Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. In fact, according to revolutionary new research, some birds rival primates & even humans in their remarkable forms of intelligence. Like humans, many birds have enormous brains relative to their size. Although small, bird brains are packed with neurons that allow them to punch well above their weight. In The Genius of Birds, acclaimed author Jennifer Ackerman explores the newly discovered brilliance of birds & how it came about. As she travels around the world to the most cutting-edge frontiers of research
- the distant laboratories of Barbados & New Caledonia, the great tit communities of the United Kingdom & the bowerbird habitats of Australia, the ravaged mid-Atlantic coast after Hurricane Sandy & the warming mountains of central Virginia & the western states
- Ackerman not only tells the story of the recently uncovered genius of birds but also delves deeply into the latest findings about the bird brain itself that are revolutionizing our view of what it means to be intelligent. Consider, as Ackerman does, the Clark`s nutcracker, a bird that can hide as many as 30, 000 seeds over dozens of square miles & remember where it put them several months later; the mockingbirds & thrashers, species that can store 200 to 2, 000 different songs in a brain a thousand times smaller than ours; the well-known pigeon, which knows where it`s going, even thousands of miles from familiar territory; & the New Caledonian crow, an impressive bird that makes its own tools. But beyond highlighting how birds use their unique genius in technical ways, Ackerman points out the impressive social smarts of birds. They deceive & manipulate. They eavesdrop. They display a strong sense of fairness. They give gifts. They play keep-away & tug-of-war. They tease. They share. They cultivate social networks. They vie for status. They kiss to console one another. They teach their young. They blackmail their parents. They alert one another to danger. They summon witnesses to the death of a peer. They may even grieve. This elegant scientific investigation & travelogue weaves personal anecdotes with fascinating science. Ackerman delivers an extraordinary story that will both give readers a new appreciation for the exceptional talents of birds & let them discover what birds can reveal about our changing world.

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Katie & Giancarlo embarked on a two year-long journey to discover the different methods of conserving food, from smoking fish in Scotland to drying chillies in Sri Lanka, & this book collects their favourite recipes & invaluable advice on equipment, timings & ingredients. Covering Italian cured charcuterie inspired by Giancarlo`s family recipes, jams & chutneys evoking Katie`s memories of cooking with her mother to pickling, fermenting, freezing & pressure canning they combine traditional tried-&-tested methods with a thoroughly modern perspective. ...

A funny, fantastically entertaining debut novel, in the spirit of Wodehouse & Monty Python, about a famous poet who inadvertently sells his wife to the devil--then recruits a band of adventurers to rescue her. When Lionel Savage, a popular poet in Victorian London, learns from his butler that they`re broke, he marries the beautiful Vivien Lancaster for her money, only to find that his muse has abandoned him. Distraught & contemplating suicide, Savage accidentally conjures the Devil -- the polite ” Gentleman” of the title -- who appears at one of the society parties Savage abhors. The two hit it off: the Devil talks about his home, where he employs Dante as a gardener; Savage lends him a volume of Tennyson. But when the party`s over & Vivien has disappeared, the poet concludes in horror that he must have inadvertently sold his wife to the dark lord. Newly in love with Vivien, Savage plans a rescue mission to Hell that

Includes:: Simmons, the butler; Tompkins, the bookseller; Ashley Lancaster, swashbuckling Buddhist; Will Kensington, inventor of a flying machine; & Savage`s spirited kid sister, Lizzie, freshly booted from boarding school for a ”dalliance.” Throughout, his cousin`s quibbling footnotes to the text push the story into comedy nirvana. Lionel & his friends encounter trapdoors, duels, anarchist-fearing bobbies, the social pressure of not knowing enough about art history, & the poisonous wit of his poetical archenemy. Fresh, action-packed & very, very funny, The Gentleman is a giddy farce that recalls the masterful confections of P.G. Wodehouse & Herge`s beautifully detailed Tintin adventures. From the Hardcover edition.”

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This book

Includes:: an introduction by Paul Theroux. Somerset Maugham`s success as a writer enabled him to

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This hilarious take on motoring from the AA offers advice on every conceivable aspect of motoring
- from the desirability of lashings
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This guide is considered the ` Bible` by many cruising yachtsmen travelling between Florida & Venezuela.

Includes::

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The lost art of travelling in exquisite style. The advantages of travel are incontestable: it broadens the mind as well as helping one to avoid the iniquities of a less-than-perfect married life. Those of an expeditionary bent will find The Gentleman`s Guide to Travel full of timely & much-needed counsel, their appetite for wanderlust whetted at every new page. Mr Darkwood`s sage advice
- including how to repel leeches & maintain personal hygiene in the filthy heat of the Tropics
- is sure to inspire a desperate ache for the cut & thrust of adventure in even the most urbane. Gentleman travellers everywhere will be induced to prise themselves from their armchair, gather up their portmanteau, don a tweed hunting jacket & set off on a sterling voyage of discovery.

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” One would hear considerably less of hysteria, of morphine-mania, & of other regrettable characteristics of fin-de-siecle existence, if women were to take to fencing as one of the regular occupations of their day” The Gentlewoman`s Book of Sports is part of ` Found on the Shelves`, published with The London Library. The books in this series have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over 17 miles of shelving & more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners & thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it. ...

The Geographic Atlas of New Zealand sets a new benchmark in atlas publishing. With 264 maps
- well over twice as many as recent
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What is the history of geography in the United States? How have Americans been taught to see the world around them? Susan Schulten addresses these questions by examining how ideas & images shaped popular understandings of world geography from 1880 to the 1950s. This was a critic al period in American History, it saw the US evolve from a relative isolationist nation into an international, economic superpower. Schulten examines four institutions of learning that produced some of the most influential sources of geographic knowledge in modern history: maps & atlases, the National Geographic Society, the American university & public schools. This book provides a history of geography & cartology & their place in popular culture, politics & education. ...