The Amazon rain forest covers more than five million square kilometers, amid the territories of nine different nations. It represents over half of the planet's remaining rain forest. Is it truly in peril? What steps are necessary to save it? To understand the future of Amazonia, one must know how its history was forged: in the eras of large pre-Columbian populations, in the gold rush of conquistadors, in centuries of slavery, in the schemes of Brazil's military dictators in the 1960s and 1...

In the latest entertaining and hilarious Professor Dr. Dr. Moritz-Maria Von Igelfeld novel, our hopelessly out-of-touch hero is forced to confront uppity librarians, the rector of the university, and a possible hostile takeover, all while trying to remain studiously above it all. An Anchor Original.Professor Dr. Dr. Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld and his colleagues at the University of Regensburg's Institute of Romance Philology pride themselves on their unwavering commitment to intelle...

From the New York Times best-selling creator of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels and winner of the inaugural Saga Award for Wit, comes the first novel starring distinguished philologist Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. Von Igelfeld is the world's leading scholar on Portuguese irregular verbs. But in other matters - such as tennis against equally dreadful opponents and the arranging of fencing duels - he is not nearly so skilled. Yet that does not stop him from having a ...

The best-selling author of the internationally acclaimed No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith continues to delight audiences with the hilarious adventure Unusual Uses for Olive Oil. When colleagues take issue with von Igelfeld's bachelor status, his friend Ophelia Prinzel endeavors to find him a good woman. Soon, the professor is on the path to romance with the charming widow Frau Benz - and it seems his true worth may finally be recognized.

The latest installment in Alexander McCall Smith’s charming and hilarious Professor Dr Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld seriesProfessor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is not just any German professor—he is the author of the highly regarded work of scholarship, Portuguese Irregular Verbs. His eminence in language studies is widely respected, albeit rarely acknowledged by his colleague, Professor Detlev-Amadeus Unterholzer, the writer of a far less important book on ...

With millions of copies of his New York Times best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries in print across the globe, Alexander McCall Smith is one of the most popular novelists and humorists in the world. Starring the brilliant but bumbling Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs is a wonderfully entertaining showcase for Smith's award-winning wit. Invited to lecture in America, von Igelfeld envisions a visit to California or New York. Instead...

The irresistible wit of New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith has won over countless fans. His subtle humor and enchanting characterizations are fully on display in At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances. Professor Dr. von Igelfeld is pleased with his role as a visiting scholar at Cambridge, even if his English colleagues are difficult to comprehend. They frequently speak in metaphors and make peculiar assumptions, saying such odd things as, "I take it your journey went ...

Spenser in the Moment collects specially commissioned essays critical of established readings, each of which in surveying the state of the art attempts radically to unsettle our conception of the poetry of Edmund Spenser (1552–1599).The editors were drawn together by a shared restlessness with the canonical Spenser, and a sense that attention especially to Spenser’s musical qualities, and the distinctiveness of his poetic style compared with that of his contemporaries, could displa...

The residents and neighbors of 44 Scotland Street and the city of Edinburgh come to vivid life in these gently satirical, wonderfully perceptive serial novels, featuring six-year-old Bertie, a remarkably precocious boy-just ask his mother. Featuring all the quirky characters we have come to know and love, The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, finds Bertie, the precocious six-year-old, still troubled by his rather overbearing mother, Irene, but seeking his escape in the Cub Scouts. Matthew is...

In this delightful second installment in Alexander McCall Smith's bestselling detective series, the irrepressibly curious Isabel Dalhousie gets caught up in a highly unusual affair of the heart. When Isabel is asked to cover for vacationing Cat at her delicatessen, Isabel meets a man with a most interesting problem. He recently had a heart transplant and is suddenly haunted by memories of events that never happened to him.The situation piques her insatiable curiosity: Could the memories be...

In this eighth installment in Alexander McCall Smith's captivating Isabel Dalhousie series, our irrepressible heroine tries to untangle complex questions about both the past and the present. Isabel's new friend Jane Cooper, a visiting Australian philosopher who was adopted as a small child, has come to Edinburgh searching for information about her biological father. Naturally, Isabel is more than happy to offer her services. At the same time, she must find time for her own concerns: her yo...

A heart-warming stand alone novel about the life-affirming powers of music and company during a time of war, from the best-selling and beloved author of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. When Lavender, La to her friends, moves to the Suffolk countryside, it's not just to escape the London Blitz but also to flee the wreckage of a disastrous marriage. But as she starts to become a part of the community, she detects a sense of isolation. Her deep love of music and her desire to bring people ...