List

From an esteemed National Geographic explorer and forest ecologist, a charming collection of thought-provoking essays exploring the meaning of trees in our lives.

Telephone poles, baseball bats, railroad ties. Peaches, nutmeg, and vanilla. The more you look, the more you realize: Our world depends on products made from trees. In this sweet book, forest ecologist Nalini Nadkarni takes you on a worldwide journey to learn more about trees--their variety, their usefulness, their beauty, and their importance, not only to human culture, but to the entire natural world. 

Inspired by Nadkarni's popular podcast broadcast by Utah's public radio station KUER, TreeNotes comprises more than 45 brief essays, organized by season. Chapters roam from big questions to the particular; for instance:

 

• How Many Kinds of Trees Are There?
• Trees and Lightning
• Tree Pollen
• The Baobab Tree
• Mistletoe
• Conductors' Batons

Learn what wood Ringo's favorite drumsticks are made of, and how the seeds of the cacao tree become delectable chocolate. Lovely illustrations make every turn of the page a happy moment in this arboreal adventure. 

For lovers of nature, forest bathers, the conservation-minded, and anyone who wants to spend a few minutes meditating on the meaning of trees in our world, this is the book.

Harvest year-round from your bountiful and sustainable fruit and vegetable garden.

Huw Richards' ultimate guide to permaculture gardening, outlining the regenerative methods that make gardening easier to do while being more productive. Huw shows you how to expand your growing beyond annual staples like tomatoes and cabbage to perennial fruits and vegetables, berry bushes, and fruit trees.

By mixing your planting, gardening with the seasons, and optimizing your garden design, you will create a more beautiful and more sustainable garden that is better for the soil, local wildlife, and your crops - without costing more of your time.

The book includes:
 

• What to grow: a substantial and comprehensive reference of all the edible plants and flowers you can grow - when to sow, grow, and harvest.
• Includes perennials that produce every year, maximizing yield for effort as well as introducing new plants to your garden.
• A permaculture approach: streamline the way your garden operates with ideas on building resilience (for example, how to store water), using vertical space, generating healthy soil, and mixed "polyculture" planting.
• Aesthetics and environment: how to make your kitchen garden look good year-round by planting ornamental edibles and flowering crops that attract pollinators.
• Maximizing space: a chapter on spaces helps you grow in shade or a south-facing corner and use pots and climbing varieties up walls and fences to bolster beds and under-cover growing areas.
• A roadmap for the year ahead guides you through the key moments throughout the four seasons.

A top scholar reveals the most complete picture to date of how early human speech led to the languages we use today  



The emergence of language began with the apelike calls of our earliest ancestors. Today, the world is home to thousands of complex languages. Yet exactly how, when, and why this evolution occurred has been one of the most enduring--and contentiously debated--questions in science.  



In The Language Puzzle, renowned archaeologist Steven Mithen puts forward a groundbreaking new account of the origins of language. Scientists have gained new insights into the first humans of 2.8 million years ago, and how numerous species flourished but only one, Homo sapiens, survives today. Drawing from this work and synthesizing research across archaeology, psychology, linguistics, genetics, neuroscience, and more, Mithen details a step-by-step explanation of how our human ancestors transitioned from apelike calls to words, and from words to language as we use it today. He explores how language shaped our cognition and vice versa; how metaphor advanced Homo sapiens' ability to formulate abstract concepts, develop agriculture, and--ultimately--shape the world. The result is a master narrative that builds bridges between disciplines, stuns with its breadth and depth, and spans millennia of societal development.



Deeply researched and brilliantly told, The Language Puzzle marks a seminal understanding of the evolution of language. 

A kaleidoscopic social history of the year that shaped the modern world



1964 is a living history of one of the most pivotal years in the twentieth century. In Britain, a new Labor government promised to bring the 'white heat of technology'. The Beatles and Rolling Stones cemented their grip on the charts, while the introduction of BBC Two ended the two-channel monopoly and brought the first-ever broadcasts of Top of the Pops and Match of the Day. The rapid availability of the female contraceptive pill brought with it the sexual revolution, while the launch of The Sun redefined at a stroke what a popular daily paper could look like. On the world stage, this was the year of the escalating Vietnam War, Nelson Mandela's sentence to life imprisonment and the first official warnings about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. Drawing on previously unpublished diaries and interviews, Christopher Sandford tells the full and colorful story of the year that ushered in the modern era.

