2009 University Press Books
Selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries
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2009 University Press Books |
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Selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries |
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500-599 Pure Science
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500-549 Math, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry
508.787 Red Desert: History of a Place 412 pp., 10” x 8”, 5 b&w and 72 color illus., 9 maps, 8 tables, index, $50.00 cloth, CIP included November 2008 University of Texas Press A vast expanse of rock formations, sand dunes, and sagebrush in central and southwest Wyoming. Sitting atop one of North America’s largest untapped reservoirs of natural gas, the Red Desert in central and southwest Wyoming is a magnet for energy producers who are damaging its complex and fragile ecosystem in a headlong race to open a new domestic source of energy and reap the profits. In this “biography of a place,” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Proulx, photographer Martin Stupich, and a team of experts explore a remote wild landscape undergoing epic transformation—a fate shared by many of the earth’s most magnificent and fragile places. LC 2008011077, ISBN 978-0-292-71420-5 (c.) AASL: RS/P PLA: RS 508.798 Crosscurrents North: Alaskans on the Environment 324 pp., 6” x 9”, bibliog., index, $26.95 paper, CIP included July 2008 University of Alaska Press In this collection of sixty-one essays and poems, Alaskan authors respond to their environment. The pieces are celebratory, sobering, and thought-provoking. They express admiration and awe of the landscape and its wild inhabitants. They bear witness to the effects of climate change and react to the environmental side effects of development. They ponder the irony of the authors’ own impact, caused by the fact that they live here. The anthology celebrates the wildness and wonder of the land and raises questions about our relationship with the natural world. LC 2007042900, ISBN 978-1-60223-022-4 (p.) AASL: RS/P PLA: RS 508.798 Living with Wildness: An Alaskan Odyssey 231 pp., 6” x 9”, bibliog., $21.95 paper, CIP included July 2008 University of Alaska Press In 1974, twenty-four-year-old Bill Sherwonit stepped into a whole new life—deep in the Alaska wild. In this essay collection, Sherwonit recollects his adventures from the streets of Anchorage to wildlife preserves where wolves and bears freely roam. Sherwonit has witnessed the collision of man and nature firsthand in the untamed climes of Alaska. Sherwonit constructs a continuum of “wildness” as he recounts intimate moments with the songbirds fluttering around his home birdfeeder and the halibut on his fishing line. Experiences, include his close encounter with a grizzly bear and the breathtaking views of the Northern Lights in the remote North. LC 2007022673, ISBN 978-1-60223-014-9 (p.) PLA: RS 510 The Princeton Companion to Mathematics 1,008 pp., 8” x 10”, b&w illus., bibliog., index, $99.00 cloth, CIP included November 2008 Princeton University Press “This is a panoramic view of modern mathematics. It is tough going in some places, but much of it is surprisingly accessible. A must for budding number-crunchers.”—The Economist (Best Books of 2008). “Accessible, technically precise and thorough account of all math’s major aspects. Students of math will find this book a helpful reference for understanding their classes; students of everything else will find helpful guides to understanding how math describes it all.”—Science News LC 2008020450, ISBN 978-0-691-11880-2 (c.) AASL: G/P PLA: G 520.973 Guidebook for the Scientific Traveler: Visiting Astronomy and Space Exploration Sites Across America 256 pp., 6” x 9”, 43 photos, appendix, index, $19.95 paper October 2008 Rutgers University Press Written in clear, easy-to-read language, Astronomy and Space Exploration lists more than 50 of the most important and intriguing astronomical and space-related sites in the United States. The book encompasses both popular and obscure places of interest, all of which are open to the public. “For all the astronauts-at-heart out there, Duane Nickell’s book is an invitation to travel to sites across America that remind us of our country’s wonderful accomplishments in exploring outer space as well as our humble place in the universe. Highly recommended for families and educators alike.”