The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans
The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans

Author: Cynthia Barnett

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 2021-07-06

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0393651452

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A Science Friday Best Science Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Science and Technology Book of the Year A Tampa Bay Times Best Book of the Year A stunning history of seashells and the animals that make them that "will have you marveling at nature…Barnett’s account remarkably spirals out, appropriately, to become a much larger story about the sea, about global history and about environmental crises and preservation" (John Williams, New York Times Book Review). Seashells have been the most coveted and collected of nature’s creations since the dawn of humanity. They were money before coins, jewelry before gems, art before canvas. In The Sound of the Sea, acclaimed environmental author Cynthia Barnett blends cultural history and science to trace our long love affair with seashells and the hidden lives of the mollusks that make them. Spiraling out from the great cities of shell that once rose in North America to the warming waters of the Maldives and the slave castles of Ghana, Barnett has created an unforgettable history of our world through an examination of the unassuming seashell. She begins with their childhood wonder, unwinds surprising histories like the origin of Shell Oil as a family business importing exotic shells, and charts what shells and the soft animals that build them are telling scientists about our warming, acidifying seas. From the eerie calls of early shell trumpets to the evolutionary miracle of spines and spires and the modern science of carbon capture inspired by shell, Barnett circles to her central point of listening to nature’s wisdom—and acting on what seashells have to say about taking care of each other and our world.

Voices of the Old Sea
Voices of the Old Sea

Author: Norman Lewis

Publisher: Open Road Media

Published: 2013-07-30

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1480433276

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A memoir of a remote Spanish fishing village just after WWII, a community on the brink of change, by “the finest travel writer of the last century” (The New Yorker). Seeking solace in the everyday after his World War II army service, travel writer Norman Lewis returns to his beloved Spain, to the fishing village of Farol, in the hopes of recapturing a lost sense of home. It is a place he knows better than his native England, and he finds the Spanish countryside “still as nostalgically backward-looking as ever, still magnificent, still invested with all its ancient virtues and ancient defects.” He spends three seasons as a fisherman, basking in the simplicity of village customs. Lovingly written and richly evocative, Voices of the Old Sea is an absorbing look at a centuries-old lifestyle in its final days, as the tide of modernization threatens to change it forever.

The Shell Collector
The Shell Collector

Author: Anthony Doerr

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011-01-04

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1439190054

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In this astonishingly assured, exquisitely crafted debut collection, Anthony Doerr takes readers from the African coast to the suburbs of Ohio, from sideshow pageantry to harsh wilderness survival, charting a vast and varied emotional landscape. Like the best storytellers, Doerr explores the human condition in all its manifestations: metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts. Most dazzling is Doerr's gift for conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of his characters contend with tremendous hardship; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the mysteries of their respective landscapes.

Sky Loom
Sky Loom

Author: Brian Swann

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2014-11-01

Total Pages: 558

ISBN-13: 0803246153

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Sky Loom offers a dazzling introduction to Native American myths, stories, and songs drawn from previous collections by acclaimed translator and poet Brian Swann. With a general introduction by Swann, Sky Loom is a stunning collection that provides a glimpse into the intricacies and beauties of story and myth, placing them in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts. Each of the twenty-six selections is translated and introduced by a well-known expert on Native oral literatures and offers entry into the cultures and traditions of several different tribes and bands, including the Yupiit and the Tlingits of the polar North; the Coast Salish and the Kwakwaka’wakw of the Pacific Northwest; the Navajos, the Pimas, and the Yaquis of the Southwest; the Lakota Sioux and the Plains Crees of the Great Plains; the Ojibwes of the Great Lakes; the Naskapis and the Eastern Crees of the Hudson Bay area in Canada; and the Munsees of the Northeast. Sky Loom takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through literary traditions older than the “discovery” of the New World.

Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, 2nd Edition
Wicked Cool Shell Scripts, 2nd Edition

Author: Dave Taylor

Publisher: No Starch Press

Published: 2016-10-15

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1593276028

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Shell scripts are an efficient way to interact with your machine and manage your files and system operations. With just a few lines of code, your computer will do exactly what you want it to do. But you can also use shell scripts for many other essential (and not-so-essential) tasks. This second edition of Wicked Cool Shell Scripts offers a collection of useful, customizable, and fun shell scripts for solving common problems and personalizing your computing environment. Each chapter contains ready-to-use scripts and explanations of how they work, why you’d want to use them, and suggestions for changing and expanding them. You'll find a mix of classic favorites, like a disk backup utility that keeps your files safe when your system crashes, a password manager, a weather tracker, and several games, as well as 23 brand-new scripts, including: – ZIP code lookup tool that reports the city and state – Bitcoin address information retriever – suite of tools for working with cloud services like Dropbox and iCloud – for renaming and applying commands to files in bulk – processing and editing tools Whether you want to save time managing your system or just find new ways to goof off, these scripts are wicked cool!

The Hollow Sea
The Hollow Sea

Author: Annie Kirby

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2022-08-18

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1405949910

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THE ISLANDERS SAY IT'S CURSED. BUT THAT'S ONLY ONE SIDE OF THE STORY . . . 'A bold, magical story' JO BROWNING WROE, Sunday Times bestselling author of A Terrible Kindness 'A majestic work of the imagination . . . I woke up thinking about it' ROSIE ANDREWS, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Leviathan 'An atmospheric tale, shot through with folklore. The writing shimmers' KATE SAWYER, Costa shortlisted author of The Stranding _______ They say the Hollow Sea is cursed. A wild expanse separating the remote islands of St Hía, not even the locals brave its treacherous waters. But new arrival Scottie feels a pull she can't ignore. Because behind the curse is the legend of Thordis: a woman whose story feels eerily familiar. No one knows what became of her, but Scottie believes Thordis's fate may answer questions about her own past. Despite the islanders' warnings, Scottie sets out to discover the truth. But as she dares to cross the Hollow Sea, will its secrets give her the answers she needs? Or will the past drag her under? _______ 'A heart-rending atmospheric novel of finding what makes one whole' Melissa Fu, author of Peach Blossom Spring 'Mesmerising' Good Housekeeping 'A poetic tale' Prima

Voices Out of Africa in Twentieth-century Spanish Caribbean Literature
Voices Out of Africa in Twentieth-century Spanish Caribbean Literature

Author: Julia Cuervo Hewitt

Publisher: Bucknell University Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 0838757294

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Hewitt (Spanish and Portuguese, Pennsylvania State U.) explores the representation of Africa and "Afro-Caribbean-ness" in Spanish Caribbean literature of the 20th century. Her main argument "is that the literary representation of Africa and "Africanness," meaning practices, belief systems, music, art, myths, popular knowledge, in Spanish-speaking Caribbean societies, constructs a self-referential discourse in which Africa and African "things" shift to a Caribbean landscape as the site of the (M)Other." Or, in other words, these representations imaginatively rescue and simultaneously construct a "Caribbean cultural imaginary conceived as the Other within that associates Africa with a cultural womb." Among the texts she explores are Fernando Ortiz's interpretations of the "Black Carnival" in Cuba, the early Afro-Cuban poems of Alejo Carpentier, the Afro-Cuban stories of Lydia Cabrera, a number of literary representations of the figure of the runaway slave, and two works by Puerto Rican novelist Edgardo Rodiguez Julia.