Olympians, soldiers and abolitionists have all hailed from the bustling shores of Norristown, Pennsylvania. Beginning as a modest seventeenth-century settlement along the 'hiddenriver,' it became an industrial boomtown and attracted waves of immigrants to its forges, railways and mills. Local journalist Stan Huskey brings together lively vignettes and fascinating firsthand accounts to introduce such characters as Union general Winfield S. Hancock, hero of Gettysburg, and baseball greats To...

Elmwood Park Zoo was established in 1924 when roughly 16 acres of land and a small group of animals were donated to the borough of Norristown. Although the early years of the zoo were more akin to a small farm, it has gone through an extensive expansion during the past few decades. This expansion and the continued revitalization of Elmwood Park Zoo include some notable residents, such as the zoo's owl, who has become the mascot of Temple University, and its bald eagle, a sideline regular f...

In 2007, a massive, concentrated deposit of dinosaur fossils, some of theoldest ever found, were discovered in the mountain ridges of northernBritish Columbia, near an old coal mining town. The site contained thelargest number of tyrannosaur teeth ever found with another species, anunfortunate lambeousaur who¹d been scavenged by a pack of hyena-likejuvenile predators millions of years ago. The small group of paleontologistsdigging the site have had to keep its location a secret to protect ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • THE BASIS FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION DIRECTED BY SPIKE JONZE AND STARRING NICOLAS CAGE AND MERYL STREEPThe “eccentric, illuminating, [and] hilarious” (New York Daily News) true story of beauty and obsession in the swamps of Florida and the impassioned individuals who risk everything for the ultimate prize: a rare ghost orchid“Fascinating . ....

America's sweetheart, impassioned lifelong animal welfare advocate, and New York Times bestselling author Betty White shares intimate, funny, and enlightening stories about her very best friends in the world…All her life, Betty White has had a menagerie of pets, many of them rescued, and has donated countless hours and resources to animal welfare. Animals are her passion, and that passion extends to zoos and their importance for the conservation of species...

A WONDROUS NEW BOOK OF MCPHEE'S PROSE PIECES—IN MANY ASPECTS HIS MOST PERSONAL IN FOUR DECADESThe brief, brilliant essay "Silk Parachute," which first appeared in The New Yorker a decade ago, has become John McPhee's most anthologized piece of writing. In the nine other pieces here— highly varied in length and theme—McPhee ranges with his characteristic humor and intensity through lacrosse, long-exposure view-camera photography, the weird foods he has some...

A "quirky, endlessly entertaining" look at the surprising history of the pigeon (Simon Winchester).Domesticated since the dawn of man, pigeons have been used as crucial communicators in war by every major historical superpower from ancient Egypt to the United States and are credited with saving thousands of lives. They have been worshipped as fertility goddesses and revered as symbols of peace. Charles Darwin relied heavily on pigeons to help formulate and support ...

Are you yearning for a simpler existence? Find the rural escape of your dreams in this beautiful book from the creators of the wildly popular tumblr Cabin Porn.Created by a group of friends who preserve 55 acres of hidden forest in Upstate New York, Cabin Porn began as a scrapbook to collect inspiration for their building projects. As the collection grew, the site attracted a following, which is now a huge and obsessive audience.The site features photos of ...

Join Ben D. Mahaffey and friends as they form a "Geriartric Trio" to travel to the Australian Outback in search of Buffalo, Wild Bulls, Deer, Kangaroos and other exotic animals.

After her curiosity is piqued by a safari gone awry, a journalist delves into the curious world of taxidermy and shares her findings.It's easy to dismiss taxidermy as a kitschy or morbid sideline, the realm of trophy fish and jackalopes or an anachronistic throwback to the dusty diorama. Yet theirs is a world of intrepid hunter-explorers, eccentric naturalists, and gifted museum artisans, all devoted to the paradoxical pursuit of creating the illusion of life....

When we think of wild animals, we don't immediately associate them with the cities we live in. But a closer look soon reveals that we share our urban environment with a great many untamed creatures. Heavily illustrated and full of entertaining and informative facts, City Critters examines how and why so many wild animals choose to live in places that, on first glance at least, seem contrary to their needs. How do those deer, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, coyotes, crows, gulls and geese – no...

After running a Victorian house Bed and Breakfast for four years at the top of Seattle's Capital Hill, two seniors want something completely different and hatch a plan to move a cottage to the edge of a beautiful, remote tidal marsh in eastern North Carolina. They run into unexpected difficulties but persevere and then spend the next eight years enjoying observing the wild animals all about them and learning the cultural ways of the area.