National Network for Equitable Library Service

Bob Berman guides us through cosmic violence both mammoth and microscopic. From the creation of dazzling "new stars" to the ways in which humanity has harnessed cataclysmic energy for its gain, Berman masterfully synthesizes our worst fears into an astonishing portrait of the universe.

Neil deGrasse Tyson introduces young listeners to astrophysics and the principles of scientific inquiry, fostering the "cosmic perspective" that outer space inspires in all.

Between 1900 and 1907, in the forested foothills of the Himalayas, a large Bengal tiger locals called the Champawat Man-Eater claimed 436 lives. Desperate for help, authorities appealed to Jim Corbett, a local hunter and officer in the army. Like a police detective, Corbett questioned witnesses and tracked the tiger's movements, while it began to hunt Corbett in return.

Nature writer Craig Childs presents a collection of forty essays, each of which focuses on a personal encounter with a particular species. Replete with astonishing facts about the species' behavior, habitat, breeding, and lifespan, Childs' writing transports listeners beyond the human realm and deep inside the animal kingdom.

Journalist Doug Bock Clark tells the stunning inside story of the Lamalerans, an ancient tribe of 1,500 hunter-gatherers who live on a volcanic island so remote it is known by other Indonesians as "The Land Left Behind." They have survived for centuries by taking whales with bamboo harpoons, but now are being pushed toward collapse by the encroachment of the modern world.

For six years Jim and Jamie Dutcher lived intimately with a pack of wolves, gaining their trust as no one has before. In this book, the Dutchers reflect on the virtues they observed in wolf society and behavior. Their heartfelt stories combine into a thought-provoking meditation on the values shared between the human and the animal world.

Surgeon Joshua D. Mezrich takes us inside the operating room to unlock the process of transplant surgery, a delicate, intense ballet requiring precise timing, breathtaking skill, and at times, creative improvisation. Mezrich examines centuries of medical breakthroughs, connecting this history with the stories of his patients and the ethical debates surrounding organ transplantation.

Surgeon Arnold van de Laar uses his own experience and expertise to tell this engrossing history of surgery through 28 famous operations'from Louis XIV and Einstein to JFK and Houdini. From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers a wealth of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating room. What happens during an operation? How does the human body respond to being attacked by a knife, a bacterium, a cancer cell or a bullet?

"Delightfully horrifying."-Popular Science This wryly humorous collection of stories about bizarre medical treatments and cases offers a unique portrait of a bygone era in all its jaw-dropping weirdness. A puzzling series of dental explosions beginning in the nineteenth century is just one of many strange tales that have long lain undiscovered in the pages of old medical journals. Award-winning medical historian Thomas Morris delivers one of the most remarkable, cringe-inducing collections of stories ever assembled.

A brain-bending exploration of real-life zombies and mind controllers, and what they reveal to us about nature and ourselves Zombieism isn't just the stuff of movies and TV shows like The Walking Dead. It's real, and it's happening in the world around us, from wasps and worms to dogs and moose, and even humans. In Plight of the Living Dead, science journalist Matt Simon documents his journey through the bizarre evolutionary history of mind control.