Kirjahaku

175 images capture the history and nature and environmental restoration of New Jersey's Meadowlands. For decades, New Jersey's Meadowlands have been known as mostly the home of the NFL's New York Giants and Jets, the place where Jimmy Hoffa is purportedly buried, or a wasteland that you passed through on your way somewhere else. For a while, that reputation was deserved. The land was blighted with unregulated landfills and the Hackensack River so polluted that barnacles couldn't survive. Today, though, the 30.4-square-mile region has made a remarkable comeback. Located in Bergen and Hudson Counties and just five miles from Manhattan, the Meadowlands is a prime destination for birders, kayakers, and other nature lovers. In words and images, The Nature of the Meadowlands illuminates the region's natural and unnatural history, from its darkest days of a half-century ago to its amazing environmental revival. This is a great resource and beautiful keepsake for residents and visitors, tourists of New Jersey, nature lovers, and history buffs.

"Whatever happened to him actually outshines anything I’ve had my James Bond do." —Ian Fleming James Bond: author, ornithologist, marksman, and . . . identity-theft victim? Packed with archival photos, many never before published, and interviews with the real James Bond's colleagues, here is the real story of the pipe-smoking, ruthless ornithologist who introduced the world to the exotic birds of the West Indies. When James Bond published his landmark book, Birds of the West Indies, he had no idea it would set in motion events that would link him to the most iconic spy in the Western world and turn his life upside down. Born into a wealthy family but cut off in his early twenties, James Bond took off to the West Indies in search of adventure. Armed with arsenic and a shotgun, he took months-long excursions to the Caribbean to collect material for his iconic book, Birds of the West Indies, navigating snake-infested swamps, sleeping in hammocks, and island-hopping on tramp steamers and primitive boats. This adventure story will captivate armchair travelers, fans of 007, and birdwatchers!

An entertaining and informative blend of history, science, personal reflections, and extraordinary images of peregrine falcons This go-to book on peregrine falcons provides a timely, captivating, and educational blend of natural history, science, exhaustive research, and personal reflections on this dynamic raptor. Written by seasoned journalist and longtime raptor monitor Jim Wright, The Peregrine Falcon offers a comprehensive look at the world’s fastest creature. Learn why peregrines live in cities, how they can reach speeds of 200 mph, and why they are so fast and fierce, as well as all the basics of their hunting and nesting habits. Chapters also dive into key moments in peregrine history, including an in-depth look at why they almost went extinct—and how they were saved—plus their recent surge in popularity due to livestreams of peregrine nests around the world. This is a great read for fans of J. A. Baker’s classic The Peregrine and Helen Macdonald’s modern classic H Is for Hawk. Key Features: Incredible images of all things peregrine, including many by nature photographer Kevin Watson Foreword by Pete Dunne, the legendary raptor expert A glossary of terms, a bibliography, and suggestions for further reading Peregrines are the world’s most charismatic raptor, and this well-researched compendium explains why these falcons have captured the imagination of so many. If you love peregrines, you must have this book.

In the past twenty years, big-time stock-car racing has become America’s fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR’s surging popularity? For years a “closeted” NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup’s legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The “Fixin’ to Git Road Tour” resulted in this book-not just a travelogue of Wright’s year at the races, but a fan’s valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing.Wright busts the myth that NASCAR is a Southern sport and takes on critics who claim that there’s nothing to racing but “drive fast, turn left,” revealing the skill, mental acuity, and physical stamina required by drivers and their crews. Mostly, though, he captures the experience of loyal NASCAR fans like himself, describing the drama in the grandstands-and in the bars, restaurants, parking lots, juke joints, motels, and campgrounds where race fans congregate. He conveys the rich, erotic sensory overload-the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel-of weekends at the Winston Cup race tracks.

In the past twenty years, big-time stock-car racing has become America’s fastest growing spectator sport. Winston Cup races draw larger audiences-at the tracks and on television-than any other sport, and drivers like Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, and Mark Martin have become cultural icons whose endorsements command millions. What accounts for NASCAR’s surging popularity? For years a “closeted” NASCAR fan, Professor Jim Wright took advantage of a sabbatical in 1999 to attend stock-car races at seven of the Winston Cup’s legendary venues: Daytona, Indianapolis, Darlington, Charlotte, Richmond, Atlanta, and Talladega. The “Fixin’ to Git Road Tour” resulted in this book-not just a travelogue of Wright’s year at the races, but a fan’s valentine to the spectacle, the pageantry, and the subculture of Winston Cup racing.Wright busts the myth that NASCAR is a Southern sport and takes on critics who claim that there’s nothing to racing but “drive fast, turn left,” revealing the skill, mental acuity, and physical stamina required by drivers and their crews. Mostly, though, he captures the experience of loyal NASCAR fans like himself, describing the drama in the grandstands-and in the bars, restaurants, parking lots, juke joints, motels, and campgrounds where race fans congregate. He conveys the rich, erotic sensory overload-the sights, the sounds, the smells, the feel-of weekends at the Winston Cup race tracks.

We are real people, with real problems and real questions. Our lives are filled with countless experiential elements that often leave us asking, "Why?" Jim Wright uses the framwork of his life story to explore the issues which plague us. There are flavors of comedy, heartbreak, fear, abuse and loneliness woven throughout, as well as great hope. Shipwrecks and Storm Clouds isn't just Jim's story -- it's the story of humanity. In the face of tragedy and confusion, we search for explanation. This isn't a self-help book or a lament on life's tradgedies, but rather an illustration of how seemingly evasive answers are only found in God. He is the sole source of direction, our true north when we find ourselves tossed on the stormy sea of life.

Why write a book about bees for small children?Reference to "birds and bees" has been used for years as a Victorian euphemism for sex education, yet there is more ignorance about the biology of bees than human reproduction and of their vital role in food production. Where better to start than with the education of children?Years of talking to children of all ages at shows and in school classrooms have yielded abundant evidence that children are interested and feed-back from teachers and children is particularly encouraging. The greatest rewards when demonstrating live bees in a show case at public functions is seeing the eager faces and enquiring eyes of small children as they gaze in wonder at the bees and hearing their searching questions; questions often more basic than those posed by adults and more difficult to answer in terms meaningful to a child. Referring to bees in a display case a typical such question is, "How do you get the bees in there"? Presuming that the poor kids envisage the beekeeper going from flower to flower picking up the bees one by one and putting them in the case, how does one explain about beehives and frames of bees in a brief few minutes and in a language understandable by a small child? Another challenge has arisen several times. After explaining that the worker bees are all female, all the work being done by the girls, the question came, "How do you know they are female?" How do you answer a question such as this factually and in terms a five or six year old can understand?It is gratifying that beekeepers are asked to talk to schools and to know that the subject finds a place in curricula. There are already many books on beekeeping and in this age of the internet, when even children have access via mobile phone, tablet or computer, is there a need for a book specifically devoted to them? The project was embarked upon in the belief that there will always be a place for the written word, for a book which parents can read to small children or for older children to curl up with and read or refer to off the shelf.This is a small introductory book directed to young age groups. Another for older age groups, high school teenagers, is wider ranging with attention to the biology of bees and more detail about beekeeping.