A wild—and satisfying!—ride through two billion years of sexual evolution. The Shortest History books deliver thousands of years of history in one riveting, fast-paced read.From the first microbial exchanges of DNA to Tinder and sexbots, how did sex begin, and how did it evolve to be so varied and complex in humans? What influence do our genetic ancestors have on our current love lives? And what might sex look like in the future?With acuity, humor, and resp...

**“The craft of Whale Fall defies. It asserts, for me, a definition of poetry: an unbearable gulf of feeling made indelible by form.”—Diane Seuss, Paris ReviewA masterful and moving new volume from a “peerless poet of the natural world” (New York Times Book Review).**Acclaimed as an essential voice of the American Midwest, David Baker expands both his environment and his form in his eleventh collection. Whale Fall is about time, measured ...

**A complete history of the universe, spanning 13.8 billion years in an ultra-accessible, uncommonly illuminating, exhilarating chronicle of key events“Baker introduces us not only to the history of our species and our planet, but the history of our vast universe.”—from the foreword by John Green, author of The Anthropocene Reviewed and The Fault in Our Stars**In this thrilling history, David Baker captures the longest-possible time span—from the Big Bang ...

'Humorous and accessible but never trivial... full of entertainment and insight' SUSAN QUILLIAM, co-author of The Joy of SexHow did sex begin?How did it evolve to be so varied in humans?What might sex look like in the future?The Shortest History of Sex traces the long evolution of human sexuality from the first microscopic couplings two billion years ago to today's somewhat baffling array of passions, impulses and fetishes.

A beloved nature poet reflects on environmental change, political transformation, and the ineluctable fact of aging.We are all human and nonhuman on the move. The poems in Transit emerge from just such a walk through the world. In keenly observed verse, David Baker carries us across physical and emotional geographies, moving seamlessly from deep woods, city streets, and creek beds to the contours of his psyche and the larger cultural circumstances that mar...

The citizens of Cancatia believed the war to be over.But evil never rests.A broken heart and a solitary throne are all that remain for Haldor. As if his plight could not worsen, he discovers Auden is not who he once seemed. A prophecy of doom shatters Haldor’s visions of peace. Can the inhabitants withstand what lies ahead?Monsters besiege Arkèzia as Phade struggles to redeem her fractured kingdom. Betrayal lurks around every corner, and perilous emotions threaten t...

The year is 1879. The prestigious post of Organist and Master of the Choristers at Hartley Parish Church, West Yorkshire, has become vacant because of the sudden death in suspicious circumstances of Dr Thomas Burchill. Burchill was renowned the length and breadth of Britain and the Empire for the choir; so much so that Queen Victoria summoned the singers to Windsor Castle on more than one occasion. Burchill’s position is now up for grabs, and there is a long list of contenders for the role...

How to live with difference—not necessarily in peace, but with resilience, engagement, and a lack of vitriol—is a defining worry in America at this moment. The poets, fiction writers, and essayists (plus one graphic novelist) who contributed to Welcome to the Neighborhood don’t necessarily offer roadmaps to harmonious neighboring. Some of their narrators don’t even want to be neighbors. Maybe they grieve, or rage. Maybe they briefly find resolution or community. But they do approa...

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the air forces of the United States faced unprecedented challenges. Demobilization had stripped the armed forces of millions of personnel, while the rapid transition from a wartime economy strained the aviation industry at the same time as the US Army Air Forces (USAAF) was re-established as the independent US Air Force (USAF). US Air Power 1945–1990 Volume 1: US Fighters and Fighter-Bombers 1945–1949 examines this pivotal period...

Heresy and the Ideal is a powerful collection of essays and essay-reviews which David Baker wrote and published throughout the 1990s. He thoroughly discusses the work of more than fifty contemporary poets, including T. R. Hummer, Miller Williams, Albert Goldbarth, Jane Kenyon, Galway Kinnell, Charles Simic, Ted Kooser, David Wojahn, Alice Fulton, Louise Glück, and Charles Wright. He takes as his models some of the great critical books of the past three decades, especially Richard Howard's ...

**One of the California Review of Books' Best Poetry Books of 2025The definitive collection of one of the most celebrated poets of his generation and a master of the lyric poem in its richest, most flexible registers.**Stanley Plumly is one of the most emotionally complex, sustaining, and influential American poets of the last fifty years. Born in 1939, Plumly wrote poems that explored the deep interiors of the human heart and mind against a wide backdrop of cultur...

Since the first edition of this best-selling title in 2008, the international liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry has shown a rare capacity for innovation and change. Despite this, there was no predicting the nature and full extent of the sector’s transformation since the book’s last edition in 2017, and this fourth edition has been updated to take into account the rapidly shifting arrangements and participations across the international LNG business. This fully revised new edition featur...