Master the art of growing flowers in pots year round with inspiration from stunning full-color images and expert advice from the Sunday Times bestselling author of A Year Full of Flowers.

Growing flowers in pots is a charming and accessible way to enhance any space, from large gardens to small city apartments. Get the pots right, and your garden will take on a cheerful energy of its own. They are the bubbles in the champagne, the cherries on the cake, the final flourish that brings a beautiful garden to life. And with pots, there is one iron rule: more is more. 

Discover practical design tips that will enhance your containers. Use ingenious tricks when combining flower colors such as choosing a BRIDE (the star of the show), a BRIDESMAID (similar to the bride but smaller and less conspicuous), and a GATECRASHER (the color contrast, which brings the whole thing to life). Learn all about the types of forms and plant structures-THRILLER, FILLER, PILLAR, and SPILLER-and how to put them to best use. And even consider simple concepts with newfound importance, like mounting flower pots onto a wall or elevating them to the table so you see more of them, for instant impact. 

Following the seasons, A Year Full of Pots shows you how to make your own evolving tapestry of color through long-lasting container combinations.

Celebrate the seasons through contemporary embroidery motifs for a year of stitching.

Give each month more beauty by stitching embroidery motifs with unique seasonal designs.  Follow the course of a year—from snow flowers and skiing bears in January to lily of the valley in May, a collection of seed pods in October, trumpeting angels in December, and much more—to enliven your embroidery with a seasonal flair. Through thirty-eight patterns, designer Yumiko Higuchi offers organic yet modern designs with colorful and detailed imagery and a sweet and lively feel. Stitch projects to display as art or transform your work into small projects you can use. 

With beautiful photographs, clear step-by-step instructions, and detailed diagrams, A Year of Embroidery offers dynamic and unique designs that will inspire embroiderers of all skill levels.

'Simply wonderful.' - BEN FOGLE

'Kate's book has the warmth and calming effect of a log fire and a glass of wine. Unknit your brow and let go. It's a treat.' - GARETH MALONE

'Kate Humble pours her enviable knowledge into attainable goals. It's a winning combination and the prize - a life in balance with nature - is definitely worth claiming.' - LUCY SIEGLE

'As ever, where Kate leads, I follow. She has made me reassess and reset.' - DAN SNOW

'Kate Humble's new book is a lesson in moving on from a tragedy and finding our place in the world' - WOMAN & HOME

'A Year of Living Simply is timely, given that the pandemic has forced most of us, in some way to simplify our lives, whether we planned to or not. Kate wrote it before any of us were aware of the upcoming crisis, but it captures the current moment perfectly... It's not necessarily a "how to" book, more of a "why not try?" approach.' - FRANCESCA BABB, MAIL ON SUNDAY YOU

'What I particularly love is her philosophy for happiness, which is the subject of her new book, A Year of Living Simply. The clue is in the title. Remember the basics. Instead of barging through the day on autopilot, really stop to think about the tiniest little things that added a moment of joy. No, of course stopping and smelling the flowers won't cure all our ills and woes. But taking the time to savour the things that bring pleasure, really being in that moment and appreciating it, can remind you that most days have moments that buoy your mood.' - JO ELVIN, MAIL ON SUNDAY YOU

If there is one thing that most of us aspire to, it is, simply, to be happy. And yet attaining happiness has become, it appears, anything but simple. Having stuff - The Latest, The Newest, The Best Yet - is all too often peddled as the sure fire route to happiness. So why then, in our consumer-driven society, is depression, stress and anxiety ever more common, affecting every strata of society and every age, even, worryingly, the very young? Why is it, when we have so much, that many of us still feel we are missing something and the rush of pleasure when we buy something new turns so quickly into a feeling of emptiness, or purposelessness, or guilt?

So what is the route to real, deep, long lasting happiness? Could it be that our lives have just become overly crowded, that we've lost sight of the things - the simple things - that give a sense of achievement, a feeling of joy or excitement? That make us happy. Do we need to take a step back, reprioritise? Do we need to make our lives more simple?

Kate Humble's fresh and frank exploration of a stripped-back approach to life is uplifting, engaging and inspiring - and will help us all find balance and happiness every day.

