“Lavers keeps his intellectual detective story passionate and suspenseful.”— Washington Post Book WorldFrom Biblical stories about virgins to adventures with Harry Potter, unicorns have enchanted people for millennia. In the endlessly fascinating The Natural History of Unicorns, author Chris Lavers ingeniously traces the legend of this mysterious creature to the real people, places, and animals that have influenced its story.

From unicorns and trolls to werewolves and griffins, this comprehensive guide is the key to discovering every magical creature from myth, folklore and legend around the world.This compendium of magical creatures explores the history, folklore and mythology of fascinating beasts throughout all the magical worlds. Including stories, celebrations, traditions, and amazing facts, the book spans every major culture across the globe.Many of the fantastic creatures described in the...

This biography of "the Protestant Galileo" and 16th century mathematician and astronomer reveals the spiritual nature of the quest of early modern science.In the style of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter, James A. Connor's Kepler's Witch brings to life the tidal forces of Reformation, Counter-Reformation, and social upheaval. Johannes Kepler, who discovered the three basic laws of planetary motion, was persecuted for his support of the Copernican s...

"Extraordinary . . . [this] series of true stories about the authentic nature of bears reveals them as the sensitive and intelligent beings they are." ―Carl Safina, New York Times– bestselling author of Becoming Wild and Beyond WordsGrizzly bears have long been feared as unpredictable and dangerous. But one man, Charlie Russell, was key in breaking do...

A billion years in the future, humanity is extinct.But Shakespeare remains.A machine civilization, so far advanced that it has the power to recreate lost civilizations, stumbles upon the works of the playwright, William Shakespeare.With only those plays to represent humanity, the machines must decide whether humanity is worth resurrecting or not.The only way to know the plays is to stage them.Enter J-9, although she ...

Discover hundreds of intriguing, entertaining & often hilarious origins to the English language's most curious phrases in this trivia book from a bestselling author.English is filled with interesting phrases. This book reveals the surprising, captivating and even hilarious origins behind 400 of them, including:• Read between the Lines• Cat Got Your Tongue?• Put a Sock in It• Close, but No Cigar• Bring Home the Bacon• Caught Red-Handed• Under the Wea...

Are you nostalgic for simpler times? Do you miss your favorite history teacher, the one that gave you perspective and kept you laughing? Come back to class. Buy Props and let Norm Coady take you on a trip from Caesar to Kennedy, from Wittenberg to St. Petersburg.Learn how seashells led to the first global conflict. Discover how a piece of chalk laid the groundwork for totalitarianism. Follow an umbrella's strange journey from sunny Munich to rainy Dallas.No...

This volume explores the history of the Apache Wars of the late 19th century Southwest through diaries, army reports, and other primary sources.Stretching from the Colorado River to the mountains east of the Rio Grande, and from northern Arizona into Sonora, Mexico, is the sprawling region once known as Apacheria. By the time the first Americans ventured into the region, the indigenous peoples known as the Apache had already been clashing with Spanish and Mexican i...

In a quest to advocate for her daughter, Pepper Stetler uncovers the dark history of the IQ test, leading her to question what exactly we are measuring when we measure intelligence.When Pepper Stetler learned that her daughter, Louisa, who has Down Syndrome, would be required to take periodic IQ tests to secure support in school, she asked a simple question: Why? The hunt for an answer set Stetler on a winding, often dark investigation into how the IQ came...

A NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLERSOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ACADEMY AWARD–WINNING FILMMAKER JAMES CAMERON“Not since Titanic have I found a powerful, heartbreaking, and inspiring real-life story as found in Ghosts of Hiroshima by Charles Pellegrino. This is an amazing book and a film I am excited to direct.”—James CameronFrom the acclaimed New York T...

“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease thatreveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.“Levenson takes readers through an entertaining . . . journey of missed opportunities in microbiology and the eventual advances that arose in this field.”—ScienceScientists and enthusiastic ...

The Pulitzer Prize–winning writer and author of Charlotte's Web documents his move from Manhattan to a saltwater farm in New England: "Superb reading." — The New YorkerCalled "a mid-20th–century Thoreau" by Notre Dame Magazine, E. B. White's desire to live a simple life caused him to sell half his worldly goods, give up his job writing the New Yorker's "Notes and Comment" editorial page, and move with his family to a saltwater far...