—Buzz Aldrin, astronaut on the Apollo 11 Lunar Mission LC 2008000881, ISBN 978-0-8135-4374-1 (p.) AASL: G/MS PLA: Not Reviewed 522.29 The Universe in a Mirror: The Saga of the Hubble Space Telescope and the Visionaries Who Built It 320 pp., 6” x 9”, 25 color illus., 24 halftones, 2 line illus., index, $29.95 cloth, CIP included June 2008 Princeton University Press Writer and historian Robert Zimmerman tells the story of the most ambitious scientific instruments ever sent into space, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the visionaries responsible for its extraordinary accomplishments. “The Universe in a Mirror...[is] a breezy behind-the-scenes account by Robert Zimmerman, a freelance writer and space historian...Mr. Zimmerman has brought the story up to the present, and it’s a great story.” —The New York Times. “Must reading for armchair astrophysicists.”—Booklist (starred review) LC 2007943159, ISBN 978-0-691-13297-6 (c.) AASL: G/HS, P PLA: S 523.9 Titan Unveiled: Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored 296 pp., 6” x 9”, 16 color illus., 65 halftones, 21 line illus., bibliog., index, $29.95 cloth, CIP included May 2008 Princeton University Press “Titan’s allure seems only to increase the more scientists learn about...Obscured by haze, the landscape has been exposed by radar, special optical cameras, and the Huygens lander. The authors cover in detail the information gathered by these and other instruments, which impart a practical sense of how scientists work from raw data toward finished interpretation....Including amazing photographs of Titan’s evident geological dynamism, Lorenz and Mitton’s work has a high ‘wow’ factor that will thrill buffs and may spur students toward a planetary science career.”—Booklist LC 2007938922, ISBN 978-0-691-12587-9 (c.) AASL: G/HS, P PLA: S 530.417 On the Surface of Things: Images of the Extraordinary in Science 160 pp., 10” x 9 5/8”, 58 color illus., index, $24.95 paper, CIP included February 2008 Harvard University Press Using innovative photographic technology, Felice Frankel finds startling abstract beauty on the surfaces of objects all round us. Chemist George M. Whitesides explains each photograph, describing why and how each of these phenomena occur. “A stunning collection of fifty-eight photographs with accompanying text, in which the authors—a photographer and a chemist, respectively—have given us remarkable close-ups of the things we find, make, and destroy.”—The New Yorker LC 97000852, ISBN 978-0-674-02688-9 (p.) PLA: G
550-599 Earth and Life Science, Plants, Animals
551.462 Chasing Science at Sea: Racing Hurricanes, Stalking Sharks, and Living Undersea with Ocean Expert 162 pp., 6” x 9”, 4 color plates, 28 halftones, bibliog., $22.50 cloth, CIP included September 2008 The University of Chicago Press This book immerses readers in the world of those who regularly go to sea—aquanauts living underwater, marine biologists seeking unseen life, and the tall-ship captains at the helm—and tells the fascinating tale of what life—and science—is like at the mercy of Mother Nature. “...Using anecdotes from colleagues and from her own career, she [Prager] succeeds in showing the reader that doing science can be both fun and thrilling, especially when it involves work in and on the ocean. She also reminds us that field research is important to doing good science and that learning more about the world’s oceans is essential to our future.”—Library Journal LC 2007049486, ISBN 978-0-226-67870-2 (c.) AASL: G/HS PLA: Not Reviewed 551.462 The Gulf Stream: Tiny Plankton, Giant Bluefin, and the Amazing Story of the Powerful River in the Atlantic 232 pp., 6 1/8” x 9 1/4”, 34 illus., 4 maps, bibliog., index, $28.00 cloth, CIP included September 2008 The University of North Carolina Press Coursing through the Atlantic Ocean with a force 300 times that of the mighty Amazon, the Gulf Stream is one of Earth’s last vestiges of wilderness. Stan Ulanski explores the fascinating science and history of this sea highway, revealing how it affects and is affected by every living thing that encounters it—from tiny plankton to giant tuna, from ancient mariners to big game anglers. He also examines the scientific discovery of ocean circulation, the biological life teeming in the stream, and the role of ocean currents in the settlement of the New World. LC 2008004746, ISBN 978-0-8078-3217-2 (c.) AASL: G/MS, HS PLA: O 551.609 Weather Matters: An American Cultural History since 1900 408 pp., 6” x 9”, 22 illus., bibliog., index, $34.95 cloth, CIP included October 2008 University Press of Kansas “The weather’s metaphoric power—its chaos, its beauty, its pitilessness infliction of disaster—inspires Mergen’s thoughtful inquiries into our relationship to it, acted out in the obsessions of tornado chasers or the insouciant revels of hurricane partiers. Encyclopedic with facts and personalities, Mergen should be included in the acquisitions forecast.”