Jonny may be able to save himself, if he wants to save the city from an unspeakable, ancient evil lurking in the shadows, he'll have to catch up fast.

Krys Malcolm Belc has thought a lot about the interplay between parenthood and gender. As a nonbinary, transmasculine parent, giving birth to his son Samson clarified his gender identity. And yet, when his partner Anna adopted Samson, the legal documents listed Belc as "the natural mother of the child." The Natural Mother of the Child journeys both toward and through common perceptions of what it means to have a body and how that body can influence the perception of a family.

Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?

Sidney Smoke—FBI agent turned bounty hunter, retired monster slayer, wife, and mother of two—has made the most of the simple life, but when her husband returns from a mission with his life hanging by a thread, her old instincts are awakened. Through interdimensional portals, dragon-like invaders and shape-shifting monstrosities wielding otherworldly magical powers threaten the very existence of humanity. And it will take more than flesh and blood to stop them before they seal the world's fate.

Among scientists who write, no one illuminates as well as Stephen Jay Gould does the wonderful workings of the natural world. Now in a new volume of collected essays—his sixth since Ever Since Darwin—Gould speaks of the importance of unbroken connections within our own lives and to our ancestral generations. Along with way, he opens to us the mysteries of fish tails, frog calls, and other matters, and shows once and for all why we must take notice when a seemingly insignificant creature is threatened, like the land snail Partula from Moorea, whose extinction he movingly relates.

Maddison has been fighting the gods from the first moment she found out they existed. Those arrogant and power hungry deities have a plan...a plan that includes destroying everything she holds dear, and she fears that one day soon, they're going to succeed. When new information is dropped in her lap, a way to end the gods once and for all, Maddison jumps at the chance. That's until she finds out that the path to her prize is through a maze of challenges that have stumped all who've attempted them before.

More than any other modern scientists, Stephen Jay Gould has opened up to millions the wonders of evolutionary biology. His genius as an essayist lies in his unmatched ability to use his knowledge of the world, including popular culture, to illuminate the realm of science.

I was always good at being bad, which is why I’m the last person you’d expect to save the world. Unfortunately, I wasn’t given a choice. I’ve learned my prophecy has something to do with the Elves, an incredible magical people that went extinct a century ago. At a paranormal prison where evil runs free, there’s more to discover about the Elves than I ever expected. As my investigation continues, I receive messages from the gods, who seem certain I’m the magical world’s only hope for survival.

We carry the weight of the world—working harder, earning less, and facing health challenges, all while society expects us to be "strong." But this pressure comes at a cost—burnout, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

When a massive wildfire surrounded Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, five monks risked their lives to save it. A gripping narrative as well as a portrait of the Zen path and the ways of wildfire, Fire Monks reveals what it means to meet a crisis with full presence of mind.

A fun, fast, fantastical listen: After an altercation with a clown, I get lost in the woods and find a strange town. When the librarian of the town dies in front of me, I try on his ring. It fits. I’m declared the new librarian by the mayor and townspeople. I get to live in a houseful of books. But I soon learn the job involves more than just tomes and information. In fact, my first assignment is to discover who murdered my predecessor.

The Adirondack region of New York's rural North Country forms the nation's largest State Park, with a territory as large as Vermont. Planning experts view the APA as a triumph of sustainability that balances human activity with the preservation of wild ecosystems. The truth isn't as pretty. The story of the APA, told here for the first time, is a complex, troubled tale of political dueling and communities pushed to the brink of violence.

Rescue of the Bounty is the harrowing story of the sinking and rescue of Bounty - the tall ship used in the classic 1962 film Mutiny on the Bounty - which was caught in the path of Hurricane Sandy with 16 aboard.

In Slime we'll meet the algae innovators working toward a sustainable future: from seaweed farmers in South Korea, to scientists using it to clean the dead zones in our waterways, to the entrepreneurs fighting to bring algae fuel and plastics to market. Ruth Kassinger takes listeners on an around-the-world, behind-the-scenes, and into-the-kitchen tour. Whether you thought algae was just the gunk in your fish tank or you eat seaweed with your oatmeal, Slime will delight and amaze with its stories of the good, the bad, and the up-and-coming.

Scrapbooking is magic, and so am I. Or at least I would be, if I could take a freaking nap already. What kind of dream witch can't even make herself fall asleep? A tired witch. A middle-aged, raising-her-teenage-son-alone witch. I'm supposed to keep the magic world a secret. I'm supposed to dream the future. But supposed-tos are for suckers. At 41, I'm done with doubt. And I'm not about to let anyone else tell me what I can or can't do.

In the stunning conclusion to the Supernatural Prison trilogy, Jessa Lebron finds herself deep in the world of Larkspur, the dragon king. She will have to play it smart and fight with everything to stay one step ahead of him and while at times it's tough to keep her focus, she will do anything to escape and reunite with her boys, the Compass quads. Of course, it's impossible to be where she is and not dig deeper into the curse of the dragon mark.