Every great drink starts with a plant. Sake began with a grain of rice. Scotch emerged from barley. Gin was born from a conifer shrub when medieval physicians boiled juniper berries with wine to treat stomach pain. The Drunken Botanist uncovers the surprising botanical history and fascinating science and chemistry of over 150 plants, flowers, trees, and fruits (and even a few fungi).Some of the most extraordinary and obscure plants have been fermented and distilled, and th...

Bestselling author and bookstore owner Amy Stewart takes an offbeat and lighthearted look at the future of the book.After the ebook renders bookstores obsolete, a young couple finds themselves in the unlikely position of owning one of the last bookstores in America. But if it isn't keeping itself afloat selling books, what is it selling? A hilarious glimpse at a future that is almost here.Nothing is what it seems in the offbeat and out-of-the-way town of Eureka, California....

Life after the war takes an unexpected turn for the Kopp sisters, but soon enough, they are putting their unique detective skills to use in new and daring ways.Winter 1919: Norma is summoned home from France, Constance is called back from Washington, and Fleurette puts her own plans on hold as the sisters rally around their recently widowed sister-in-law and her children. How are four women going to support themselves?A chance encounter offers Fleurette a s...

Beware! The sordid lives of plants behaving badly.A tree that sheds poison daggers; a glistening red seed that stops the heart; a shrub that causes paralysis; a vine that strangles; and a leaf that triggered a war. Amy Stewart, bestselling author of Flower Confidential, takes on over two hundred of Mother Nature's most appalling creations in an A to Z of plants that kill, maim, intoxicate, and otherwise offend.Stewart renders a vivid portrait of evildoers that may ...

In the fifth installment of Amy Stewart’s clever and original Kopp Sisters series, the sisters learn some military discipline—whether they’re ready or not—as the U.S. prepares to enter World War I.It’s the spring of 1917 and change is in the air. American women have done something remarkable: they’ve banded together to create military-style training camps for women who want to serve. These so-called National Service Schools prove irresistible to the Kopp sisters, w...

Fifty vignettes of remarkable people whose lives have been transformed by their obsessive passion for trees—written and charmingly illustrated by the New York Times bestselling author of The Drunken Botanist“I love everything Amy Stewart has ever created, but this book is my favorite yet. I’m giving this book to everyone I know. Because it, like its subject, is a gift.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray LoveWh...

In this darkly comical look at the sinister side of our relationship with the natural world, Stewart has tracked down over one hundred of our worst entomological foes—creatures that infest, infect, and generally wreak havoc on human affairs. From the world's most painful hornet, to the flies that transmit deadly diseases, to millipedes that stop traffic, to the Japanese beetles munching on your roses, Wicked Bugs delves into the extraordinary powers of many-legged creatures.

From a beloved best-selling author, a surprising tale of avian elections, state rivalries, and the birds who definitely did not ask for this.What were we thinking, a century ago, when we elected the cardinal or the mockingbird as our state’s official bird? Amy Stewart went looking for answers and found early conservationists imploring the public to admire birds, rather than shoot them; schoolchildren on their first trip to the ballot box; and exasperated women’s clubs urging lawmake...

They destroy plant diseases. They break down toxins. They plough the earth. They transform forests. They’ve survived two mass extinctions, including the one that wiped out the dinosaur. Not bad for a creature that’s deaf, blind, and spineless. Who knew that earthworms were one of our planet’s most important caretakers? Or that Charles Darwin devoted his last years to studying their remarkable achievements?Inspired by Darwin, Amy Stewart takes us on a subterranean adventure. Witty, ...

Young learners are full of questions and wonderings, so much so that sometimes they need a guide for their curiosity. Author Amy Stewart brings her manageable approach to close reading in Little Readers, Big Thinkers: Teaching Close Reading in the Primary Grades.With Stewart guiding, you'll be able to harness the big thinking we know is inside their inquisitive minds. She showcases ways that close reading can teach even the youngest students new ways to enjoy texts, think ...

In a year when famine devoured the land, survival became a luxury—and hope a forgotten word. While warlords hoarded grain and officials closed their gates, one ordinary man made a simple choice: feed the people.A single bowl of plain rice porridge was nothing to the powerful.To the starving, it was life itself.Villages gathered. Refugees followed. One pot became ten, ten became a lifeline stretching across broken provinces. He did not preach rebellion, nor claim des...

From the internationally bestselling author of Still Mine comes a “riveting, twisty…stay-up-all-night read” (Karma Brown, bestselling author of In This Moment) about the hunt for a missing mother and son in a town that is drowning in deception—perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell and Shari Lapena.How do you find the truth in a town full of secrets?Sally Proulx and her young boy have mysteriously disappeared in the stormy town of High River. Cla...