"United across centuries, these women's voices open doors to lost worlds and make them seem familiar. A modern classic." —Alison Weir

A captivating collection of extracts from women’s diaries, looking back over four centuries to discover how women’s experience—of men and children, sex and shopping, work and the natural world—has changed down the years. And, of course, how it hasn’t.

In this fascinating anthology, with a selection of entries for every day of the year, you’ll find Lady Anne Clifford in the seventeenth century and Loran Hurscot in the twentieth both stoically recording the demands of an unreasonable husband; Joan Wyndham and Anne Frank (at much the same time, but in wildly different settings) describing their first experiences with sex; and Anne Lister in the eighteenth-century north of England exploring her love affairs with women alongside Alice Walker in twentieth-century California.

From Barbara Pym purchasing daring lingerie and Virginia Woolf relishing her new haircut to Sylvia Plath chronicling her ups and her downs and a stoical Amelia Stewart Knight on the pioneer trail, this book contains a rich mix of incredibly well-known diarists and more obscure ones, and often the voices echoing down the centuries sound eerily familiar today.

The inside story of legendary golfer Tiger Woods' magnificent run, when he won all four major tournaments in a single calendar year, becoming the greatest player of his generation--a show of unparalleled dominance in the sport with which he has become synonymous.

In the annals of golf, one achievement towers above all others--the Tiger Slam. A quarter century ago, between 2000 and 2001, Tiger Woods accomplished a feat so extraordinary, it may never be replicated.

Published in time for the twenty-fifth anniversary of this remarkable event, The Year of the Tiger transports readers back in time to witness the sheer brilliance and unrelenting determination that propelled Woods to the pinnacle of his game. Through vivid storytelling, meticulous research, and fresh interviews, The Year of the Tiger uncovers new details about the four major championship victories that cemented Tiger's status as an all-time great--while also exposing the cracks in his superstardom that led to his inevitable downfall.

Environmental journalist Alix Morris spends an eye-opening year getting to know these elusive, intelligent creatures, investigating the effects of their extraordinary return from the brink of extinction and how we can try to bring nature back into balance.



It might be their large, strangely human eyes or their dog-like playfulness, but seals have long captured people's interest and affection, making them the perfect candidate for an environmental cause, as well as the subject of decades of study. Alix Morris spends a year with these magnetic creatures and brings them to life on the page, season by season, as she learns about their intelligence, their relationships with each other, their ecosystems, and the changing climate.



Morris also gets to know all of the competing interests in the intense debate about the newly recovered seal populations in our coastal waters, from local fishermen whose catch is often diminished by savvy seals, to tribes who once relied on seal-hunting for food, clothing, and medicine, to seal rescue workers and biologists, to surfers and swimmers now encountering seal-hunting sharks in coastal waters. A Year with the Seals is a rare look at what happens when conservation efforts actually work, and how human tampering with ecosystems continues to have unexpected consequences. But it's also a gripping adventure story of a journalist determined to understand seals and our relationship with them for herself.

An intimate, affecting account of life during wartime, told through the lives that have been shattered.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many Americans have identified deeply with the Ukrainian cause, while others have cast doubt on its relevance to their concerns. Meanwhile, even as scores of Americans rally to the Ukrainian cause and adopt Volodymyr Zelensky as a hero, the lives of Ukrainians remain opaque and mostly anonymous. In By the Second Spring, the historian Danielle Leavitt goes beyond familiar portraits of wartime heroism and victimhood to reveal the human experience of the conflict. An American who grew up in Ukraine, Leavitt draws on her deep familiarity with the country and a unique trove of online diaries to track a diverse group of Ukrainians through the first year of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Among others, we meet Vitaly, whose plans to open a coffee bar in a Kyiv suburb come to naught when the Russian army marches through his town and his apartment building is split in two by a rocket; Anna, who drops out of the police academy and begins a tumultuous relationship with a soldier she meets online; and Polina, a fashion-industry insider who returns home from Los Angeles with her American husband to organize relief. To illuminate the complex resurgence of Ukraine’s national spirit, Leavitt also tells the story of Volodymyr Shovkoshitniy—a nuclear engineer at Chernobyl who went on to lead a daring campaign in the late 1980s to return the bodies of three Ukrainian writers who’d died in a Soviet gulag. Writing with closeness and compassion, Leavitt has given us an interior history of Europe’s largest land war in seventy-five years.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, namely COCKTAIL TIME! 



