"In Vesper Flights, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best loved essays with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing songbirds from the Empire State Building as they migrate...

"A spirited, ingenious, tongue-in-cheek guide to some of the least appealing destinations and experiences in the world"--

""Millions of people visit xkcd.com each week to read Randall Munroe's iconic webcomic. His stick-figure drawings about science, technology, language, and love have a large and passionate following. Fans of xkcd ask Munroe a lot of strange questions. What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? In...

The New York Times best-selling author draws on the philosophical principles of yoga to present a guide on how to forge an inner path to abundance, tap into a deeper sense of awareness, and become an agent of change in your life. Many of us live and operate from a mind-set of lack, scarcity, and limitation. We focus on what we don't have--financial security, confidence, an intimate relationship--which keeps us feeling insecure and inadequate. We...

"The faction-based society that Tris Prior once believed in is shattered--fractured by violence and power struggles and scarred by loss and betrayal. So when offered a chance to explore the world past the limits she's known, Tris is ready. Perhaps beyond the fence, she and Tobias will find a simple new life together, free from complicated lies, tangled loyalties, and painful memories. But Tris's new reality is even more alarming than the one she left...

While researching background on the lives of Maine lobster fishermen's families for her recent novel The Summer I Dared, best-selling novelist Barbara Delinsky was captivated by all the interesting, amusing, and surprising information she turned up. She collected much of it in this little book, arranged in an entertaining question and answer format. She will be donating her proceeds to the Barbara Delinsky Charitable Foundation for Breast Cancer Research....

Few areas of human endeavor have produced more—or more colorful—terms than has the military. Soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen have over centuries come up with words, phrases, and acronyms to express everything from raw emotion to complex technology. The military is both a distinctive way of life and a community, and a command of its slang is essential to admission to full membership within the group.
Most military slang is almost...