—Booklist. “Mergen draws on a wide array of sources to produce this fascinating study of a timeless human obsession. Recommended for all public and academic collections.”—Library Journal LC 2008022848, ISBN 978-0-7006-1611-4 (c.) AASL: S/HS PLA: G 551.7 Nature’s Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything 282 pp., 6” x 9”, 14 b&w photos, 12 line illus., 1 map, glossary, index, $24.95 cloth, CIP included June 2008 University of California Press “For time-conscious readers, Nature’s Clocks provides satisfaction beyond measure.”—The Washington Post Book World. “Rich in historical tidbits, this book is a delightful study of how scientists figured out analytical techniques that revealed the history of the earth.”—New Scientist. “Science buffs from all fields along with general readers will find this a helpful handbook on how we are now able to travel to the distant past.”—Publishers Weekly. “A lucid and engaging account of the scientific revolution that changed the way we think about our planet and ourselves.”—James Lawrence Powell, author of Grand Canyon: Solving Earth’s Greatest Puzzle and Mysteries of Terra Firma LC 2007046955, ISBN 978-0-520-24975-2 (c.) AASL: S/HS PLA: G 570.72 Adventures in the Wild: Tales from Biologists of the Natural State 160 pp., 6” x 9”, 35 b&w photos, index, $19.95 paper, CIP included May 2008 The University of Arkansas Press The true tales in this collection will take readers from the chicken houses of Arkansas to the caves of Venezuela and Mexico to the coast of Alaska. These fifteen adventures range from amusing to life threatening. Some are filled with suspense and danger in exotic places, while others document more routine but important biological field and lab work. Here are teachers and researchers, biologists all from Arkansas State University’s Department of Biological Sciences. real people, who get their feet wet and their hands dirty in the pursuit of knowledge. LC 2007050669, ISBN 978-1-55728-872-1 (p.) AASL: RS/HS PLA: RS 577 The Algal Bowl: Overfertilization of the World’s Freshwaters and Estuaries 348 pp., 6” x 9”, b&w photos, color section, illus., maps, tables, graphs, glossary, index, $34.95 paper, CIP included September 2008 University of Alberta Press The greatest threat to water quality worldwide is nutrient pollution. Cultural eutrophication by nutrients in sewage, fertilizers, and detergents is feeding massive algal blooms, choking out aquatic life and outpacing heavy metals, oil spills, and other toxins in the devastation wrought upon the world’s fresh waters. Renowned water scientists, David W. Schindler and John R. Vallentyne, share their combined 80 years of experience with the eutrophication problem to explain its history and science, and offer real-world solutions for mitigating this catastrophe in the making. For those who have lost sight of Vallentyne’s 1974 first edition, Schindler’s revised and expanded edition is an unambiguous road map for change. AASL: RS/HS
PLA: S
581.632
Where Our Food Comes From: Retracing Nikolay Vavilov’s Quest to End Famine
266 pp., 6” x 9”, figures, maps, bibliog., index, $24.95 cloth, CIP included
September 2008
Island Press
In the early 20th century, the great Russian botanist Nikolay Vavilov traveled over five continents, collecting hundreds of thousands of seeds in an effort to guard against widespread hunger. In Where Our Food Comes From, Gary Paul Nabhan weaves together Vavilov’s story with his own expeditions to the Earth’s richest agricultural landscapes. By retracing Vavilov’s travels, he draws a vibrant portrait of changes that have occurred. In his travels, Nabhan shows how climate change, free trade policies, genetic engineering, and loss of traditional knowledge are threatening our food supply.
LC 2008013945, ISBN 978-1-59726-399-3 (c.)
AASL: S/P
PLA: G
582.162
Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees
334 pp., 6” x 9”, 29 b&w photos, bibliog., index, $24.95 cloth, CIP included
September 2008
University of California Press
“Presents a wealth of entertaining arboreal facts and figures, but her personal anecdotes are the book’s most compelling and inimitable feature.”—Publishers Weekly. “A love letter to trees that effortlessly mixes poetry and prose with environmentalism, culture, history and science...An engaging and satisfying read for anyone.”—ForeWord. “Nadkarni is a canopy ecologist who blends immense field experience with considerable writing talent. The result is a wide-ranging and eye-opening book about trees and our connections to them.”—New Scientist. “As wonderful a compendium as one could imagine of all things that make trees such special companions.”—Bill McKibben, author of The Bill McKibben Reader
LC 2008002162, ISBN 978-0-520-24856-4 (c.)