What better way to honor and enjoy all the holidays of a year than to toast each one with a fabulous new cocktail? This exuberant little book takes you from New Year's Day all the way to New Year's Eve, with stops along the way at the other festive holidays of the year: Groundhog Day, Super Bowl Sunday, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fools' Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. McEwan's original creations are truly wonderful, and he is a droll and delightful guide through the tools and techniques the reader will need to make all these snazzy cocktails and mocktails at home. The book is designed and illustrated by the inimitable Sandra Boynton, who happens to be the author's mother.

Did you know that Aretha Franklin was the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Or that the first accounts of a Black samurai in Japan date back almost 500 years ago? Written by historian and broadcaster David Olusoga and his siblings, professor Yinka Olusoga and artist Kemi Olusoga, Black History for Every Day of the Year is an illuminating overview of consequential people, places, and events in Black history. Accompanied by photos, quotes, and illustrations, these 366 entries will take you on a journey across global history, from the ancient Kingdom of Kush to the Black Lives Matter movement.

You'll learn about unsung heroes from history, as well as contemporary figures and events.

• Activists: Toussaint L'Ouverture, Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X
• Athletes: Jackie Robinson, Venus and Serena Williams, Simone Biles
• Authors and Poets: James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Amanda Gorman
• Musicians: Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé
• Public Figures: Kofi Annan, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Kamala Harris
• Scientists: Alice Ball, Katherine Johnson, Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Movies and Art: the Benin Bronzes, Hamilton, Black Panther
• Events: the Tulsa Race Massacre, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Selma to Montgomery Marches

With accounts of triumph and celebration, ingenuity and creativity, alongside tales of racism and oppression, hope and resistance, Black History for Every Day of the Year gives you something new to learn every day--a rich history that is relevant to us all.

The most essential, evidence-based advice for baby’s first year in an easily digestible and full-color illustrated format designed for today’s busy parents

Congratulations! You have a new baby. But what you don’t have is a lot of time to comb through the overwhelming amount of information on caring for that baby.

In Bite-Sized Parenting, Sharon Mazel, one of America’s most trusted parenting experts, presents the latest, most practical science-backed advice that new moms and dads need most, without judgment and in an engaging visual format.

Bite-Sized Parenting is designed to make parenting in the first year less complicated and stressful. Its month-by-month format and full-color illustrated infographics—nearly 100 in all—are filled with expert medical, behavioral, nutritional, and developmental details aimed at empowering parents to care for their little ones with calm and confidence.

Strapped for time? Spend a few minutes with the bite-sized overviews for targeted advice, tips, and strategies you can use right away. Want to dig deeper and learn more? Read the “A Closer Look” sections for an in-depth dive, with more nuance, guidance, and background on each must-know topic. 

Each month, readers will learn:
 

• Your baby “by the numbers”: expected ranges for your baby’s sleep times, feeding amounts, weight gain, and more
• Age- and stage-appropriate guidance on feeding and eating, naps and night-time sleep, baby care and playing, and more
• How to tackle common first-year challenges, including soothing a crying baby, recognizing hunger and sleep cues, teething and spitting up, starting solids and gagging, feeding and sleeping challenges, stranger anxiety, and more
• Expert advice for tummy time, reaching motor milestones like rolling over, sitting, and crawling, stimulating baby’s brain, boosting language development, and more
• Support for how you may be feeling in your baby’s first year—with reassurance that you’re not alone

The perfect gift (for yourself or someone else), Bite-Sized Parenting offers the key information new parents need, with warmth, support, and encouragement.

The number 1 rule of junk journaling is there are no rules.

This is a companion to your journaling journey, with 52 weekly prompts and ideas encouraging you to tap into your creative side.
Whether you're brand new to junk journaling or already hoard paper scraps and washi tape, this book will gently guide you through a year of playful, imperfect creativity:

 

• COLLECT everything that inspires you or reminds you of something you want to remember
• REFLECT to take a mindful moment for yourself to pause and think about what you are creating
• CREATE with practical steps to try new crafty techniques in your junk journal

You'll find heaps of fun, original ideas for what to include in your scrapbook, as well as tips on how to brainstorm and source materials. The 52 projects are built to inspire you - you'll create a portrait of you, celebrate your favourite snacks, play with textures and colour palettes, send yourself future notes, reflect on meaningful holidays and be encouraged to use your precious sticker stash...

Embrace imperfection, expand your creativity, preserve your memories and get stuck in!