Every living thing on Earth is locked in a breathtaking struggle for survival, woven into a web of relationships so intricate, so fragile, and so magnificent that it defies full comprehension. In Ecology, acclaimed nature writer Peter Farb pulls back the curtain on the invisible forces that govern life itself, revealing a world where the flight of a single bird, the death of a single tree, or the arrival of a single season can send ripples cascading through an entire living system. This is...

Why do certain words make us blush or wince? Why do men and women really speak different languages? Why do nursery rhymes in vastly different societies possess similar rhyme and rhythm patterns? What do slang, riddles and puns secretly have in common?This erudite yet irresistibly readable book examines the game of language: its players, strategies, and hidden rules. Drawing on the most fascinating linguistic studies—and touching on everything from the Marx Brothers to linguistic se...