“The first time we came here I didn’t know what to expect,” she told me as we paddled upstream. “What we found just blew me away. Jaguars, pumas, river otters, howler monkeys. The place was like a Noah’s Ark for all the endangered species driven out of the rest of Central America. There was so much life! That expedition was when I first saw the macaws.”As a young woman, Sharon Matola lived many lives. She was a mushroom expert, an Air Force survival specialist, and an Iowa...

A “provocative, highly original” profile of Mount Rainier—capturing the majestic beauty and deadly allure of one of the largest active volcanoes in the U.S. (Jon Krakauer, author of Into Thin Air)Mount Rainier is one of the largest and most dangerous volcanoes in the country, both an awesome natural monument and a formidable presence of peril. In The Measure of a Mountain, Seattle writerBruce Barcott sets out to grasp the spirit of Rainier through...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The epic account of the storm on the summit of Mt. Everest that claimed five lives and left countless more—including Krakauer's—in guilt-ridden disarray.**“A harrowing tale of the perils of high-altitude climbing, a story of bad luck and worse judgment and of heartbreaking heroism.”—**PeopleA Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of the Last 30 Years

My Family and Other Animals is the first book in The Corfu Trilogy, the inspiration for ITV's The Durrells.The bewitching account of a rare and magical childhood on the island of Corfu by treasured British conservationist Gerald DurrellEscaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family - acne-ridden Margo, gun-toting Leslie, bookworm Lawrence and budding naturalist Gerry, along with their long-suffering ...

Voyage of the Beagle chronicles Charles Darwin's five years as a naturalist on board the H.M.S. Beagle. The notes and observations that he recorded in his diary included Chile, Argentina and Galapagos Islands and encompasses the ecology, geology and anthropology of the places he visits. A fascinating travel memoir the ideas that were later to evolve into Darwin's theory of natural selection find their naissance in Voyage of the Beagle .

**Written by experienced climber Nick Heil, Dark Summit is both a riveting account of a notorious climbing season and a troubling investigation into whether the pursuit of the ultimate mountaineering prize has spiraled out of control."A dramatic story, ably and convincingly told . . . A chilling look at the precarious line between success and tragedy."**—Kirkus ReviewsOn May 15, 2006, a young British climber named David Sharp lay dy...

‘Two Years Before the Mast’ is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana, published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946. It is the true story of Richard Henry Dana’s voyage aboard the merchant vessel the ‘Pilgrim’ on a trip around Cape Horn during the years 1834 to 1836. Dana was a student at Harvard when a case of the measles affected his ...

No one could fail to be gripped by his heartfelt excitement and emotion over what was the adventure of a lifetime' – IndependentAt the age of 23, a young challenger named Bear Grylls set out to defy nature's mightiest peak, Mount Everest. With the relentless drive to conquer and a heart weighed down by a past marred by a life-threatening accident, Grylls overcame the obstacles to become one of the youngest Britons to claim Everest's summit.The expe...

'Most children at the tender age of six or so are generally full of the most impractical schemes for becoming policemen, firemen or engine drivers when they grow up . . . I knew exactly what I was going to do: I was going to have my own zoo.'Menagerie Manor is the hugely entertaining account of how much-loved conservationist and author Gerald Durrell fulfilled his lifelong ambition to found his own private sanctuary for endangered species in Jersey with th...

Two members of a team who descended into the Huautla cave complex in Mexico describe their perilous and deadly trek into one of the world's deepest caves.The Huautla in Mexico is the deepest cave in the Western Hemisphere, possibly the world. Shafts reach skyscraper-depths, caverns are stadium-sized, and sudden floods can drown divers in an instant.With a two-decade obsession, William Stone and his 44-member team entered the sinkhole at Sotano de San August...

Fillets of Plaice combines Gerald Durrell's love for animals in all their forms with the humorous anecdotes about his family for which he is so well known from My Family and Other Animals and its sequels. Larry, Margot, Leslie and Mother are all present and correct, but so too are spiders, lizards and water fleas.

“An extraordinary life.”—The New York Times Book Review“A fitting homage to one of the great outdoor extremists.”—Kirkus ReviewsLegendary climber Scott Fischer found in Mount Everest a perfect landscape for his fearless spirit. Scaling the world’s highest peak tested his skills, his courage, and his endurance. His legendary final expedition—and its tragic outcome—are portrayed in Everest, the 3-D ...