AASL: G/HS
PLA: O
582.162
Trees: A Visual Guide
304 pp., 10 1/2” x 9 1/4”, 540 color photos, 220 color illus., 20 maps, bibliog., index, $29.95 cloth
April 2008
University of California Press
This beautiful book explores the world of trees from every perspective—from the world’s great forests to the lifespan of a single leaf. With clear diagrams, illustrations, and sidebars on many featured topics, this unique volume is a complete visual guide to the magnificence of the arboreal world. “A phenomenal view of trees around the world.”—The Washington Post. “This book is stunning, filled with mesmerizing photographs and absorbing information in 300-plus pages...Comprehensive...easy-to-read, [and] beautifully illustrated.”—The Houston Chronicle. “A beautifully photographed visual guide...The text is clear and written in nontechnical language.”—Booklist
LC 2007043797, ISBN 978-0-520-25650-7 (c.)
AASL: O/MS, HS
PLA: O
583.56
Cacti of Texas: A Field Guide: With Emphasis on the Trans-Pecos Species
400 pp., 6” x 9”, 314 color photos, 124 maps, bibliog., index, $24.95 paper, CIP included
February 2008
Texas Tech University Press
A field guide to the cacti of Texas, with emphasis on the Trans-Pecos, the region of the Chihuahuan Desert extension into Texas where most of the species of the state’s cacti may be found. This field guide provides brief, detailed treatments of the entire state’s species for educated general readers. More than three hundred beautiful full-color photographs of the cacti in flower and in fruit, each placed with its description in the text, highlight the book. Readers may identify cacti using color photographs of the plants, keys, distribution maps, and descriptions of the vegetative characters, flowers, and fruits.
LC 2007030415, ISBN 978-0-89672-611-6 (p.)
AASL: RS/MS, HS, P
PLA: RS
591.979
Bear Wrangler: Memoirs of an Alaska Pioneer Biologist
250 pp., 6” x 9”, 87 b&w photos, index, $26.95 cloth, CIP included
October 2008
University of Alaska Press
Troyer worked in many remote areas of Alaska...from the Arctic Coast to the southeast rain forest and the stormy Aleutian Islands. His memoir vividly describes his emotions and feelings while standing in the midst of 40,000 caribou or sitting on a remote sea island as masses of sea birds, glide, swoop, and circle around him emitting a din of raucous calls. His descriptive walk through a delta marsh filled with thousands of nesting and calling shorebirds, ducks, and geese reveals his love and wonder of nature.
LC 2008009913, ISBN 978-1-60223-043-9 (c.)
AASL: S/HS
PLA: RG
595
The Private Life of Spiders
160 pp., 9 1/2” x 12 1/2”, 200 color illus., bibliog., index, $29.95 cloth
March 2008
Princeton University Press
“In conversational prose that engages the reader in the intricacies of spider ecology, Hillyard explains the two major spider lifestyles (those that actively hunt and those that spin webs), discusses silk production and all the uses spiders make of silk, mating and resulting young, venom, sociality, and spiders and humans...The more than 100 photographs are marvelous examples of close-up photography as the reader witnesses a tarantula molting, a bolas spider dangling its line of silk covered with sticky globules, and the face and large fangs of a wolf spider.”—Booklist
LC 2007929921, ISBN 978-0-691-13552-6 (c.)
AASL: O/MS, HS
PLA: O
595.7
What’s Bugging You? A Fond Look at the Animals We Love to Hate
174 pp., 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”, 6 b&w line drawings, bibliog., index, $24.95 cloth, CIP included
March 2008
The University of Virginia Press
What’s Bugging You? brings together 51 essays from the celebrated nature writer and entomologist’s popular Richmond Times-Dispatch column. Evans has scoured Virginia’s wild places and returned with wondrous tales of the 17-year sleep of the periodical cicadas, moths that evade hungry bats by sensing echolocation signals, the luminous language of light employed by fireflies and many more phenomena. He also visits some not-so-wild places, such as the little mounds of upturned soil scattered along the margins of soccer fields the dung beetle’s calling card.
LC 2007022666, ISBN 978-0-8139-2698-8 (c.)
