Nature Biography

Quando nel 1961 pubblica Le mie montagne, il suo primo libro, Walter Bonatti ha da rac- contare oltre un decennio di imprese impossibili, trionfi e sofferenze: dalla scalata sullo sperone Walker (a 19 anni) all’odissea sul Pilone Centrale, passando per il Grand Capucin, il Dru e la fatidica notte all’addiaccio sul K2. Se questo libro segnerà una svolta nella sua vita, sarà anche per il riaccendersi delle braci che covavano proprio sotto la memoria di quell’episodio.

The Art of Youth is a moving inquiry into the nature of artistic prodigies who did their major work at an early age. Renowned novelist Nicholas Delbanco gives us a triptych of indelible portraits: the American writer Stephen Crane, British artist Dora Carrington and the legendary composer George Gershwin. All three lived colorful, productive lives before dying early, at an average age of thirty-five. In this audiobook, Delbanco discovers what it is we mourn in authors who pass away so young, and muses on his own life - one marked by both early success and longevity.

Ocean Country is an adventure story, a call to action, and a poetic meditation on the state of the seas. But most importantly it is the story of finding true hope in the midst of one of the greatest crises to face humankind: the rapidly degrading state of our environment. After a near-drowning accident in which she was temporarily paralyzed, Liz Cunningham crisscrosses the globe in an effort to understand the threats to our dazzling but endangered oceans.

When Helen Lehndorf moves to the city after a childhood living off the land in rural Taranaki, she can't help but feel different from her peers and professors. She finds solace in long walks foraging weeds and plants along the river, but something inside her still longs for home. Chasing a feeling of ancestral belonging, she travels to England with her new husband. There they learn about nature as the commons, shared between all who encounter it - a source of delight, food, medicine.

Pocket Change Collective is a series of small books with big ideas from today's leading activists and artists. In this installment, Earth Guardians Youth Director and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez shows us how his music feeds his environmental activism and vice versa. Martinez visualizes a future that allows us to direct our anger, fear, and passion toward creating change. Because, at the end of the day, we all have a part to play.

MaVynee loved going to the beach. But in the days of Jim Crow, she couldn't just go to any beach - most of the beaches in Jacksonville were for Whites only. Knowing something must be done, her grandfather bought a beach that African American families could enjoy without being reminded they were second-class citizens; he called it American Beach. Artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Ray Charles vacationed on its sunny shores. It's here that MaVynee was first inspired to sing, propelling her to later become a widely acclaimed opera singer who routinely performed on an international stage.

In the 1930s, as official government expeditions set their sights on conquering Everest, a little-known World War I veteran named Maurice Wilson conceived his own crazy, beautiful plan: he would fly a Gipsy Moth aeroplane from England to Everest, crash land on its lower slopes, then become the first person to reach its summit - all utterly alone.

This children's book is a collection that flows through Tuesday's puppyhood, then her life as fun loving, spunky dog, and then an aging dog. It has a fun story to tell with the rhythm of rhyme.

Nature took on a new importance for thousands of people when the coronavirus pandemic arrived in Britain, providing solace in a time of great anxiety - not least because the crisis struck at the beginning of spring, the season of hope and renewal, and furthermore, in an extraordinary conjunction, the spring of 2020 turned out to be the loveliest spring ever recorded in Britain. Three nature writers, living like everyone else under lockdown, but walking out each day to exercise, resolved to record their experiences of the coronavirus spring, in widely contrasting parts of the country.

In 1872 Congress established Yellowstone National Park, and its vast wonders mesmerized early sightseers, including school superintendent William Wallace Wylie. From 1896 to 1905 his Wylie Camping Company fed, sheltered, and guided thousands of Victorian vacationers through relaxed week-long tours. Wylie promised travelers comfort and delicious meals. His clients enjoyed heated sleeping tents, informative outings, and fresh-air bonfires.

Ben Law has lived as a woodsman in Prickly Nut Wood for over 20 years. His authentic, incredible sense of the land and the wildlife, and his respect for age-old traditions and how to sustain them offers a wonderful, inviting insight into the life and character of Prickly Nut Wood. Having travelled to Papua New Guinea and the Amazon, observing age-old techniques for living in, working in and preserving forests and woodland, Ben Law felt compelled to return home and apply his learning to a 400-year-old plot of woodland near where he grew up.

Julene Bair has inherited part of a farming empire and fallen in love with a rancher from Kansas' beautiful Smoky Valley. She means to create a family, provide her son with the father he longs for, and preserve the Bair farm for the next generation, honoring her own father's wish and commandment, "Hang on to your land!" But part of her legacy is a share of the ecological harm the Bair farm has done: each growing season her family - like other irrigators - pumps over two hundred million gallons out of the Ogallala aquifer.

Of all the games mountaineers play on the world’s high mountains, the hardest - and cruelest - is climbing the 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in the bitter cold of winter. Ferocious winds that can pick you up and throw you down, freezing temperatures that burn your lungs and numb your bones, weeks of psychological torment in dark isolation - these are adventures for those with an iron will and a ruthless determination.

A stirring look at nonviolent activism, from American suffragists to civil rights to the climate change movement. We Are Power brings to light the incredible individuals who have used nonviolent activism to change the world.

In 1858, New York City was growing so fast that new roads and tall buildings threatened to swallow up the remaining open space. The people needed a green place to be - a park with ponds to row on and paths for wandering through trees and over bridges. When a citywide contest solicited plans for creating a park out of barren swampland, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted put their heads together to create the winning design, and the hard work of making their plans a reality began.

As a retired high school English teacher and boys’ basketball coach of 38 years, Tom Lowery has helped thousands of students negotiate the ups and downs of high school life. During that time, he noticed many of the challenges they faced weren’t all that different from the ones he had to face growing up: things like relationships, the battle for good grades, and the wins and losses of the sports world. Tom began to ask himself why students nowadays are unable to handle life’s stressors.

Mary Anning grew up on the south coast of England in a region rich in fossils. As teenagers, she and her brother Joseph discovered England’s first complete ichthyosaur. Poor and uneducated, Anning would become one of the most celebrated paleontologists ever, though in her time she supported herself selling by fossils and received little formal recognition. Her findings helped shape scientific thinking about extinction and prehistoric life long before Darwin published his famous work on evolution.

The Science of Human Nature is a comprehensive introduction to psychology from the standpoint of an educator. Pyle examines the nature and purpose of psychology and the potential this science has for education and for other aspects of life. Due to the emphasis on education, this text is replete with useful and practical knowledge on how to learn and to teach.

Leo Houlding started climbing at 10 years of age in the Lake District and was the youngest person (and first Briton) to free climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in the United States at 18 years, which cemented his reputation. He has since gone on to summit the world's toughest peaks and explore the most extreme places on our planet.

In No Easy Way, his third volume of climbing memoirs following Vertical Pleasure and On Thin Ice, Fowler recounts a series of expeditions to stunning mountains in China, India, Nepal, and Tibet. Alongside partners including Paul Ramsden, Dave Turnbull, Andy Cave and Victor Saunders, he attempts striking, technically challenging unclimbed lines on Shiva, Gave Ding and Mugu Chuli - with a number of ascents winning prestigious Piolets d’Or, the Oscars of the mountaineering world.