"Susan Orlean reopens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to a beloved institution--our libraries"-- "Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative...

Prefabulous + Almost Off the Grid explores the many ways of using prefabrication to build beautiful homes that are not only environmentally friendly, but also incredibly energy efficient. Profiling more than thirty of the most energy-efficient homes in the United States, this user-friendly guide reveals how homebuilders can achieve similar results - whether they want to earn and advanced green certification or just incorporate a few energy-saving...

Nature writings of Aldo Leopold, one of the foremost conservationist of our century.

It had been nearly a century since elephants had lived in Southern Zululand, South Africa, where Lawrence Anthony founded his Thula Thula wildlife reserve. Yet one day a phone call changed all that. A troubled, unpredictable herd needed a new home. In order to save their lives, Lawrence took them in, and in the years that followed found that they had a lot to teach him about life, loyalty, and freedom. He tells of hair-raising fights with poachers,...

"In 1992, in a remote mountain range, a team of scientists discovered the remains of an unusual animal with beautiful long horns. It turned out to be a living species new to western science -- a saola, the first large land mammal discovered in 50 years. Rare then and rarer now, no westerner had glimpsed a live saola before Pulitzer Prize finalist and nature writer William deBuys and conservation biologist William Robichaud set off to search for it...

In the crosshairs of a political bribery investigation, Dempsey Jo Killebrew suddenly finds herself unemployed and the victim of a sleazy smear campaign by her former boss. Dempsey decides to take up her father's offer of flipping a recently inherited family home in Guthrie, Ga., where she quickly slides into the renovation groove, fits in with the locals, and embarks on a romance.

On the 50th anniversary of the publication of Edward Abbey's Desert solitaire: a season in the wilderness, author Amy Irvine has produced a clutch of essays in praise of Abbey's work, and also as a correction to some of his dated and offensive attitudes.

Creature teachers Chris and Martin Kratt will take families along on extraordinary animal-powered adventures. The show transforms the Kratt Brothers into animated versions of themselves, allowing the real-life zoologists to visit wild animals in their little-seen habitats and showcase key science concepts.

"The Moroccan city of Fez, founded in the ninth century CE, is one of the most precious urban jewels of Islamic civilization. For more than 40 years Titus Burckhardt worked to document and preserve the artistic and architectural heritage of Fez in particular and Morocco in general. These newly translated lectures, delivered while Burckhardt was living and working in Fez, explore how the historic city can be preserved without turning it from a living...

"The Great White Shark Scientist is the latest ocean adventure from the venerable team of Sy Montgomery and Keith Ellenbogen. In it, they follow Dr. Greg Skomal, biologist and head of the Massachusetts Shark Research Program, as he strives to better understand the habits and habitats of Great Whites in order to save this amazing, if maligned, creature of the deep." --