AASL: G/MS, HS
PLA: RG
595.78
Do Butterflies Bite?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Butterflies and Moths
208 pp., 5 1/2” x 8 1/2”, 28 color and 26 b&w illus., bibliog., index, $18.95 paper
June 2008
Rutgers University Press
Every year, thousands of people visit butterfly conservatories to stand in awe of the simple beauty displayed by these magical creatures. Davies and Butler capture the sense of wonderment and curiosity experienced by adults and children alike in this book about butterflies and their taxonomic cousins, the moths and the skippers. Illustrated with color and black and white photographs, and drawings by artist William Howe, this book is an essential resource for anyone who has ever been entranced by these fascinating, creatures. “This volume is a welcome addition to the libraries of butterfly watchers, collectors, and hobbyists”—Michael Weissmann, Former Executive Director, International Association of Butterfly Exhibitions
LC 2007029663, ISBN 978-0-8135-4268-3 (p.)
AASL: G/MS, HS
PLA: O
597
Life in Cold Blood
288 pp., 7” x 10”, 200 color illus., $29.95 cloth
March 2008
Princeton University Press
Attenborough travels to the ends of the earth to tell the story of these creatures, raising awareness of the threats of environmental destruction along the way.”—Scientific American. “Even a person normally immune to the charms of amphibians and reptiles will soon be drawn in by the fascinating color photographs of Life in Cold Blood, the latest book by broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough. The next thing you know, you’re shoving the book under your friends’ noses, insisting that they have a look.”—American Scientist
LC 2007938089, ISBN 978-0-691-13718-6 (c.)
AASL: G/MS, HS
PLA: G
597.92
The Book of Honu: Enjoying and Learning about Hawaii’s Sea Turtles
152 pp., 7” x 10”, 72 color illus., bibliog., $18.95 paper, CIP included
September 2008
University of Hawai’i Press
This is the first guide to finding and observing Hawaiian green turtles, or honu. It describes an exciting journey of discovery undertaken by the authors, who encountered their first honu twenty years ago while diving off Maui. The Bennetts soon realized that many honu (and green turtles worldwide) were afflicted with debilitating and potentially deadly tumors. They began to document the disease using photographs and videotape and in the process educated themselves about the daily lives of honu. To their surprise, they discovered they were the first to make prolonged observations of a marine turtle population in its natural habitat.
LC 2008008660, ISBN 978-0-8248-3127-1 (p.)
AASL: G/MS, HS
PLA: RG
598.156
Architecture by Birds and Insects: A Natural Art
128 pp., 9” x 6”, 56 color plates, bibliog., $25.00 cloth, CIP included
August 2008
The University of Chicago Press
A visual celebration of these natural feats of engineering and ingenuity, this book allows readers a peek inside a wide range of nests, offering a rare opportunity to get a sense of the materials and methods used to build them. Here, we see the kinds of places where nests are built—for instance, the house wren has been known to occupy cow skulls, flower pots, tin cans, and the pockets of hanging laundry, while the uglynest caterpillar prefers rose bushes and cherry trees. Inspired by the vast nest collection at the Field Museum, Peggy Macnamara’s paintings are enhanced by text written by museum curators.
LC 2007031847, ISBN 978-0-226-50097-3 (c.)
AASL: S/HS
PLA: Not Reviewed
599.772
Dogs: Their Fossil Relatives and Evolutionary History
232 pp., 7” x 10”, 97 illus., bibliog., index, $29.95 cloth, CIP included
July 2008
Columbia University Press
“A breezy and highly engaging romp through the rich history of the Canidae. Renowned paleontologists Xiaoming Wang and Richard Tedford team up with noted artist Mauricio Antón to create a compelling picture of this fascinating group of carnivores. Few books can match its seamless blend of scientific accuracy and artistic beauty to explain both the roots and branches of the dog ‘Tree of Life.’”—John J. Flynn, American Museum of Natural History
LC 2007052328, ISBN 978-0-231-13528-3 (c.)
AASL: G/MS, HS
PLA: S
599.881
Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins
368 pp., 4 3/8” x 7 1/8”, bibliog., index, $24.95 cloth, CIP included
April 2008
Harvard University Press
Apes and dolphins: primates and cetaceans. Could any creatures appear to be more different? Yet both are large-brained intelligent mammals with complex communication and social interaction. This study explains how and why apes and dolphins are so distantly related yet so cognitively alike and what this teaches us about another large-brained mammal: homo sapiens. Noting that apes and dolphins have had no common ancestor in nearly 100 million years, Bearzi and Stanford describe the parallel evolution that gave rise to their intelligence.
LC 2007046199, ISBN 978-0-67402781-7 (c.)
AASL: S/P
PLA: G
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