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Nature and Science February 2021
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Welcome to the February Nature & Science Newsletter! Maybe because spring is just around the corner, or maybe it is a coincidence, but eight of our new titles this month center around gardens, birds, and native plants. We also have books featuring places, animals, space, medicine/health, water, plastic, and the ever-intriguing human brain. |
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40 Bird Boxes, Feeders & Birdbaths : Practical Projects to Turn Your Garden into a Haven for Birds by Jen GreenNesting boxes, feeding tables and birdbaths make charming additions to any terrace or garden and can be as decorative as they are practical. Even the smallest outdoor space can be enlivened by a small nesting box or feeder, while larger spaces can be home to all manner of bird dwellings. This practical book includes 15 original designs to make at home. Special advice on how to attract birds to your garden includes tips on providing the right nesting box for different species; choosing the best feeders to benefit the birds; and tasty bird treats that will guarantee a flock of birds in deepest winter. With its easy-to-follow instructions and 500 photographs, this book is a must for everyone who wants to help their local feathered community.
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Lawns into Meadows : Growing a Regenerative Landscape by Owen WormserIn Lawns Into Meadows, landscape designer Owen Wormser makes a case for the power and generosity of meadows. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution. They establish wildlife and pollinator habitats. They’re low-maintenance and low-cost. They have a built-in resilience that helps them weather climate extremes, and they can draw down and store far more carbon dioxide than any manicured lawn. They’re also beautiful, all year round.
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Uprooted : a gardener reflects on beginning again
by Page Dickey
"When Page Dickey moved away from her celebrated garden at Duck Hill, she left a landscape she had spent thirty-four years making, nurturing, and loving. She found her next chapter in northwestern Connecticut, on 17 acres of rolling fields and woodland around a former Methodist church. In Uprooted, Dickey reflects on this transition and on what it means for a gardener to start again. In these pages, follow her journey: searching for a new home, discovering the ins and outs of the landscape surrounding her new garden, establishing the garden, and learning how to be a different kind of gardener. The surprise at the heart of the book? Although Dickey was sad to leave her beloved garden, she found herself thrilled to begin a new garden in awilder, larger landscape"
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The Garden of Vegan : How Plants Can Save the Animals, the Planet and Our Health by Cleve WestThere was a time when garden designer Cleve West thought making a garden was a frivolous pursuit for the privileged. Two things changed his mind: designing a garden for a hospital and adopting a vegan lifestyle. Cleve's transition to veganism was a profound and varied learning experience. He learned more about nutrition than when he studied it as part of a sports science degree. The Garden of Vegan charts Cleve's journey from its tentative beginnings to an understanding of the restorative power of gardens and a realization that some of the most destructive aspects of the Anthropocene can be mitigated or even fixed by plants.
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Desert Notebooks : A Road Map for the End of Time by Ben EhrenreichA National Magazine Award winner and The Nation columnist weaves together climate science, mythologies, nature writer and personal experiences to examine how the unprecedented pace of destruction to our environment has led us to the brink of calamity.
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Vesper flights : new and collected essays by Helen MacdonaldThe award-winning author of H Is for Hawk presents a collection of top-selected essays about humanity's relationship with nature, exploring subjects ranging from captivity and immigration to ostrich farming and the migrations of songbirds from the Empire State Building.
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Lost animals : extinct, endangered, and rediscovered species by John WhitfieldA zoologist and science journalist documents the evolution and extinction of earth’s species from the prehistoric era to the present, including dodos, paraceratherium, spinosaurus, paceoderm fishes and more highlighting the biggest losses and moments of conservational hope.
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Metazoa : animal life and the birth of the mind by Peter Godfrey-SmithThe scuba-diver author of Other Minds blends philosophical reflections with the latest biological research in an investigation into the evolution of subjective awareness in animals that describes his remarkable encounters with undersea life.
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How the brain works : The Facts Visually Explained by Catherine CollinDrawing on the latest neuroscience research, this visual guide makes the hidden workings of the human brain simple to understand. How the Brain Works begins with an introduction to the brain's anatomy, showing you how to tell your motor cortex from your mirror neurons. Moving on to function, it explains how the brain works constantly and unnoticed to regulate heartbeat and breathing, and how it collects information to produce the experiences of sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. The chapters that follow cover memory and learning, consciousness and personality, and emotions and communication.
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Divergent mind : thriving in a world that wasn't designed for you by Jenara NerenbergA journalist who suffered into adulthood with autism and ADHD reveals why these conditions are often overlooked and misdiagnosed in women and shares real stories from fellow females to dispel widely-held misconceptions while offering a path forward.
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| Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life by Louise AronsonWhat it is: a thoughtful, comprehensive exploration of aging, from medical concerns to identity issues to depictions of the elderly in pop culture.
Why you should read it: We all grow old (if we're lucky), but aging also affects our families, our economies, and our societies.
For fans of: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Spring Chicken by Bill Gifford. |
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| Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave by Alice GregoryWhat it's about: This comprehensive explanation of the ins and outs of sleep covers a wide array of topics, from sleep disorders to genetics to simple advice on how to improve your own relationship with bedtime.
What sets it apart: Nodding Off is arranged by age group, including a large section focusing on the sleep patterns of young adults (whereas most books on the topic tend to cover either children or adults over 25). |
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