From the creator of the hugely popular @StrangeAnimals on Twitter comes a collection of one hundred remarkable animal specimens from around the world. With fascinating descriptions of nasty feeding habits, bizarre mating rituals and shocking defence mechanisms, you will marvel at both the splendour and gruesomeness of nature.
A thought-provoking and darkly witty novel about freedom, motherhood, greed, and religion—a surprising new direction from the controversial author of Men, Women & Children and The Average American Male. Chad Kultgen has established himself as one of the most honest and candid chroniclers of human relationships working today. Now, in an eye-opening departure, he turns his gaze on the collision between religious values and human freedoms in American society. She found herself thinking how strange it was that although we are all animals with roughly the same mental capacity—and roughly the same access to information, both general and specific—we can come to such radically different conclusions about the nature of reality. She wondered if it would always be like this, or if at some point in the future a general knowledge base would be accepted by the whole of humanity on which every individual would base their view of existence. She hoped this would be the case and wished she could live to see it. Karen Halloway is a philosophy PhD candidate, struggling to find a dissertation topic strong enough to make a mark on the world. When she discovers that she’s pregnant, she finds herself at a crossroads: she has always known that she doesn’t want to be a mother, and feels her only choice is to have an abortion, though she knows that both her boyfriend and her highly religious best friend will object. Yet on the way to the clinic, Karen has the epiphany she’s been looking for—a way to turn her unexpected situation to her advantage. Fiendishly suspenseful, intellectually provocative, Strange Animals is a surprising novel about freedom, choice, and desperate measures.
Walter Rothschild was born into a family of bankers and was nearly the richest boy in the world. He was also so shy he barely spoke. He had no friends, but he loved every creature that crawled, slithered or flew. At the age of seven, Walter saw his first circus parade. He excitedly declared to his parents: "I’m going to collect animals from all over the world and build a museum!" Soon Walter had his first exotic creatures: kangaroos, wallabies and kiwis. From there his collection grew until it threatened to take over the Rothschild estate. Lord Rothschild wanted his son to lead the family business eventually. But Walter wouldn’t give up his dream. Strange Creatures is the story of how a painfully shy boy followed his passion and became a brilliant scientist, forever changing our understanding of the world’s diversity of creatures.
In the Hugo-award winning, epic New York Times Bestseller and basis for the BBC miniseries, two men change England's history when they bring magic back into the world. In the midst of the Napoleonic Wars in 1806, most people believe magic to have long since disappeared from England - until the reclusive Mr. Norrell reveals his powers and becomes an overnight celebrity. Another practicing magician then emerges: the young and daring Jonathan Strange. He becomes Norrell's pupil, and the two join forces in the war against France. But Strange is increasingly drawn to the wild, most perilous forms of magic, and he soon risks sacrificing his partnership with Norrell and everything else he holds dear. Susanna Clarke's brilliant first novel is an utterly compelling epic tale of nineteenth-century England and the two magicians who, first as teacher and pupil and then as rivals, emerge to change its history.
Find out about the most fascinating strange animals. It is guaranteed to hone your mystery-solving skills and test your memory with question and answer panels.
The World’s Most Pointless Animals is a witty, quirky, colorfully-illustrated book featuring fascinating facts about some very silly animals…who we find are perhaps not so pointless after all. From familiar animals like giraffes (who don’t have any vocal cords) through to those that surely should not even exist, such as the pink fairy armadillo (absurdly huge front claws, super tough protective shell in baby pink, particularly susceptible to stress), our planet is full of some pretty weird and wonderful animals. For example: Koalas spend up to 18 hours a day asleep! Pandas are born bright pink, deaf, and blind. Dumbo octopuses flap their big fin-like ears to move around. A Narwhal’s tusk grows through its upper lip—ouch! With hilarious text throughout and bright, contemporary illustrations, this guide to absurdly awesome animals contains funny labelled diagrams and some excellent made-up Latin names (n.b. the jellyfish’s scientific name is not actually wibblious wobblious ouchii). Carrying an important message of celebrating diversity and differences, The World’s Most Pointless Animals inspires a drive to conserve our amazing planet and the creatures we’re lucky enough to share it with. Quirky Creatures is a series dedicated to seeking out the weird and wonderful denizens of the natural world and explaining why they are so strange, from the ridiculous to the truly terrifying. Also available in this series is The World's Most Ridiculous Animals and The World's Most Atrocious Animals.