Public Birds

"Glorious...one of the best memoirs I've read in years...a tragicomic gem about family, class, race, justice, and the spectacular weirdness of Wichita. [McDermott] can move from barely controlled hilarity to the brink of rage to aching tenderness in a single breath." -- Marya Hornbacher, New...

In the winter of 1918, at the height of World War I, history's most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS has killed in 24 years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision between modern science and epidemic disease.

Each essay illuminates the life of a single species and its relationship to humans, and how these species can help us understand birds in general. A dedicated birdwatcher and teacher, Gedney finds wonder not only in the speed and glistening beauty of the Anna's hummingbird, but also in her nest building. He acclaims the turkey vulture's and red-tailed hawk's roles in our ecosystem, and he venerates the inimitable California scrub jay's work planting acorns.

From the New York Times bestselling author Janet Skeslien Charles and based on the true story of Jessie Carson—the American librarian who changed the literary landscape of France—this is “a moving tale of sacrifice, heroism, and inspired storytelling immersed in the power of books to...

This lively and encouraging resource is the collaboration of a gifted Bible narrator and a mentor to church leaders. In it, they show how churches can train their own teams of Scripture readers.

Notes to Boys: And Other Things I Shouldn't Share in Public is a "mortifying memoir" from best-selling author and tv/film writer Pamela Ribon. Miserably trapped in small-town Texas, with no invention of the Internet in sight, Ribon spent countless hours of her high school years writing letters to her (often unrequited) crushes. The big question is: Why did she always keep a copy for herself? You'll come for the incredibly bad poetry, you'll stay for the incredibly bad poetry about racism.

The much-anticipated sequel to the book Danielle Page, author of Dorothy Must Die, says is "inventive, gorgeous, and epic--Grey dazzles." Everything in Echo's life changed in a blinding flash when she learned the startling truth: she is the firebird, the creature of light that is said to...

The series that began with the book Danielle Paige, author of Dorothy Must Die, called “inventive, gorgeous, and epic” comes to its thrilling conclusion. “Catnip for fans of Cassandra Clare.” —BookPage.com on The Girl at Midnight The sides have been chosen and the battle lines...

Maverick environmental writers William J. Kelly and Chip Jacobs follow up their acclaimed Smogtown with a provocative examination of China’s ecological calamity already imperiling a warming planet. Toxic smog most people figured was obsolete needlessly kills as many there as the 9/11 attacks every day, while sometimes Grand Canyon-sized drifts of industrial particles aloft on the winds rain down ozone and waterway-poisoning mercury in America. Vivid, gonzo prose blends first-person reportage with exhaustive research and a sense of karma, describing the horror of "Cancer Villages", spellbinding "peasant revolts" against cancer-spreading plants, and much more....